Why I'm Running
Meet Bree
Parent | Advocate | Small Business Owner
Hi, I’m Bree!
You might know me as a fellow parent from John Burroughs Elementary School, a common gadfly on the Brookland Facebook Group, the “house with the band” or the lady with the purple hair that runs through our neighborhood.
Regardless of how you know me (or if you don’t yet know me), you should know how much I care about solving problems and helping others.
Running for office has been a personal goal of mine for a while as I’ve come to understand just how personal politics are – the personal is political and touches every facet of our lives.
I saw this firsthand as a Federal Government Consultant (16+ years!), where I helped Federal Agencies design and build human-centered technology solutions to make peoples’ lives better. And once I had kids, my focus shifted more towards their school, where I joined the PTO (currently serving on the Executive Board and as Advocacy Committee chair), and helped to build out a mutual aid system and rapid response process once the Federal occupation tore through our neighborhoods.
I am also a small business owner (some of you might know me through Capitol Romance – an authentic & personalized wedding planning company), that helped me to realize how much I love taking my creativity and putting it back into building community, meeting new people, and helping them execute their wedding day. And, how tough it is to be a small biz owner in DC.
I believe stepping in to this race is the perfect culmination and combination of these past experiences, qualities, and desires that I have:
- Helping people
- Solving problems
- Building community
You can find out more about the specific problems I’d like to tackle as your commissioner, on my Issues page.
Some other fun facts about me and my family:
-I grew up in NJ, went to school in PA (We are Penn State!), and moved to DC right after college – having fallen in love with the city after interning here
-I met my husband in high-school, and while he wanted to move to NYC after college, I convinced him to come to DC and he loves it just as much as I do
-We are raising 3 fiercely determined, silly, and big-hearted children (Evie, 11, takes on Brookland Middle this Fall | Conrad, 8, tackles 3rd grade at Burroughs | and Gus, 4, enters his final PK year – also at Burroughs)
-You can often see me running through our ANC (3x a week!), or walking our dog Phin
-I am the MOST novice of gardeners (but I wish I was better), but Evie had the brilliant idea to turn our front yard into a community garden – so we try our best and share the crops with anyone who walks by (please grab something!)
-I LOVE live music – my husband and I go to see live shows whenever we can (even traveling sometimes to do it – next stop: London for the Jimmy Eat World 25th Anniversary show)
-I look forward to meeting so many more of my neighbors through this journey of running for office and LOVE connecting people
-I am a lifelong learner with a sense of curiosity that cannot be satiated – while I am a touch anxious about learning how to run for office and all the rules and regulations of being a commissioner, I have an incredible team around me and I know politics (truly, public service) is a team sport
What else would you like to know? I hope to host a meet and greet session soon so you can ask me more questions, and I can get to know you, your concerns, and how I could help!