Hello!

It’s a fair question — most of us vote in officer races without always having a clear picture of what each role might involve. Under our Constitution and Bylaws, the Secretary/Treasurer has charge of the funds, securities, receipts, and disbursements of the Association. In plain terms: this is the officer responsible for making sure your dues are deposited properly, money goes out the door only as Council directs, the books are accurate, and the financial reports filed with the Department of Labor actually reflect reality. The Secretary/Treasurer is also charged with keeping the official minutes of National Council meetings, although the mechanics of that are typically handled by staff, which means the financial stewardship is really the heart of the role. Day-to-day accounting functions are also handled by staff, but the Secretary/Treasurer is the elected officer who signs the filings, oversees the budget, and is constitutionally accountable for the union’s financial integrity. It’s largely an oversight role — but I think oversight requires preparation, not just a title.

I’ve been a working Equity actor for over 25 years, ranging from years on tour to weeks in regional theatres to days on industrial contracts... along with those painful months (and occasionally years) where work is scarce and you might even question your life choices, future path, and options for health care. But even in those rough years, I’ve stayed engaged and active with the union. Volunteering in our business might not help make ends meet or provide health coverage, but it does provide purpose and continuity within our community. On the union governance side, I’ve found myself deeply involved in benefit-fund oversight for over a decade. After serving on Council, I was drafted as a caucus-elected trustee observer on the Equity-League Pension and Health plans, was elected as a full trustee in 2019, and was re-elected in 2025. Since 2024 I’ve served as co-chair of the plans’ Investment Committee, which oversees how our benefit funds are invested. That work has taken me well beyond our own plans. I’ve been tapped as a speaker at national multiemployer plan conferences on topics including how to interpret investment reports, navigate the fiduciary “two hat” dilemma that multi-employer trustees face, and use data to communicate effectively with plan participants. In 2022 I was selected to join the Steering Committee of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, which advocates for benefit plans like ours in the halls of Washington, DC. And this year I began serving on the Trustees Committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the premier educational organization for benefits trustees and professionals. Before all this, I was that theatre-math geek starting in elementary school. Yep, I even went to a national “MathCounts” competition in eighth grade. I’ve basically been a numbers person my whole life and broke my math teacher’s heart when I opted to follow a different career path, pursuing dual degrees in theatre and government at Cornell and then “trying out the acting thing” only to still be at it decades later. TL;DR: I’ve spent years learning the language of fiduciary responsibility on behalf of our members — actuarial valuations, funding levels, investment oversight, benefit design — in contexts where the stakes are members’ retirement and healthcare security. That’s the same language the Secretary/Treasurer needs to speak, and (unlike my questionable French and Russian) I speak it fluently.

I’m not coming to this race with a list of predetermined policy positions. I’m coming with a set of principles about how the Secretary/Treasurer should do the job: • The Secretary/Treasurer should be able to independently evaluate the union’s financial filings — not just sign what gets put on the desk. Our union files detailed financial reports with the Department of Labor every year. The officer whose name goes on those filings should understand what’s in them, be able to ask questions about what isn’t, and flag anything that needs a closer look. • Fiduciary experience matters. Overseeing a union’s finances isn’t just bookkeeping — it involves understanding pension obligations, post-retirement benefits, asset management, related-party transactions, and the kinds of questions you only learn to ask by doing the work. I’ve been doing that work for over a decade, and I want to put it to use in the role where it’s most directly relevant. • Good stewardship means asking questions, not picking fights. I’m running to make our financial governance stronger, not to tear anything down. Over the years I have worked with a broad array of members, councilors, and officers with different perspectives. Those interactions have been effective, collegial, mutually respectful, and constructive, whether or not we shared the same conclusions. I have enormous respect for anyone who has stepped up to be an officer or councilor, and it’s critical that a Secretary/Treasurer be able to work with and communicate effectively with them all.