OVERVIEW:
Education
- Parent Choice
- Teach Academics
Health Care: Access
- Patient-Centered Reform
- Increase Access and Quality
- Minimize Fiscal Strain
Health Care: Choices
- Informed Choice
- Freedom to Choose
Life
- Pro-life
- Support Families
- Maintain Dignity and Comfort
Rights
- Constitutional Rights
Welfare
- Address Generational Poverty
- Incentives and Supportive Programs
Foreign Policy
- Strengthen Economy
- Support Military
- Tackle Debt
- Goal: Self-Sufficiency
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Parents should have the option to choose where and how their children are educated. I support educational policies that reflect our local goals and concerns and provide parents the ability to choose the best learning option for their children.
Winston Churchill has been credited with saying, “A nation that forgets its past has no future.” It is imperative that our history, both good and bad, be taught to our children. However, when history is taught in a way that furthers a political agenda, it is no longer an accurate reflection of the past. I support traditional academics, including basic life skills and career-focused options.
America’s advanced health care system has many factors that prohibit access to all individuals. Reform is needed.
Patient-centered reform should include several key areas: 1. Increasing options to consumers; 2. Decreasing costs of insurance, care, and medications; and 3. Introducing economic incentives for consumers, providers, and insurers that will promote quality services at a lower cost and result in increased access for all individuals. It should focus on prevention, management, and treatment of adverse health conditions. Consumers should know charges before services are provided. Reform would include minimizing waste throughout the system and increasing alternative supportive programs in lieu of initial entry into the healthcare continuum at higher, more expensive levels of care. I support programs that improve healthcare access and quality, and minimize the fiscal strain on Medicare, Medicaid and our healthcare system in general.
Individuals have the right to make their own health care decisions based on accurate information that clearly defines pros and cons of any decision to be made. I support ‘informed choice’ even in cases where I may disagree with the decision.
When medical mandates are implemented, it has been my observation that people immediately question the motives behind them. When medical mandates are in opposition to a person’s right to choose, I believe this goes against basic constitutional protections. A blanket medical mandate will never consider individual circumstances or beliefs. I do not support medical mandates.
I am pro-life. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different interpretations of this stance, so let me explain.
Pro-life does not simply mean “pro-birth”. A person who experiences an unexpected pregnancy should have access to compassionate, accurate, and complete education on options and available resources, regardless of the circumstances. Many organizations provide support and resources to women and families before, during, and after pregnancies. I support efforts to care for women and families, regardless of the outcome of a pregnancy.
Recent trends across our country have been for legislation that upholds dignity of mothers and children. Some of these include parental notification, informed consent laws, abortion clinic safety regulations, late-term abortion bans, and laws that protect infants who survive an attempted abortion. I support legislation that is for protection and safety of all individuals and for consequences when there is evidence that standard of care was not maintained, resulting in harm.
Basic science shows us that unique human genetic makeup is present from conception. A yolk sac develops during week 2, providing nourishment to the living, growing organism. A heartbeat can be detected as early as 5 ½ weeks gestation, providing further confirmation of life.
Human life is precious. When a society picks and chooses who is worthy of life and who is not, I believe this attitude is reflected throughout all facets of that society and basic rights that are spelled out in our Constitution are ignored.
As a healthcare professional, I have participated in emergency c-sections. Some were successful, and some were not. However, everything possible was done for both individuals. Intentionally taking the life of one party would be unfathomable. I believe it is morally wrong for an individual to intentionally take the life of another human. I support protection of basic human rights as outlined in the United States Constitution.
Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is another life decision to not be taken lightly. Dignity and comfort should be maintained for everyone through compassionate care. However, legalizing PAS would endanger vulnerable individuals, goes against the Hippocratic Oath, and challenges the concept of equal protection for all from conception to natural death. I support legislation that protects an individual’s dignity and comfort at all stages of life.
Below are some questions that had been asked of me during my 2022 campaign and their answers:
My world view has always been Conservative. I chose to run on the Republican ballot because this most closely resembles my Conservative world view. I have always voted Republican in primary elections. I do not consider myself to be a Democrat, nor have I ever.
I believe it is important to built working relationships with other community members, regardless of their political affiliation for the common good of our community. It is important to listen to people who see things differently to better understand issues and to figure out the best possible solutions. I have occasionally joined the Muncie Resist online zoom as a guest to learn about the issues in our community from a different viewpoint and to look for issues that we could tackle together such as drug addiction, community beautification, and more. I have developed friendships with people in our community who are in leadership in the Democratic Party through serving with them on various Boards and through community outreach. We are able to put politics aside as we serve our community together. I do have support of friends with my campaign who have been lifelong Democrats because they see me as a genuine person who is willing to put my personal prejudices aside and work together with anyone for the good of our community. Anyone who has served with me in these capacities will be able to verify that I have always been the one to bring the Conservative viewpoint to the table.
During the pandemic, food security was the initial crisis faced by our community. This was the major focus of my community outreach at first. I later realized there were many more needs, including utility and rent assistance, employment, clothing, housing and household goods, transportation, tutoring, support groups, and much more.
To best meet the needs of the community, I realized the outreach organizations and individuals needed to network and collaborate their efforts. This became a greater focus of mine in time and continues to this day. In addition, I have the privilege of serving as the President of the Optimist Club whose purpose is to serve youth and promote a better community, as a board member for Open Door Health Services, and a board member for HOPE (Helping Other People Everyday). I volunteer with Second Harvest and First Choice for Women. I also frequently connect community members to resources as they continue to personally contact me for help.
Most of the things I have done for the community will never be known by anyone except the people directly involved. Now that I am running a campaign, I have found it difficult to discuss community outreach in a way that maintains the dignity of the people I have helped, yet a give clear picture of the many positive relationships that have resulted from my community involvement. The joy of seeing many individuals I was able to help who are now paying it forward makes it all worthwhile. We have some wonderful neighbors and community members!
I am blessed to have experience as both an educator and parent when it comes to understanding the current challenges in our education system and am able to advocate for solutions based upon unique personal experience and insight. In short, I understand the issues that are currently plaguing our education system.
As we know, there have been several recent challenges in our education system related to the pandemic. I have personally seen how it has affected my child, my child’s friends, and children of my friends. I witnessed academic decline, challenges with social interactions, and struggles with mental health. I also had a child graduate in 2020. Seeing how the pandemic negatively affected his launch into “life after high school” has also been enlightening. In response, I have spoken extensively with other parents in an attempt to find solutions. We need to acknowledge these issues and look for realistic ways to help our children get back on track with their lives.
Here is a summary of a few other issues I can speak about with confidence:
> My friend asked me to tutor her children who were falling through the cracks with online education. Since this is an area of my expertise, I identified many barriers within the online system that prevented the students from being successful. These children passed the classes with my help, but I can verify it was very difficult to maneuver through the curriculum. I was able to share the barriers I had identified with the principal and am happy to see the school is no longer using the same system. Not all online education systems provide academic instruction in a format that is effective. Every student learns differently and there were many who did not do well with online learning. We need to now identify students who fell through the cracks and continue to struggle so we can help them.
> Teachers have been challenged to provide quality education online when many had not received prior training on how to do this. Not only were they stretched to learn new systems that had kinks, but they were stretched on time needed to do everything that was expected, often dealing with personal illness themselves. Unfortunately, many students did not receive adequate training on how to use the systems either and became frustrated. Issues that arose during the pandemic were unprecedented. We are at a point where online education has become an integral part of our education system. How can this be improved to produce optimal outcomes?
> Some students on the 20th Century scholarship program and others who were seeking academic scholarships will no longer qualify due to a drop in their GPA. There are students who ended up dropping classes in which they were not succeeding to focus on other studies. Because of this, they are no longer able to follow their original graduation plans. What can we do to help students who were affected this way to prepare for success after graduation?
> Recently, legislation was discussed in the Statehouse regarding curriculum and other topics. I did not support the bills as written because they did not appropriately represent the interests of educators or parents. I support educational policies that reflect our local goals and concerns and provide parents the ability to choose the best learning option for their children. I also want to see improved support for educators from parents, administration, and the community. We need to emphasize traditional academics, including basic life skills and career-focused options to provide our children the tools they need to be successful in these unprecedented times.
Here is my campaign video from the 2022 Primary Election: