Candidate – Emma Tzioumis

whanley1@gmail.com

617/594-2188

I grew up in the Greater Boston area, with the exception of living in Greece, where my dad is from, from ages 4-7. I have a BS in Bioengineering from Syracuse University, a Master in Public Health from Boston University, and a PhD in Nutrition from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My husband, also from the Boston area, and I lived in North Carolina for 10 years where we grew our family to include two children and a dog. Then COVID hit, and as many folks did, we reevaluated our priorities and  decided to return home to Massachusetts to be closer to our families.

We currently live in the Southside and my kids attend the Dual Language School. You\’ll often find us riding bikes along the Riverwalk, playing soccer at one of the many playgrounds or Veterans Field, taking our dog for a walk in Beaverbrook, or hanging out on Moody St. We are CSA shareholders at the Waltham Fields Community Farm. I work for the Cambridge Health Alliance as an epidemiologist and program evaluator in the Cambridge Public Health Department.

What do you love most about Waltham?

I love how Waltham is a thriving community with a little bit of everything and a little bit of everyone. We can get fresh food at a farm and corner stores, take a hike in the woods or along a river, have a doctor\’s appointment at world class medical institutions or a small practice, and eat outside along a bustling pedestrian mall or at a mom-and-pop taqueria all without leaving our city. Our neighbors might be the 3rd generation to have lived in their house, or have moved here from halfway across the world. Waltham is a vibrant and dynamic place to call home.

What would you change if you could?

I don\’t want to change Waltham. Instead, I want to use my public health perspective to make it safer and easier for everyone to experience the amazing assets we already have in Waltham. What this looks like in practice is making our streets safe for all users by installing and improving sidewalks and street crossings city-wide, by designating safe zones around schools and playgrounds with lower speed limits and raised crosswalks, and by creating a bicycle lane network. It means fully funding our school budget to support a night high school program for non-traditional students, find a permanent home for our Dual Language School, expand access to our vocational programs, and restore trust and retain our educators and administrators. This means addressing climate resilience, especially in our environmental justice neighborhoods, by reducing the urban heat island effect and storm water run-off through increasing the urban tree canopy, and adopting the Specialized Stretch Code to improve energy efficiency of new construction and major renovations. This means tackling the housing crisis, by complying with the MBTA Communities Act to allow for greater density around public transit and protect tenant rights by passing the Tenant Right Notification Ordinance. This means reducing the rat infestation by providing trash bins to all residents, increasing Consolidated Public Works capacity for trash pick up at public spaces, facilitating collaboration between the city departments. I am committed to improving the health and well being of all residents.

What is one burning issue you plan to address if elected?

Planning, planning, planning. I sit on my department\’s Strategic Programming Committee, and appreciate both the value of planning and how hard it is to carry out a comprehensive vision without a plan. Waltham is operating without a Master Plan and many of the issues currently facing Waltham stem from a lack of systematic planning. Residents across the city attended meetings last year to share their vision for Waltham, and that rich data sits untouched. We must create a Master Plan to lay out the goals and priorities for the next decade, and then fund and staff our municipal departments to execute the plan. Waltham deserves a robust planning department with experts in housing, transportation, climate and energy, urban design, and economic development.