About Me: My lifelong passion to learn from people and places.
I’ve been fascinated by communities for as long as I can remember. As a child, I spent hours studying maps, atlases and house plans, imagining how places worked and how people lived. As a child, I was so profoundly moved by the coverage of the Ethiopian famine, I tried to solve it by drawing complete communities with housing, services, roads and more. Those early instincts toward problem‑solving and community design never left me.
Exposure to municipal government was part of my life from a young age. My parents were active in local campaigns. My father volunteered on municipal committees, and my grandfather shared the same commitment to community service.
In high school, I was selected to participate in the Whitby Youth Civic Program, where we learned about the municipal sector. The program ended with a mock Council meeting with me being a regional councillor; an early hint of where my life might lead.
My early days spent reading atlases and watching the news, led to a lifelong desire to experience the world. I’ve honoured that passion by travelling to more than 60 countries, staying in people’s homes, riding third‑class trains, sleeping in jungles and deserts, and exploring cities from the street level. Everywhere I go, I pay attention to how communities protect heritage, move people, adapt to climate, support local business and build infrastructure. Many of those observations have shaped ideas that I’ve brought home, such as flexible approaches to transportation like Port Hope’s wave down transit service during heat advisories.
My education and career followed the same path. I studied hospitality, tourism, history and architecture. I worked on heritage buildings that required modern adaptation, and developed a strong technical understanding of building design, site plans and the challenges of older buildings. I also spent a decade in change management and process improvement in a large corporate environment, strengthening my instinct to ask questions, understand problems and look for better ways of doing things.
Being a Port Hope councillor brings all of my lifelong interests together including heritage, architecture, natural environment, tourism, culture and the challenge of preparing for change without losing identity. Communities evolve, but they don’t have to lose what makes them special. That belief guides my work as a municipal councillor on planning matters, accessibility, environmental protection and building complete communities.
Whether I’m travelling, studying, visiting another Ontario town or speaking with a resident at their door, I’m always doing what I’ve always done: observing, asking questions and looking for ways to make communities work better.
"Listening. Learning. Leading."
It isn’t just a slogan. It’s how I’ve always approached my life.