Educator, Union Member, Advocate
Meet Heather
Although a resident of Massachusetts for almost 3 decades now, I grew up in Nebraska. My dad worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, my mom worked in retail, and most days I would come home from school and take care of myself and my little sister and several neighborhood kids until my mom got home. In high school, I struggled to find a place where I felt truly comfortable, until my dad bet me a car that I wouldn’t try out for the speech and debate team. Determined to prove him wrong, I tried out for speech and debate, even though I was absolutely terrified to talk in front of other people. He kept his part of the deal too, and I inherited the family Datsan.
This was the beginning of my lifelong dedication to learning to use my voice as an advocate for others.
When my husband and I met in 2007, Nat had owned his own business for a few years, but it was a constant struggle. Limited access to capital or cash made it difficult to make payroll and pay vendors and subcontractors. Then came the 2008 housing market crash. Closing Nat’s first business was one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make. And its impact affected us for years to come. Nat was able to keep us in our home by doing home repairs and renovations for our landlord. I continued my work as an educator in a full-time position at Emerson College teaching classes in public speaking, debate, mental health, and healthcare policy. During this time I became a leader in the fight to unionize the Term Faculty at Emerson, a battle that took 5 years, but was well worth the time and energy as we secured benefits and salary structure overhauls that were long overdue. At home we were able to get back on our feet and got married in 2013. Nat already had a beautiful young daughter named India, who continues to be one of my very favorite people on the planet. Nat started a new and very successful business, and our son Jake was born in August of 2013.
In March of 2014, after saving up and repairing our credit, which like many had taken a hit during the economic downturn, we bought our house in North Waltham. It was a tight squeeze with four people and two dogs, but we loved the neighborhood and the city and knew we could use Nat’s expertise to turn it into our dream home.
Being part of a blended family has given me a deep understanding and respect for the multitude of ways we create family in our lives. During this time I was also working as an In-Home Therapist at The Home for Little Wanderers while finishing a masters in Counseling and Family Therapy. I saw first hand the ways that we fail families of all types throughout The Commonwealth. From lack of affordable childcare, to housing support and access to education, I know we can do better to support our families and communities.
Spending time with the families I was working with taught me the importance of really listening to what people need, and trusting that when people have access to the resources they need and feel empowered to make decisions for their families and their communities, they will flourish.
During the pandemic, Waltham, like other cities, was forced to reckon with the inequities that have been allowed to take hold. Lack of access to basic needs like food, shelter, and educational resources were difficult for many of our neighbors. I was amazed, but not surprised, by the beauty and resilience of our community. During the pandemic and beyond, I have been honored to be able to work with community groups like Waltham Mutual Aid, Healthy Waltham, Watch CDC, The Community Day Center, Waltham Pride, The Waltham Fields Community Farm, and the Waltham Black Future Fund, to name a few. We have amazing organizations here in Waltham that work to ensure that all of our community members have places to turn for support whether it’s housing, food, clothing, finances – the people of Waltham know how to take care of each other. But they should not be shouldering this burden alone. The policies we implement here in Massachusetts should help organizations like these and others to flourish and thrive.
Also during the pandemic I took on dual roles as Chair of the Faculty Assembly, as well as Grievance Officer for our faculty union at Emerson College. Having a responsibility to my colleagues to ensure that their health and wellbeing were being considered by the administration during the height of the COVID pandemic was an honor. I was successful in leading the fight for free testing, strong masking guidelines, and fair accommodations for our Emerson community. Through negotiation, collaboration and persistence, we were able to craft a set of guidelines that enabled the faculty, staff, and students to feel safe and secure in a time of great change and challenge. We enabled Emerson College to thrive in a time where other institutions were struggling to keep their doors open.