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Training and Experience
Ohio Justice & Policy Center, Policy Director, Mar 2025 - Present; Ohio House of Representatives/Ohio Senate, Legislative Aide/Senior Legislative Aide, Aug 2018 - Mar 2025; Upper Arlington City Council, 2020-2024; Burriss Haus LLC, Partner and Founder, Mar 2018 - Dec 2021; Ohio Outreach Manager, Small Business Majority, Aug 2014 - Mar 2018; United States Senate, Senator Sherrod Brown, Ohio Staff Assistant & Constituent Services Liaison, Sept 2012 - Aug 2014
Volunteer/Community Service
Burriss Backyard Speaker Series; Ohio Women in Govt; Columbus Branch NAACP; Stonewall Columbus & Equality Ohio; League of Women Voters; Ohio State Bar Foundation; Equal UA; LeadershipUA; Friends of the UA Public Library; Human Rights Campaign
I support ranked choice voting, expanding ballot access, and redistricting reform. As a State Representative, I will stand against attacks on our democracy. I am a member of the LWV and NAACP because of my commitment to democracy. As a Statehouse aide, I was part of our voting rights working group, and supported universal vote-by-mail. Before that, I worked with Represent.US to pass the Congressional Redistricting ballot initiative. Ending gerrymandering is a critical issue to preserving our democracy. In 2023, I helped defeat the threat to majority rule. We launched canvasses and made the August special election a focus of our annual Burriss Backyard Speaker Series. I joined protesters to demand fair congressional maps. I spoke out about the map concessions made by state lawmakers.
I support a progressive income tax code. Fundamentally, I believe in an income and property tax system based on burden and ability to pay. I also believe in equitable allocation of taxes so that the State has a more balanced approach to local funding. The State has decreased local government funding and restructured income tax generation; these changes have resulted in inequitable distribution of funds and left local municipalities scrambling. Local governments are the first providers of many essential services necessary to thriving economies and public safety. I strongly support fair and equitable funding of public education. We should expand the Ohio Homestead exemption.
We need to raise the minimum wage. A fair wage, based on inflation and the actual cost of living, is much closer to $24 per hour. The State needs to shift its budgeting priorities to support families, schools and local governments because the current priorities benefit very few, who do not need it, and have impacted Ohioans’ cost of living. Healthcare costs are exorbitant; preschool costs for many families are equal to or exceed rent or mortgage. The State should prioritize local government funds, utilize a progressive income tax, and allocate funding toward universal health care and universal pre-k. Government and our shared investment in one another, our taxes, must be used for the benefit of the least among us.
My priority is fully and equitably funding public education. I support a moratorium on expanding the number of charter schools. I would require existing charter schools to accept all students, not just a select few. Charter schools should be subject to the same standards as public schools. I oppose voucher programs that shift public education dollars into private institutions. I will work to pass budgets that de-emphasize outside vendor contracts. I would prioritize social-emotional learning, libraries, physical education, music and art in every school. As a person who faced instability in her childhood, I also know the value of learning on a full stomach. For that reason, I support universal meal access for students. I also support universal pre-k.
My record and public service career show a strong history of care for people, prioritizing problem solving on the issues important to my neighbors. I have been consistently recognized for my leadership, kindness, and inclusiveness. In 2023, I received the Judge Florence E. Allen Outstanding Public Service Trailblazer Award. In that same year, I was nominated for a Leadership Award from the Council of State Governments. While serving as an aide, I was a nominee and finalist in 2022 & 2023 for “Best House Democratic Staffer.” People trust me to be honest, open-minded, comfortable with conflict, and accessible which is how I have worked with both democrats and republicans to pass legislation and get to the heart of a matter.
Training and Experience
Physician at Ohio State, triple-boarded in internal medicine, pediatrics, and hospice & palliative medicine. Assistant Medical Director, Ohio Department of Medicaid x4 years.
Volunteer/Community Service
Neighborhood block party, youth sports, and political activism.
We must protect access to the ballot. I am against Ohio's S.B. 293, which removed the mail-in grace period, and the federal SAVE Act. We should expand early voting hours on the weekends and have multiple drop boxes in each county. We should make Election Day a holiday (S.B. 335) and protect accessibility both for absentee voting and forms of voter identification.
At the state level, Ohio must cut back on corporate welfare and stop gifting tax breaks to the wealthy. Ohio gives up billions of dollars a year and 60% of it to businesses. The “LLC Loophole” alone is nearing $2B/year. At the same time, the top 1% of earners pay $70K/year less in income tax than they did 20 years ago. Income tax brackets are progressive and returning to them should be paired with targeted programs like the caregiver savings accounts I will introduce.
At the local level, tax abatements eat away at the property tax we pay. Many programs are for 30 years, much longer than the project! And school districts need to have a say in all matters, not just above certain thresholds. The legislature should update the rules to help everyday people who pay property tax.
People need real protection from corporate power and rising costs. We should ban private equity and for-profit firms from buying single-family homes, and index the minimum wage to wage growth and housing costs — not just inflation. Strong unions, prevailing wage laws, and wage transparency protections for job applicants are all critical. We also must regulate electronic shelf labels and eliminate price gouging.
I believe that education is the taproot for a functioning society and that if Ohio is to be The Heart of It All, our children must be the start of it all. Yet Ohio is now at an all-time low in state funding for education - pushing more onto the backs of those who pay property tax.
We absolutely must fund the bi-partisan Fair School Funding Plan, end the unconstitutional school voucher program, and invest seriously in recruiting and retaining great teachers. We can support our students by increasing career and technical options like in New Lexington. And we must repeal S.B. 1 which is spoiling our incredible universities.
The core purpose of our state government is two things: to secure the blessings of our freedom and to promote our common welfare. That’s not some line; it’s the preamble to our state’s constitution.
Only our politics are divided, our lives are shared. Clean air & water, quality public education, and affordable utilities benefit all. I believe our policy ideas are up for debate, not our values.
But goodwill isn’t enough - we must eliminate secret money in politics and rigged maps. After all, our government should be by the people and FOR the people!
