Letter: Qualities of Leadership
2
Votes

Letter: Qualities of Leadership

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Meet Allison: Experience, leadership, integrity, vision, fiscally responsible, thoughtful listener, inclusive.

Sound like a neighbor you’d like to have coffee with and chat? Sound like someone you’d like to hire to lead your team? How about to lead your city? Yes, and these qualities embody Allison Silberberg.

Allison Silberberg is serving Alexandria as a very capable vice mayor and has shown incredible integrity, vision, and strength day-to-day and in the face of opposition. She has over 20 years of experience in community leadership and public service. She spent nearly a decade on Alexandria’s Economic Opportunities Commission (EOC), two years as chair, advocating issues for the city, including employment, affordable housing, health care, homeless prevention, utility costs, and abusive lending practices, and created the EOC’s annual public service day, “All Hands on Deck”, a resounding success.

The vice mayor served as a corporate officer for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, bringing area leaders together to address major regional issues in Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, and suburban Maryland, including transportation, environment, housing, health and human services, homeland security and public safety, and cooperative purchasing (“more bang for the buck”).

As vice mayor, and as a resident, Allison passionately identifies historic preservation, responsible growth, and prosperity as core values to protect our neighborhoods and quality of life. Her record at City Hall shows she seeks compromise to put citizens’ issues ahead and ensure their voices are heard, a result of her open monthly coffees where citizens share their thoughts and concerns. Her voting record further shows her unswerving commitment to diversified economic sustainability and fiscal responsibility, and a steady focus on excellence in education, police and fire services, senior services, libraries, and parks.

She has impressive vision and is a lifelong advocate for social justice, receiving awards for her community work. She founded and led a nonprofit to mentor youth in Anacostia - seven of eight participants went to college. For a decade, she hosted monthly charitable events, giving all proceeds (over $1.3M) to local nonprofits focused on children at risk and families in distress. She also works to ensure that women are included in all medical research, clinical trials, and drug testing.

Allison has a B.A. from American University, an M.F.A. from UCLA, and has been an Alexandria resident since 1989.

This is Allison. Vote Nov. 3, early vote now.

Patricia Webb

Alexandria