At Grid, we believe that everyone in Richmond has a superpower – a unique combination of personality traits and aptitudes that they bring effortless to everything they do. What’s your superpower and how will you share it with RVA?

Super Strength but not in the sense of being able to lift buildings in the city but the performance of our city. The super strength to persevere through adversity, the super strength to remain committed to the task until I find “win-wins” – a super strength that is able to bring people together and hold them together and the super strength to be able to lead, perhaps down a path that is less travelled but one that leads us to the best Richmond.

Journalist and Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce once told John F. Kennedy that “a great man is a sentence.” Can you sum up your purpose in a single line? Let’s hear your sentence.

My sentence is taken directly from my nonprofit founded in 2008: Partnering in the process to bring power back to the people … it is the mantra I live by and what I have endeavored to do even before my days as a councilwoman.

Let’s chat conflict, how do you handle it and how do you make sure you’re listening effectively to others when conflict arises?

I am probably the only one who is truly experienced in this regard. My experience is local – with the mayor’s administration, the council itself and the school board. I have opponents who have never run for office, others who have very low and almost nonexistent legislative pass rates, and reputations for collaboration. I have worked directly with other elected officials as an elected official, a skill that cannot be simulated. I have deliberated on baseball stadiums and chickens, alike; I have deliberated on the city budget into the late hours of the night and been held accountable by the 200k-plus residents of this city. I have won some and lost some but I have never made it personal nor made it about personality. When the vote was over, it was over, and whether or not we were ever going to hang out after council meetings was never a requisite for me hearing and considering someone else’s point of view.

What defines good citizenship and how do you model it?

Being a good citizen and being a good neighbor are almost synonymous to me. One who cares about the person next door will care about and foster a larger context of the neighborhood and communitywide. A good citizen is one who comes outside of their home to contribute, who doesn’t say, “I did my part” but “I did what was necessary.” If I could amend a known quote to embody this idea, I’d say “Ask not what the city can do for you, but what can you do for your city.” We are in this together, and, when we work together, we have no limits. How do I model this? Accountability, transparency, and efficiency. When I model these infectious qualities, I believe it will spread and all will eventually adopt them.

Tell us a story about a solution to a problem in Richmond that you made better, faster, smarter, and less expensive.

One of the challenges I’ve faced is the budget season. Again, this is an area where many of my opponents simply have little to no context particularly from the seat of council president. This process is both highly publicized and highly criticized; more importantly it involves both the highly charged public input as well as the input of 18 other elected officials (at the very least nine by City Charter). This process, however arduous, can be made bearable by employing one word: collaboration. I was able to coordinate the staff from the Office of City Council to meet with those of the administration; we were able to have conversations earlier in the process and council members had opportunities to both ask hard questions and share their district needs in the process. We, as council members, had discussions about priorities, and, in the end, it made for a smoother, more collaborative (even less time-consuming) process. In the end, we also were able to produce a budget that met a multitude of needs in our city.

We’re proud of our makers and doers in Richmond. People who roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. Tell us about the last thing you made with your hands or created.

I would say my business of 15 years: International Hair Salon.

Please share an example of a solutions-oriented Richmonder — or Richmond organization — engaged in innovative practices that have influenced you?

My longtime friend Pam Mines comes to mind as I think of solutions-oriented Richmonders. She is the founder and driving force behind JPJumpers as well as the legislation put into place for the protection and awareness of those persons/families living with autism. She saw an issue, she became educated, she advocated fiercely, and she took it all the way to the Governor’s Mansion, and, as a result, an entire community is safer and our community at large is better.

If you could change one event in Richmond over the past ten years, what would it be?

In 2010, the Ukrop family sold their chain of grocery stores to Giant Food, which would eventually be renamed Martin’s. While I don’t have any criticisms whatsoever to levy against Martin’s, Ukrop’s embodied what was quintessentially Richmond: quality, family, community, and business with a local touch. As a small business owner myself, I looked up to (and continue to look up to) the Ukrop’s brand not only as the gold standard for business but what is possible here in RVA under the right circumstances with hard work and integrity.

Who is your favorite Richmond mayor of all time, and why?

Tim Kaine is probably my favorite mayor of all time because “he gets it” – the reason for being elected, that is, and that reason is to serve the people who elected him and even those who didn’t. As I watched him speak at the Democratic National Convention, he reminded all of us that all of his successes could be tied to his time at the local level. In Tim Kaine you see a man who displays the utmost humility in service, the biblical adage that those who would lead should first serve.

If you could paint a mural depicting the future of Richmond, what would you paint and where would you paint it?

I would paint a multicolored light emanating from a candle on top of a hill with a river running through the image below – the multiple colors of the spectrum to illustrate our diversity on so many levels and the one candle for one community. I place the candle on top of the hill as RVA postures itself to be an example throughout the nation and the Commonwealth, and the river running below in honor of our very own James River. I would have the mural affixed to the clock tower located at the Main Street Station, one of the most visible and iconic locations off Interstate 95 from Washington, D.C. to Florida and allow it to tell our Richmond story to all who would see it.

Vitals:

Hometown: Richmond

Neighborhood: Southside

Favorite Way to Volunteer: Feeding the homeless

Listening Style: Critical listener

Preferred Mode of Transportation: Car (Victoria)

Best Locally Made Product: International Hair Salon

Favorite Spot on the River: Brown’s Island

Go-To Restaurant: Southern Kitchen

The Book You’ve Gifted Most to Others: World War Me by Jamal H. Bryant

Three achievable goals that you plan to champion over the next year, regardless of who becomes mayor?

• Forge forward with real plans to reintegrate returning citizens to society
• Advocate for equal educational opportunities for all children
• Continue to advocate for growth on the Southside