My Leadership
At every turn, I pursue leadership opportunities — maybe I was just born this way. Whether in the Town of Stonington, the University of Connecticut, or beyond, I have held numerous roles that allowed me to influence policy and better my community. Below, you can read about the roles I have held and some of my key achievements.
My Leadership Philosophy:
Practical solutions to practical problems — not ideological dogmas.
Evidence-based decisions, first and foremost.
Steady progress beats not progress at all.
Common sense and common ground can always be found.
Optimistic aspirations are not barriers to progress.
Unaccountable governance is impractical.
Let your kindness do the work.
Some of My Roles:
May 2022-May 2024
Twice popularly-elected Chief Executive Officer of the Associated Student Government of Avery Point (ASG) and spokesperson of the undergraduate student body.
Supervised a volunteer staff of over thirty students, divided into three boards, two sub-boards, and three committees.
Managed and recorded the stewardship of over $100,000 in student fees.
Grew the student government's size and portfolio to include a student advocacy branch, ultimately increasing organization membership by over 300%.
Programmed over 100 unique campus events by organizing my volunteer staff, communicating with professional vendors and agents, and collaborating with the Student Activities office.
August 2023-May 2025
Twice appointed UConn Faculty Senate representative and Chief Advocacy Officer of the Associated Student Government of Avery Point (ASG).
Became the first student from a campus other than Storrs to serve on the University Senate.
Directly supervise a team of over fifteen Strategic Advisors and University Senate Committee members from various campus constituencies, collaborating monthly to produce thorough reports of campus welfare.
Serve as one of only nine undergraduate students in the University Senate alongside faculty and professional staff.
Authored, presented, passed, and enacted legislation to increase regional campus representation in the University Administration.
Served on the University Enrollment and Multi-Campus Committees.
Chairman of the Stonington Town Ethics Commission (July 2024-September 2024)
Appointed by the Board of Selectmen and subsequently elected as Chairman by commission members.
Direct thorough investigations of ethical complaints filed against elected town leaders or employees, ensuring adherence to legal standards and confidentiality.
Preside over all commission meetings, set agendas, prepare meeting materials, and facilitate discussions.
Balance public transparency with confidentiality during investigations, communicating findings and decisions to the public while upholding legal confidentiality requirements.
Vice-President of the Student Body (September 2021-May 2022)
Chaired a student-led committee to discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse cases amongst University students with UConn Leadership.
Directed an end-of-year event at the Mystic Aquarium that had a budget nearing $13,000.
Served as a speaker on advisory panels for admitted students.
Husky Ambassador (October 2021-Present)
Guide prospective students and employees on tours of the campus to exhibit the services we offer.
Help lead the organization and execution of Open House events and admitted student orientations.
As President of the Student Body, I co-organized and delivered remarks at the largest UConn student protest in history. A crowd ranging from 700-1,000 student activists gathered at the State Capitol on February 15th, 2023 to protest large cuts in state funding to the University. The protests worked, increasing state aid to the University by somewhere in the ballpark of $60 million when all was said and done. On February 20th, 2024, I returned to Hartford with a delegation of UConn students for a hearing of the Connecticut General Assembly Appropriations Committee. After negotiating with the UConn Governmental Relations team to include at least one representative from each regional campus on the panel for the hearing, my Avery Point team arrived with the largest overall collective of students. This panel, too, has been credited with the return of over $98 million in state funding.
Toward the end of my first term as President of the Student Body, I began a momentous effort to increase student representation within the administration. I collaborated with members of the Senate Executive Committee, various staff members, and student leaders from all UConn campuses to review University By-Laws. We determined existing language was undermining undergraduate student advocacy efforts stemming from regional campuses. Active policy had failed to acknowledge regional campus student government structures and describe certain procedures clearly, producing undesirable outcomes (e.g. four out of nine undergraduate seats, representing roughly 5,000 students, in the Senate remained unfilled until I began this effort). After months of negotiations, I presented my proposed policy changes to the University Senate on February 5th, 2024, where they passed with overwhelming consent. On April 10th, 2024, I presented more policy changes to the Board of Trustees Student Life Committee, ultimately leading to the changes being unanimously recommended for adoption by the full Board. A week later, on April 17th, I briefly presented the changes to the full Board of Trustees, who would later approve and adopt them on June 26th, 2024.
In my second term as President of the Student Body, I launched a Safe-Sex Product Distribution Project on campus with the goal of ensuring universal access to condoms, dental dams, lubrications, and more. Previously, students could only access these supplies by visiting the Student Health and Wellness (SHaW) office on campus, typically run by just one professional staff member. Student-staff interactions regarding such products can be intimidating, thereby limiting overall access. General awareness of the availability of these products was also abnormally low for a college campus. I developed a volunteer team of five students, who installed and maintained numerous refillable safe-sex product dispensers in gender-inclusive restrooms across three buildings. To improve awareness, we curated infographics to display on social media and around campus. In the project’s inaugural semester (Spring 2024) we delivered over 2,600 assorted safe-sex products to UConn students.
As Vice-President of the Student Body, I engaged in preliminary dialogue about food insecurity and ways to address it with administrators and student government leaders from each UConn campus. Shortly after becoming President, the Husky Harvest Food Pantry launched to combat the issue. Alongside university leadership, Connecticut Foodshare Executives, and state legislators, I championed the program at its opening ceremony and have continued to promote it to existing and incoming students ever since.
In response to the arrests of 24 students at a peaceful encampment protesting UConn’s complicity in the 2024 Israel-Hamas genocide, I co-signed a resolution to hold a special meeting of the University Senate to condemn the actions of the administration. Along with 29 other senators, most of which were concerned faculty, I delivered an address to the Senate in support of the creation of a special committee to review the procedures of police mobilization and investigate the feasibility of divestment from the military industry. I also co-signed a resolution that demanded the President of the University urge the State Attorney to drop all charges the peaceful protestors faced. By the end of the session, all resolutions had passed with an overwhelming majority.
In my experience as both an employee of Mystic Aquarium and a student leader at UConn Avery Point, I pursued numerous ventures to tie the institutions more closely together. As Vice-President of the Student Body, I used this network to plan an “End of Year Celebration at Mystic Aquarium” for the Avery Point community. We have since returned for two more years, cementing the event as an annual tradition. In its first year, the event had just short of 400 attendees. The second, third, and fourth years saw a spike in attendance, with 650, 700, and 750 respectively. My budget for the inaugural event totaled $13,000, but our institutional relationship later strengthened, lowering the cost burden by around $6,000 for successive gatherings despite increased attendance and entertainment value. I also utilized my connections to establish another annual networking event, “Penguins & Pizza,” which was co-sponsored by the UConn Center for Career Development. This event would entail a meet and greet with live African penguins right on campus to accompany a slew of career services personnel and Mystic Aquarium staff.
