What in your education and experience make you the best qualified candidate for this position?

I think of the child who, like me, walks through the doors of the library and discovers not only marsupials in distant lands, tales of the sea, the recipe for a first soup, but along the way reads whole worlds into being. That magic is why I am running for the AADL Board. My candidacy is rooted in over a dozen years working in public libraries, degrees from MSU and UC Santa Cruz, and studies in library futures at the New Centre. As an Ann Arbor parent, American Library Association member, and early-education nonprofit volunteer, I know literacy is foundational for lifelong learning and flourishing. I come prepared to ask rigorous questions to enliven board deliberations, deepen institutional care, and vigorously defend public benefit.

What are your goals should you be elected and how will you work to accomplish them with available resources?

We in Ann Arbor love our public libraries. Our community has built an institution of fiscal strength, backed by $22.9M in annual tax revenue and $8.5M in cash. However, rather than being reinvested into neighborhood services, consistent operational surpluses are moved into the Capital Projects Fund for the downtown commercial-library project. Our library programming and services should radiate throughout the entire district. As trustee, I will champion an AADL Bookmobile serving parks, children's centers, and senior facilities. I will prioritize core collections and expand literacy programs, ensuring our libraries enrich our community. And I will remain vigilant against public debt being taken on to subsidize private real estate ventures.

What is the greatest challenge facing the library today?

Proposals A and B have created an opportunity to build a new downtown library with housing, but we must navigate the challenges of mission drift, commodification, and financial risk. This is a once-in-a-generation chance for our community to determine how development is executed for the public benefit, how we uphold public ownership, how our design serves deep literacy, and how we ensure broad affordability, so that our library doesn’t become a value-added amenity for corporate development. Let’s look to successful library projects with 100% affordable housing serving working families and seniors across the country, from Santa Cruz to Chicago, because we in Ann Arbor also know that our institutions are meant to truly serve the public good.

In an age where more and more information is found online, how does a library stay relevant?

Libraries are more relevant than ever precisely because of the physical books they hold. In a world dominated by the digital, a commitment to literacy is essential. With only 38.2% of Michigan third-graders reading at grade level, AADL’s mandate isn’t providing a downtown video game lounge; it is championing the exceptional work of our librarians through literacy programming, neighborhood outreach, and a commitment to real pages. Benjamin Franklin founded America’s first lending libraries knowing that reading and literacy achieve true accessibility and are fundamental to a healthy democracy. AADL’s most precious asset is this nourishing gift of reading, and its budget and planning must center this vital imperative.