I never set out to work in politics. I was a youth worker in Boston, focused on supporting kids in my community, and politics felt like someone else's world. That changed when my former boss, Alan Khazei, decided to run for office and asked me to join his campaign. The experience was eye-opening — and unsettling. For the first time, I saw how opaque and counterintuitive our political system really is. I kept coming back to one question: who recruits people to run for office, and why aren't we recruiting real servant leaders?

That question became an obsession I couldn't shake. New Politics was founded on a simple belief: leadership matters in politics, and servant leadership matters most — leaders who put country and community before themselves. We need more of those people in office.

I'm a reluctant founder. I never wanted to start an organization. But I couldn't let the idea go. Twelve years later, I’m still here as founder and CEO of New Politics. It started with a question I couldn't answer — and the conviction that someone had to try.