Gun Violence Prevention
As a 15+ year conflict resolution practitioner working on community security issues and a former Security Operations Manager at the Walt Disney World Resort property leading 100+ security professionals including former military and law enforcement officers to respond to incidents and emergencies, I worked with teams to prevent the deadly consequences of firearms being in the wrong hands, de-escalating violence in real time on a daily basis through rapid response and appropriate application of resources. I have the first-hand experience necessary to approach complex legislation around gun violence.
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I will advocate for common-sense gun violence prevention legislation and support responsible gun ownership. It is important that gun owners are well trained and fully licensed and that individuals suffering from mental health crises, sobriety issues and/or with a history of domestic violence or intimate partner violence are prevented from access to guns.
Criminal Justice Reform
As a former Director of Community Engagement and Associate Director of Career Pathways at Second Chance Center in Aurora, I helped open a one-of-a-kind Employment Opportunity Lab that served justice-involved individuals through a range of daily and weekly supportive classes that helped them overcome barriers related to obtaining and sustaining jobs and careers. By helping to build a range of workforce programming including an Urban Forestry Training Program and Solar Energy Training Program with local nonprofit partners, dozens of community members I served accessed well-paid training programs that gave them the potential to earn the kind of income that would alter their and their families trajectory.
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Aristotle’s definition of happiness is “activity of the soul in accord with virtue’” and that is central to my advocacy for smart reform and my goals to ensure that all citizens, including formerly incarcerated and justice-involved individuals, are provided opportunities and resources that keep everyone safe and making good choices for society at large.
Immigration
At different times in my life, I have worked with immigrants to tutor them to pass the citizenship test and set up savings accounts with a vision of helping them understand the rights and responsibilities associated with being an American. As a conversational Spanish speaker since high school, both while residing in Florida and here in Colorado, I have worked with a range of individuals on everything from obtaining driver’s licenses and other documentation to finding employment and accessing legal services.
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The migration of people to the United States throughout history has given our country the very vibrancy and innovative edge that we pride ourselves on consistently. Even as our modern economy and lack of effective border policies has created undue pressure on the arrivals of new people to our national and Colorado communities, we have an opportunity to do better and account for the core needs of our people.
Housing Affordability
In the private sector, I worked on advancing effective regulation around short-term rentals and housing affordability to progress balanced outcomes to the supply and demand of housing in urban, suburban and rural areas. I have also worked with a nonprofit the Equal Rights Center based in Washington DC on ensuring equal access to housing communities for underrepresented minorities. Recognizing the distinct needs of an individual with regard to encountering housing with anything from a disability or a limited income and planning development that matches those needs is vital to answering the challenge.
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We need to address the prohibitive costs of home ownership and renting for growing and new families at the same time we acknowledge the homelessness crisis that affects our broader Colorado communities. Our neighbors across various income levels are struggling to find accessible, affordable housing. Abandoning outdated one-size-fits-all approaches to housing solutions and inspiring new construction of all types of units that meet the demand and income levels of all Coloradans is the way forward.
Environmental Advocacy
I have helped facilitate environmentally-friendly workforce programs including an Urban Forestry Training Program and Solar Energy Program that account for labor force shortages in essential green jobs as well as cultivated relationships with green employers to enhance their reach. I also currently sit on the Front Range Urban Forestry Consortium Steering Committee. When doing social impact work during the pandemic for the rideshare company Lyft, I worked with environmental stakeholders to raise awareness and partnership around Electric Vehicle (EV) fleets and ensure the stories of drivers prioritizing EVs were increasingly brought to the attention of legislators for impact.
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Colorado’s majestic beauty and the recreational opportunities offered by our mountains, lakes and other natural features are second to none in the nation. Whether it is the intelligent use of our natural resources or regulating negative environmental externalities, getting it right on environmental preservation with long-term sustainability and effectively answering the challenges of climate change will continue to be an existential challenge for our state leadership.
Supporting the Underserved
During the height of the pandemic, I worked with 30+ nonprofits in the state of Colorado and the broader Rockies Region to help provide free rides and build transportation corridors that ensured individuals who were food constrained, fleeing domestic violence or facing a range of heightened barriers while forced to be at home or lacking access to RTD, would be accounted for and protected from harm and more adverse effects on their health. I have also worked as a Care Manager and Employment Specialist alongside Vocational Rehabilitation to directly serve individuals with disabilities to help them find and sustain employment in the Central Florida area prior to my move to Colorado. At Second Chance Center in Aurora, I learned the complexities that individuals face when trying to overcome prior justice-involvement and supported them through mentorship and directed employment services. These experiences solidified my belief in listening and being consistently present for others.
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The reality of the wealth and opportunity gap in our communities is that access exists unequally for individual people - we see this divide across neighboring cities in and around our House District 37. Barriers and limitations keep many of us from experiencing all that this community has to offer. We must seek to provide equal opportunity by realizing and enhancing everyone’s potential, accounting for the fundamental interdependence of our neighborhoods; only then can we all succeed. Lawmakers should be held accountable to addressing systemic barriers that perpetuate this divide in accessibility. Common-sense legislation that raises the minimum wage, creates access to higher education and equity in health care and expands resources for mental health and sobriety-related support will be necessary in order for Colorado to continue modeling empathy and equality for the nation. Empathy should not be a buzzword; it’s a real practice of daily leadership and a call to serve.
Employment
In building and operationalizing an Employment Opportunity Lab as well as acting as an Employment Specialist, I have personally worked with teams to create a blend of services that can help individuals along the various needs of their job to career journeys from writing a resume, to performing job search, to enhancing interview skills and financial skills and more. Across my career, I have directly engaged hundreds of employers within a multitude of industries to link people together and achieve successful employment outcomes for everyone involved.
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In order to foster the continued health of our economy, state leaders should be focusing on not only the quantity of jobs but the quality. The adverse impacts of unemployment need to be understood, alongside the labor force participation rate. As more people of all ages opt out of even seeking a job because the mix of available options does not suit their particular and familial needs, we see declining generational wealth and opportunity. Opening spaces for more employers, small business to corporate, to provide anything from the “right-now job” to a “mortgage-paying career” and ensuring that good jobs and careers stay in Colorado will be a high priority for me as a legislator and leader.
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
I am an entrepreneur myself running a community engagement consulting practice that seeks to enhance the good work of our local nonprofit community and I also operate a small business travel company as a side hustle. The ups and downs of these ventures are real and I can understand the importance of support at key moments of evolving businesses as well as the desire for more personal freedom in my life by seeing them succeed. I have also over the past two years helped facilitate an Entrepreneurship Leadership Training Program with the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute (RMMFI) that helps underserved individuals across the state of Colorado predominantly in rural areas, access support to develop and launch their businesses.
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In rebounding from the pandemic, we still have a long way to go in prioritizing the health of our local small businesses and ensuring that individuals have robust opportunities to pursue their dreams of entrepreneurship. Expanding tax credits and driving legislation that protects those who are taking the risk of cultivating new goods and services is important not only for the success of small businesses but also for creating new, unique job opportunities.
Education & Technology
As a proud former public school student who was fortunate to access a magnet program at my locally districted high school, I was encouraged to think about international themes and language learning more intensely at a young age. I’ve seen the real benefits of having access to such programming built to intentionally empower students in ways they would not have otherwise experienced. When I was an English teacher abroad in Japan and Ghana, I taught at diverse ends of the spectrum with regards to classroom resources. I can speak to how both teachers and students can best be motivated towards success and I also personally understand the challenges of managing substantial student debt from higher education. I will work to legislate creative solutions that will incentivize new educators as well as reward the dedication of those who have worked with generations of young Coloradans and to ensure classroom safety is a prerequisite to learning.
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We need to protect the ability of our schools to effectively function by providing teachers with sustainable incomes. The classroom also needs to be a respected and safe place to learn, free from many modern distractions that we know disrupts the learning model that we as parents and grandparents prior benefited; to that end, technology needs to be harnessed as a net positive in expanding the minds of children. The continued success of public schools should be ensured and the creative forces of charter schools and other non-traditional options like home schooling need to be blended with a collective mindset for what accounts for all childrens’ learning proclivities and the needs of individual families. For young adults, we need to recognize that more highly differentiated educational options from four-year and community colleges to vocational and skill-based programs when linked both to the passions of students for growth and basic affordability will better serve Coloradans.
Transportation
Working with the rideshare company Lyft as a Community Strategist here in Colorado at the height of the pandemic gave me an appreciation for all the nuanced challenges of providing adequate transportation to Coloradans. In partnership with over 30 non-profits, I activated and operationalized transportation resources that could ensure individuals, labor forces and organizations the access to mobility they needed. As your HD37 Representative, I will work to increase funding for improvements to existing RTD infrastructure and expand charging stations for EVs beyond the metro Denver area, so that Coloradans from Denver to Durango can reliably utilize public and private transportation.
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Our Denver metro area and the more rural communities beyond it require varied and complex solutions to the transportation needs across the diverse geographies of Coloradans. Our public RTD network provides a range of great options for commuting and accessing the area and should be further invested in and built to answer specific corridors of frequent travel. Beyond RTD, there are strong opportunities to continue to cultivate public-private partnerships with transportation companies to answer both the first-mile, last-mile challenges of those now on transportation islands; ensuring these collaborative efforts in enhancing our transportation grid are driven through the lens of their environmental impacts requires smart legislation.