Occupation / Current Position
Special Education Teacher for Midland Public Schools
Education
Bachelors in Elementary Education from SVSU 2003, Masters of Education in Special Education from Marygrove College 2019
Qualifications and Experience
I am a member of both the Midland County Democratic Party and MDP, Precinct Delegate, member of WOMAN, and MEA member.
As an educator, this issue is important to me. We currently rank 45th in the nation for average starting teacher salary, which makes it difficult to attract and retain new teachers. To genuinely improve reading, we must invest in proven, classroom-level reforms. We need smaller early elementary class sizes for individual attention and an end to unnecessary standardized testing. Schools are over-testing children as early as kindergarten on digital devices. In K-2, screens should be removed, as early device use interferes with reading skills, comprehension, and handwriting development. We cannot fix our classrooms without supporting educators.
The state’s role should focus on building a strong foundation for all communities. Instead of funding corporate handouts, the state should invest in public education, infrastructure, reliable roads, and workforce training that naturally attract long-term investments. For Michigan families to thrive, we must tackle the cost of living by boosting incomes and lowering everyday kitchen-table expenses by expanding mandatory paid sick leave, strengthening unemployment benefits, building affordable housing, capping prescription drug costs, and expanding access to high-quality childcare and healthcare. We must cut red tape for small businesses.
Ensuring grid reliability, affordability, and environmental protection means moving toward Michigan's Clean Energy and Jobs Act to reach 100% clean energy by 2040 to lower long-term utility bills. We must continue towards our wind, solar, and 2,500 MW energy storage target to build a strong grid that can withstand extreme weather. We must hold utilities accountable and stop rate hikes, expand energy waste reduction, and ensure heavy power users pay their fair share of infrastructure costs. We will close aging coal plants and protect the Great Lakes.
Every person in Michigan, regardless of citizenship, is entitled to full constitutional protections. Due process, free speech, and privacy are fundamental rights that state law must defend. We must protect free expression and peaceful assembly in all public spaces without fear of government retaliation. We must require clear warrants for personal data, and ensure local police focus on community safety rather than federal immigration enforcement. Guaranteed by the 5th and 14th Amendments, fairness applies to everyone. We must expand language access and legal clarity across state systems. Michigan must ensure constitutional protection for all.
Occupation / Current Position
State Representative
Education
Georgetown University
Qualifications and Experience
Former Civilian Intelligence Officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency
We rank 44th in the nation in reading. Our schools used to be in the top ten and now we rank in the bottom ten. That is an abject failure and unacceptable. Michigan is failing its kids with our public education system.
We need to restore accountability into our school systems, get time tested learning methods like phonics back into our schools and have our students focus on the basics like reading, writing and math.
It is too hard to raise a family or earn a good living because of the government's confusing and complex bureaucratic red tape that stifles innovation and wage growth. You need more hours to be a licensed cosmetologist than a commercial airline pilot, and that doesn’t make any sense.
Government is pricing people out of homeownership with property taxes, adding thousands in costs to own a home. Utility costs are too high because of nonsensical government mandates, forcing families to pay for a grid that is run on the most expensive sources of energy.
I will continue working to get government out of your way and from driving up costs on you.
Michigan families are paying through the roof on their utility bills because of unworkable and unrealistic government mandates that force our state to rely on expensive, unreliable forms of energy.
We should repeal those mandates and lower rates by increasing our ability to use affordable, reliable and clean forms of energy like nuclear power and natural gas.
Everyone on American soil is entitled to due process and constitutional rights. But those who have broken our laws and are unlawfully in our country do not have a right to remain in the United States.
