I grew up waiting tables in my parents’ mom-and-pop restaurant. I am a first-generation college graduate and never expected to become an attorney or an elected official.

That said, I spent the last 30 years building a record of fighting for equality, fairness, government reform, and working families as a councilperson, as an attorney, and as a volunteer.

As a young person, I worked my first election in 1988 at ten years old, in response to a political advertisement that exploited racial division, because I believed in in equality and that we deserved a higher standard of character from our elected officials. I looked up to my older sister and volunteered for the Women in Crisis Center she directed. I was selected for two Congressional internships, working with now Gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro.

In law school, I focused on legislation drafting and state constitutional law. I became  certified in law and government. I fought for redistricting reform and drafted and lobbied for an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution to stop partisan Gerrymandering.  I also studied international law focusing on the European Convention on Human Rights and the return of the rule of law to Eastern Europe. After law school, I started taking on insurance companies and fighting for injured workers — including women who were assaulted while at work.

When the eyes of the country were on Pennsylvania, I was helping to beat Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in court, pushing back against their attacks on fact and our democracy.

In my law practice, I represent injured workers as one of only about two hundred Pennsylvania attorneys certified as specialists in workers’ compensation law. For nearly two decades, I have represented municipal governments in the Commonwealth. I previously worked for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of General Counsel, representing the Department of Transportation. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court-appointed me as a Senior Hearing Panel Member for the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. I also provide pro bono representation to the LGBT community, struggling homeowners, first responders, and historical groups.

I have served as an educator, a professor in one of our exceptional community college, and an instructor on animal law and the right-to-know law for other attorneys.

As a councilperson, I have fought for our shared values.  After a hate group came to CB West, another council member and I worked on a response that led to Doylestown’s first Pride event.  I have voted to protect LGBT rights, for a more sustainable future and to demand action on gun violence.

Throughout my tenure, I also worked with our partners in Chalfont and New Britain to professionalize our police force, to save taxpayer funds and to complete the most important project in our boroughs’ history. The Broad Street project replaces a brownfield with green space, reuses a 1930’s public works building, and is a model of municipal cooperation in these three boroughs.

I am running for re-election because we need qualified legislators in Harrisburg, who know the issues, have proven their ability to fight for change and who have made it happen. I have been doing that my whole life.