My work with and for Asheville so far:

• Bold leadership before, during, and after Hurricane Helene: Certification of Emergency Management Training with the Asheville Fire Department in May 2024; ensuring first responders had the right tools and training for climate catastrophe and getting the Level One Incident Management Team here during Helene; delivering water and flushing toilets for disabled and elderly residents; briefing staff, electeds, and community leaders through disaster response; organizing multi-lingual communications and information distribution into neighborhoods; demanding transparency through water system outages and repairs; and ensuring open, inclusive process for impacted people to have a seat at the table including Recovery Boards.
• Demanding action on our stated climate emergency: leading on Neighborhood Resiliency, including hiring the City’s first Urban Forester and budgeting for an Urban Forest Master Plan; adding Climate Justice to COVID-relief funding; and advocating for renewable energy solutions on City property and in new development;
• Accountability for the tourism industry: Saving the Grey Eagle and parts of the Southside from the Hotel Overlay Map; bringing the motion to Governance Committee to increase the occupancy tax percentage for local use instead of advertising and leveraging for accountability; and advocating alongside service industry workers, especially for affordable housing and transportation options.
• Prioritizing people & planet over profits: Setting and holding the standard for renewable energy in all new residential development; pressing to lead not lag on living wages; demanding water rate parity for residents; voting as a member of the French Broad River MPO to fund next steps in returning passenger rail service to Asheville; leveraging a long list of community benefits to ensure a better deal at our McCormick Field baseball park; and identifying funding for Talbert lot for expanded transit, deeply-affordable housing, and $1.2-million in Reparations funding. 
• Boldly advocating for human rights: As Asheville’s first-known openly-queer member of City Council, I shared the work locally and statewide to advance LGBTQIA+ inclusive Non-Discrimination Ordinances that also includes protections for veteran status, pregnancy status, and natural hair; I pushed back against SB49 and the “Slate of Hate” legislation by drafting a resolution in support of our LGBTQIA+ community; as liaison to the Human Relations Commission, I supported their recommendation to protect against Source of Income/Funds discrimination that creates barriers to housing access; and I drafted the proclamation to protect access to reproductive healthcare.
• Leading courageously to diversify our public safety response which means deploying first responders with the right tools and training for the task at hand; demanding living wage policy to recruit and retain staff; convening with community members on the National Alliance to End Homelessness plan a for a humane response to the homelessness crisis; securing the return of 24-7 bathroom access Downtown; and asking hard questions about our budget, plans, and policies so we can deliver quality, equitable service outcomes that improve quality of life for all of us.
• Advancing an Open Meetings Policy at the Governance Committee that ended the private check-in meetings of Council; demanding accountability; and voting against the identified violation of open meetings law because the difficult conversations we need to have as a community should happen in the sunshine, not behind closed doors. I continue advocating for accessibility of public documents and engagement opportunities; removing barriers to civic participation as outlined in the openmeetingspolicy.com petition; supporting advisory boards; and amplifying community calls for an organizational equity audit.