Ready to represent

A lifelong activist and volunteer

Jim and his family came to Takoma Park a decade ago after a diverse international career.

A naturalized US citizen and a lifelong activist, he knows that from little things, big things grow.

He has held leadership and senior management roles in academia, media, global democracy and governance programs, and UN peace operations.

Growing up in Australia, Jim chaired his municipal youth council as a teen. In that role, he successfully secured federal grants to establish a drop-in center for young people. He volunteered as a lifeguard and rescue boat crewman and driver on local beaches.

He went on to a diverse international career. As an early-career journalist, he covered elections and parliaments, financial crises, and democratic transitions, including those in Southeast Asia. Working for a non-profit as a country director and then as a senior advisor, he established a nationwide civic education program in a newly independent Timor-Leste, supported greater citizen participation globally, and helped conduct public opinion research in multiple countries. More recently, as a local government trainer, he worked with community representatives in Bougainville, an autonomous region in the Pacific Islands, focusing on supporting newly elected women leaders.

Since coming to Takoma Park, he has been a committed volunteer. He has participated in numerous Friends of Sligo Creek (FOSC) Sweep the Creek and Weed Warrior events and has been trained by FOSC to document wildlife in our watershed on iNaturalist. When his daughters were younger and members of Girl Scout Troop 804, he was an active parent and is still a Cookout-and-Campout Qualified Volunteer. Between 2021 and 2023, as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, he picked up the tools to work alongside other neighbors to strip and rebuild a duplex in the Long Branch-Sligo neighborhood, which is now home to two families.

He has been an active member on city committees. Since 2021, Jim has represented Ward 2 on the Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC), serving as secretary. To do this, he has a Maryland Open Meeting Act certification. He has participated in after-action reviews after major storms, inspired the "Get Ready for Winter " campaign, and raised money from a local business to pay for the EPC Magnet, which he helped design. With others, he has packed hundreds of hygiene kits (pictured), undertaken Stop the Bleed and Naloxone training, and conducted outreach at events such as the street festival.

He has represented Ward 2 on the Police Chief's Advisory Board. After participating in the Citizens' Police Academy during the pandemic, Jim joined a trio of Ward 2 residents on the Board in 2022. Since then, he has been regularly connecting residents with the police over concerns about crime in our neighborhoods.

He regularly speaks at council meetings. Since 2020, Jim has regularly commented on budgets, civic issues, cycling, emergency preparedness, housing, and policing. In 2020, he was one of the Garland Ave neighbors who spoke at the council to support the city's loan from its housing fund to underwrite Habitat for Humanity's purchase of a property on his block. In 2023 and 2024, he participated in city and county meetings to advocate for more affordable housing in Takoma Park. An advocate for preserving Takoma Park’s diversity, affordability, and unique character while embracing change and growth, Jim supported the Minor Master Plan Amendment (MMPA) because it can facilitate the expansion of affordable housing opportunities in our city.

Since 2023, Jim has been the editor of the Long Branch Sligo Community Association (LBSCA) newsletter. In this role, he is an ex officio member of the LBSCA board. This printed newsletter is distributed to almost 400 households in the neighborhood. As editor, he has commissioned and written content, managed production with the board, layout artist, and copy editors, liaised with advertisers, compiled the annual teen worker list, and managed a distribution team of more than a dozen neighbors who hand-deliver the newsletter each season.

Aside from his work as a consultant political economist and editor, Jim enjoys getting outside. He is a keen cyclist and hiker on the region's trails, swims at the YMCA in Silver Spring, walks daily on the Sligo Creek Trail, helps his wife tend their garden, and likes to document our region’s wildlife on Instagram.