Meet the Candidates Running for School Committee
The Concord Town Election is June 11th. Please consider voting early by mail. Here is the link.
The three candidates Fatima Mezdad, Maribeth Cusick, and Alexa Anderson each gave Livingconcord.com a write-up highlighting their candidacies. Below you can learn a little bit more about each of them.
Fatima Mezdad
My name is Fatima Mezdad. I am running for the 3-year term on the school committee this year. I have lived in Concord since 2015 with my two children who attend CMS and CCHS.
I am Algerian-American and have lived in the US for 25 years. For most of my career I was a teacher of languages to students of different ages primarily in private school settings.
I have a deep involvement, commitment and support of the Concord community and more specifically our schools. I have been serving on the CMS Challenge Success Steering Committee since it was formed in the fall of 2018. I am also the SEPAC liaison for the middle school. Last year, I was elected as a board member of the Concord Housing Authority. This year, I was honored to join the Allocations Committee of the Concord Carlisle Community Chest.
On the School Committee, I will continue to support our district to achieve and exceed the goals of its strategic plan. I will help our schools to continue providing a safe and empowering environment for every student, to celebrate every learner in the full scope of who they are. I will promote support for the staff by prioritizing their wellness in their work environment.
In addition to addressing the universal issues, I will bring to the committee the socio-economic and ethnic diversity that our community strives to include. I draw from a different life experience that I hope will shed light on some needs that may go unnoticed in our schools due to stigma or lack of representation. I will advise the school committee on cultural competency as we work to achieve that goal across our district. I believe that the benefits of inclusion expand beyond the minorities. Diversity enriches our community and empowers all of our students through exposure and personal experiences with different cultures and lives.
I will continue to foster relationships with community members and stake holders to better understand the needs, concerns as well as aspirations and dreams for our school district.
I invite you to visit my website for more information at ElectFatimaMezdad.org
Maribeth Cusick
When I first announced my run for Concord School Committee we were obviously living a dramatically different reality but what remains unchanged is the need to provide an excellent education and proper social and emotional support for the students of Concord. As we move forward with developing and implementing Phase 4 in the Fall and plan for the medium-term future in this difficult new reality, my public service career working across municipal departments towards effectuating public policy, my work as a parent advocate, and my desire to serve as a steward for the social-emotional , academic and fiscal health the schools will make me an invaluable addition to the Concord School Committee.
Prior to moving to Concord, I spent almost a decade working as a lawyer for the City of Boston, the last seven years serving as Chief of Government Services for the City of Boston Law Department, representing the Mayor, his Cabinet and department heads, the City Council and various boards and commissions. In this role I had a unique vantage point of ensuring public policy initiatives adhered to budgetary, regulatory and legal constraints. These skills and experiences will provide me with a distinct advantage when addressing the challenges presented by COVID-19. In the longer term, I look forward to getting back to the process of designing and building a new Middle School for Concord.
My family, my husband Jeff, and my children, Nora, almost 9 and Jack, now 7, was drawn to Concord in 2015 because of the community and civic engagement and the strength of the schools. Both my children attended the Concord Integrated Preschool (CIPS), where I served as President of the Parents Group. My tenure at CIPS began with advocacy work towards ensuring the longevity of the successful inclusion model at CIPS. This advocacy work then bloomed into a partnership with the School District and the Recreation Department, which allowed a small group of parents to raise the funds for, design and build a new inclusive and accessible playground. After CIPS, I became Co-President of the Thoreau Parent Teacher Group. The highlights of my time with the Thoreau PTG include developing a partnership with the Recreation Department to enhance our before and after school programming, implementing a lunchtime composting program, and launching mindfulness programs for the students.
I have a B.S.F.S from the Walsh School of Foreign Service, at Georgetown University and a J.D from Northeastern University. Before law school I worked at The Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic education organization in Washington, D.C., which offers programming to educate and encourage young people to participate in their civic affairs and government.
Alexa Anderson
My name is Alexa Anderson. I’ve lived in Concord nearly my entire life; I am a product of Concord’s public K-12 schools; and I am forever grateful for the education I received here. In 2018, I participated in Superintendent Hunter’s long range planning committee, which cemented my interest in running for School Committee. The committee defined thoughtful short and long term district goals from diverse stake-holders in the community, and I’m enthusiastic about supporting their implementation. Since returning to Concord with my husband almost twenty years ago, I have worked with the Concord Museum, the Concord Library, the Concord Ed Fund, Milldam Nursery School, both the Thoreau and Willard PTGs, and on Thoreau’s School Advisory Council. I now own a small business in town called MyBridge, which matches local Concord families with local babysitters. My commitment to and love for Concord is deeply a part of me. As a member of the School Committee I promise to work to ensure that our schools continue their legacy of educational leadership.
