Friends and neighbors, I did not come to Concord seeking a title. I came seeking refuge, dignity, and a chance to rebuild an honest life. Eight years ago, I arrived here as a refugee with a backpack, a few words of English, and traumatized by conflict but not broken. In the first winter I learned our city street by street, I learned our values by how people treated a stranger, and I learned our hidden strength from simple acts of kindness, a teacher who helped me fill a form I could not read, a shop owner who gave me an extra hour on the clock, a neighbor who said, “You belong here, keep going.” I stand before you because Concord opened its doors and then allowed me to start a life. I am proof that belonging is not a favor we grant; it is a promise we keep.

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If the great leaders of the civil rights movement stood with us tonight, I believe they would ask for a plan, a plan for growth, opportunities, and a better future for our future generations. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would remind us, “The time is always right to do what is right,” and he would ask if our choices in housing, safety, education, and opportunity are guided by courage or by comfort. Nelson Mandela would look at what some call impossible and say, “It always seems impossible until it’s done,” pushing us to move from talk to work. Malcolm X would visit our schools and say, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,” calling us to build real pipelines from classroom to career. Congressman John Lewis would nudge us toward “good trouble, necessary trouble,” the kind that reforms systems and expands hope. Rosa Parks would whisper, “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right,” and then she would sit in the front row at City Hall and expect us to stand for her. Muhammad Ali would smile and say, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,” then ask if we have paid our rent to the next generation. And Dr. Myles Munroe would bring us back to purpose: “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without purpose,” challenging leaders to serve with integrity, not ego.

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I am running to serve because I have lived the gap between potential and policy. I know from experience how a form without translation can block a dream, how a bus that stops too early can cost a job, how a rent that rises too fast can break a family. I graduated from Concord High School in 2019, studied Robotics and Programming and then Communications at NHTI, learned media and production at Concord TV, and I am completing my Bachelor’s in Communications at Southern New Hampshire University because clear words and honest listening are tools for problem‑solving. I joined Leadership Greater Concord to study how this city works, because you cannot change what you do not understand. I founded the Young Adults Development Network to mentor youth, teach advocacy, and build a culture of service. I worked with Change for Concord, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and I lobbied in Washington, D.C., because local stories should shape national policy. In 2024, I was named a Union Leader “40 Under Forty” honoree; I did not hang the plaque, I hung a bigger whiteboard, and I never give up. Awards are not a finish line; they are a call to do more.

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This campaign is a promise to turn belonging into policy. Belonging means that whether you were born here or arrived yesterday, you are seen, heard, and served. It means city boards and committees reflect our neighborhoods. It means that translation and interpretation are not favors, but standard practices when people need access to services. It means meetings are accessible to people with disabilities, working parents, and seniors, both in person and online. It means that public trust is built by clarity, not by promises, and by consistency, not by slogans. When a city practices belonging, it turns residents into partners and neighbors into builders.

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I have lived the power of that promise. In my first months in Concord, a coach at school noticed my struggle to keep up while working nights and studying during the day. He did not give me a speech. He gave me a schedule, provided a ride when the bus didn't come, and always said to me, “You can do this.” That is leadership. It is quiet, it is close, and it changes lives. As your representative, I will bring that same hands‑on leadership to City Hall: practical help, clear steps, and a steady hand.

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Opportunity must be our baseline, not our exception. Too many families work full‑time yet live one bill away from crisis. We can change that. We will make City Hall a partner to small businesses by simplifying and expediting permit processes, all while maintaining safety standards. We will launch micro-grants and mentorship programs for local entrepreneurs, with a special focus on women-owned, immigrant-owned, and minority-owned businesses that already invest in our neighborhoods. We will find state and federal grants with no limitations, with money available right now, to modernize city buildings with energy-saving technology, so that we spend once and save every year. We will build fair partnerships with nonprofits and employers, ensuring that large projects deliver value to taxpayers through job creation, public benefits, or long-term savings. Fiscal innovation is not a slogan; it is a work plan that protects homeowners and seniors while building a stronger future.

 

Housing must be a foundation, not a lottery. Rents are rising, young people are leaving, and seniors fear being priced out of the community they built. We will reform zoning to allow for more homes to be built near schools, jobs, and transit. We will support mixed-use and mixed-income neighborhoods that keep teachers, nurses, service workers, and young families close to where they work and live. We will make adaptive reuse of underutilized buildings a standard practice, rather than a political process, transforming offices and empty spaces into homes. We will strengthen tenant protections against sudden displacement and invest in transitional housing that is linked to mental health, recovery, and job placement, because housing without support can fail and support without housing cannot last. A child with a stable address learns better. A worker with a short commute stays healthier. A senior with accessible housing remains a pillar in the life of the city. When we add homes wisely, we add dignity widely.

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Public safety begins long before a call is made. A safe city is a city with strong families, strong youth programs, strong neighborhoods, and strong trust between residents and responders. We will invest in prevention by expanding after‑school programs, mentorship, arts, and sports that keep our young people engaged with purpose. We will expand mental health services so that families can get help early, rather than waiting for emergencies. We will support community policing that fosters relationships and enhances neighborhood knowledge, and we will modernize facilities as we redefine safety. Safety is not the absence of people; it is the presence of opportunity, and it grows when every resident feels known by name.

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We will reduce homelessness through compassion and strategic action. We will scale transitional housing to provide a stable base for people while they rebuild, align it with mental health care, recovery support, and job training, and partner with employers to ensure a beautiful and stable transition from the street to stability. We will move beyond short‑term fixes toward permanent, affordable homes, freeing up emergency rooms, reducing strain on police, and helping businesses downtown. The moral measure of a city is how it treats those with the least power. We will meet that measure by solving problems with people, not around them.

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Transportation must connect every resident to opportunity. We will strengthen our bus system so seniors, students, and workers can rely on it. We will repair and build sidewalks so walking is safe for parents with strollers, people with mobility devices, and kids heading to practice. We will create connected bike lanes and safer crossings, making it easier, healthier, and more affordable to choose a bike or a bus. A city that moves together grows together. Mobility is the bridge between talent and the places that need it.

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Downtown must feel alive every day, and the Heights must feel connected to the heart of the city. We will fill empty storefronts by making it easier to start and grow a business, supporting pop‑ups that become permanent, and encouraging outdoor dining and street life that reflect all of Concord’s cultures. We will maintain public spaces as clean, green, and welcoming as possible, providing reliable services and good lighting. We will guide parking so shoppers can find a space without stress and design streets that slow cars, allowing families to gather. With the community’s leadership, we will study how to make the Heights safer and more people‑friendly, because a city that connects its neighborhoods builds unity and spreads prosperity.

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Our youth are not just the future; they are the present. We will build leadership pipelines from middle school onward, expand mentoring and internships with local businesses and nonprofits, and establish a Youth Advisory Council with a direct voice to City Hall, ensuring that policy is shaped by the generation that will live with it the longest. We will protect and improve the parks, six pools, and the splash pad where families gather, because public spaces teach us to be public people. We will invest in mental health supports in schools and community centers so teens do not face silence and isolation. When we invest in youth, we invest in the city we claim to love.

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Families and seniors carry the memory and the future of this city. We will support affordable childcare so parents do not have to choose between a paycheck and their children. We will develop senior programs that prevent isolation and expand access to essential services, transportation, and safe recreational activities. We will keep decisions simple to understand and services easy to reach, because the government should not be a maze people fear to enter.

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Our environment is our shared inheritance. We will lead with green infrastructure that lowers costs and reduces pollution, invest in solar power and efficiency to save taxpayers' money year after year, and support trails like the Merrimack River Greenway, which improves health, recreation, and tourism. We will work toward a fairer, more effective waste management system that serves families equitably and supports long-term sustainability. Every project will be judged not only by price, but also by its impact, because the cheapest choice today may be the most expensive tomorrow if it harms our children’s future.

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Diversity, inclusion, and justice are not slogans; they are the strategy. We will launch the Welcoming Concord Initiative, which provides translation services for key programs, provides youth with opportunities and resources, creates pathways for civic engagement, and celebrates the cultures and histories that make our city strong. We will recruit and train leaders from every neighborhood to serve on boards and commissions so that decisions are smarter because more voices are at the table. This is not a competition with other communities; it is collaboration within our own, a choice to become an example others can follow.

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I know Concord’s challenges because I have lived within them, and I see Concord’s promise because I have walked beside the people who keep it. I remember studying for finals after a late shift at McDonald's, only to learn the bus home had stopped running. A friend from church gave me a ride and said, “One day you will not just drive your own vehicle; you will help others get home.” That is what this campaign is about: helping people get where they are going, home, work, school, safety, stability, and a voice in their city. Leadership is not about title; it is the duty of the hopeful. I have trained youth across New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, stood with refugee and immigrant communities, from my own Banyamulenge people of the Democratic Republic of Congo to families from different continents. I have learned this simple lesson: when people are invited into leadership, they rise, and when they rise, the city rises.

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Some will say this vision is too ambitious for one city. But I hear Dr. King reminding us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” and I know that arcs bend when hands pull. I hear Mandela urging patience with purpose. I hear John Lewis calling us into the good trouble that fixes old systems. I hear Malcolm X challenging us to prepare our young people for the future with skills, not fear. I hear Rosa Parks telling us to be brave when it matters. I hear Muhammad Ali measuring greatness by service. I hear Dr. Myles Munroe emphasizing the importance of leading with purpose, so that power gives and does not take. If they were here tonight, they would not ask us to wait; they would invite us to join them in their work.

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So let us choose work. Let us choose a Concord where property taxes are not the automatic answer because we have done the harder work of securing grants, forming partnerships, and modernizing our infrastructure for savings. Let us choose a Concord where housing is built wisely and fairly, where downtown is vibrant and the Heights are connected, where buses run and sidewalks welcome, where kids have mentors and seniors have dignity, where small businesses grow and pay living wages, where diversity is strength and unity is normal. Let us choose a Concord that belongs to all of us and asks all of us to belong to it in return.

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I ask for your vote not to add a line to my biography but to add chapters to our city’s story. If you have ever felt unseen, I see you. If you have felt that the government was not for you, I am here to prove that it is. If you have wondered whether your voice matters, bring it to the table, and watch what happens when a city listens. “The time is always right to do what is right.” That time is now. Let us begin. Together, let us build a Concord of belonging, opportunity, and hope, and let us do it with courage, clarity, and care for the generations who will inherit what we decide now.