Position: Board Member

I moved with my family to the North Country (Madrid, to be more precise) in the Summer of 2022 from sunny Los Angeles, where my family was a member of the Santa Monica Co-op for 12 years. We became members of the Potsdam Co-op on our first day here. Our son was a member-worker until he started at SUNY Potsdam, and we enjoyed learning about the different opportunities to contribute to the daily running of the store through his experience.

I decided to run for a seat on the Board of Directors because I see the Co-op as a model of what a community-centered grocery store should be: accessible, convivial, and plugged into the regional economy. The Co-op is uniquely positioned to strengthen ties between local producers, businesses, and consumers. I bring to the board a perspective informed by my work as a researcher focused on equitable socioeconomic and environmental development and a versatile set of skills ranging from data and spatial analysis to web development and communication technologies. I see opportunities to increase engagement with the broader community and dispel perceptions that shopping at the Co-op is necessarily more expensive, especially when considering environmental impacts.

We are in deeply uncertain times, and places like the Co-op are critical in showing people an alternative future that elevates ecological, social, and economic sustainability. I want to see the Co-op expand its physical and digital footprint to serve this purpose for a larger public.