Melrose Candidate Profile: Barbara Travers For City Council

MELROSE, MA — With the Melrose Municipal Election scheduled for Nov. 7, Patch is profiling the candidates.

Here, we learn more about Barbary Travers, who is running to represent Ward 6 on the Melrose City Council. Travers is facing Cal Finocchiaro in a race to fill the seat currently held by Jennifer Grigoraitis, who is running for mayor.

Travers is the vice president of Finance and Administration at Breaktime United, a nonprofit working to break the cycle of homelessness in young adults

Candidates were sent questionnaires and filled out the answers.

Name

Barbara R. Travers

How old will you be as of Election Day?

41

Campaign Website

https://www.barbforward6.com

What city or town do you live in?

Melrose

What office are you seeking?

City Council

District

Ward 6

Please give us your party affiliation

Democrat

Education

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Boston University and a Master's in Leadership & Organizational Behavior from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. I have a Certificate in Project Management for nontechnical managers from BU. On October 24 and 25, I’ll be attending the MA Citizens' Legislative Seminar at the State House through a nomination and support from Senator Jason Lewis' office.

What is your occupation?

I have been in the business and operations space throughout various industries for about 20 years.

Currently, I am the vice president of Finance and Administration at Breaktime United, a nonprofit working to break the cycle of homelessness in young adults between ages 18-25. We provide job training, placement and support for three years after our program to ensure success and long-term employment.

Before Breaktime, I spent five years as director of Operations at Root Cause, a nonprofit consulting firm working with funders, cities, school districts and other municipalities to create systemic changes for underrepresented and historically harmed communities.

I have also worked as a community leader at CIC in Kendall Square, working with over 40 small businesses to ensure their needs are being met and facilitating networking and problem-solving.

In my earliest career life, I was the director of the Emergency Room at Mass Vet Referral Hospital in Woburn. I managed a staff of 75 employees over a 24/7/365 schedule with a $17M budget, all before I was 30! In total, I spent about 10 years in the veterinary profession working my way up from kennel attendant to ER director while completing my Master's degree.

Family

I have 8-year-old twins, Marion & Elliot (Ellie), who both attend Winthrop Elementary in 3rd grade (where I am in my second term as PTO treasurer managing a budget of upwards of $90k a year, liaising with parents, teachers and staff to ensure needs are met throughout the school population and money is tracked carefully and diligently). My husband, David Travers, is a construction lawyer in Boston and owns his own small business. We also have a big brown dog named Pickles, a small brown dog named Dilly and a fluffy orange cat named Steven.

I am the middle sister to two amazingly strong and powerful women, both of whom are single moms. My parents passed away when I was younger, my mother from breast cancer and my father from a sudden heart attack. Their stories, struggles and triumphs motivate me every day in my life and in how I will approach decisions for our community.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Have you ever held a public office, whether appointive or elective?

I was appointed to and served for a brief time on the Building Use Committee in the town of Heath, MA.

Why are you seeking this office?

Fundamentally, I want to help my community. I did not start by seeking this office, rather, I was asked to do this job by many of our neighbors. I believe in the power of local government to impact the lives of real people. Hearing our neighbors' needs, concerns, and ideas for Melrose inspired me to run for City Council.

I'm qualified for this job. It requires an understanding of finances on a more sophisticated level than basic budgeting. It requires someone who has been in the weeds with numbers, funding, reporting and auditing in order to understand where we are and where we need to go. Our community needs city counselors who understand the fiscal crisis in our city, and have an ability to listen and connect. I have worked with budgets that do not meet the needs they are funding and found creative revenue sources to help fill those gaps.

Being a city councilor requires steadiness of its members — someone who will be able to ask questions and challenge positions without being divisive. I have learned throughout my career the value of active listening, thinking before deciding and connecting with people as people, not as adversaries. These skills allow me to hear what people are saying, and spend time learning and understanding points of view that are different from my own.

Finally, I pride myself on being a person who can zoom out to 50,000 feet to think of the big picture, and still understand nuances on the individual level. I can take the lessons I've learned throughout 20 years of experience in finance and operations, and meet this moment head-on for the people of Melrose.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing Ward 6 constituents is financial security, in order to update city infrastructure. From roads to schools to public safety buildings to updating our technology, all of our infrastructure is in need of modernization. Our city requires a creative approach to raising funds and revenue, my experience will directly impact my ability to jump in with action-oriented ideas. I want to improve Melrose's ability to attract and retain new businesses, aligning community development interests with municipal development goals. We have to be able to acknowledge that, as a community, we need better facilities and services, but that is near impossible if we keep operating with level spending year over year. I am committed to moving forward on smart decision-making around increasing revenue in order to fix the parts of our city that have long sat neglected and underfunded.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I bring over 20 years of deep work experience and true financial literacy to the table. I develop, manage and report on budgets for a living.

I am curious and listen to the diversity of our community across differences, culturally, generationally, politically and professionally. I am a facilitator with training and experience in leadership, strategic thinking and planning, organizational behavior, and change management. I have been an employee, a manager, a director, and a vice president, shaping my perspective-taking abilities.

I am steady, level-headed, and think through the possible outcomes of a situation before diving into action. I am curious and want to learn more. I have been honored to attend all the community forums I've been invited to, as I believe it's important to hear from all our citizens and be willing and accessible to hear their concerns. What distinguishes me is the combination of my professional experience matched with my commitment to showing up for our community.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

The biggest issue we are currently facing is sustainability: financial, climate resilience, and community accessibility. Melrose is an exceptionally wonderful community and each decision needs to be made with the future in mind. For example, we just replaced our driveway with ADA-compliant permeable paving and have seen a 100% reduction in flooding in our driveway, yard and basement since completing the project. This small change made a big impact on our home and is how I want to approach changes within our city as well. We need to think about sustainability, think about things like 'stormwater friendly' paving and creative ways to increase greenspace (there was a great NYT article recently about micro forests and the benefits to urban areas). Our buildings and schools should be updated not just to match the needs of today, but to anticipate and meet the challenges in the future head-on. Transportation, traffic, development — all of it needs to work for us.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I am a resilient, resourceful, and dedicated human. I have overcome challenges in both my personal and professional life and know how to move through difficult things. I also take these challenges as growth opportunities and have seen the impact of my efforts over time.

On the personal side, when my twins were born I was overwhelmed. Like most new moms, I had not expected motherhood, and those early days of "twinfants," to be so grueling. With my family far away and my husband back to work when the girls were 2 weeks old, I knew I needed community, so I, along with some very brave women, built the community we needed. This small group we started grew to a large network for female-identifying parents in the greater metro area. This group is now in its 11th iteration and serves well over 5,000 parents.

Professionally, in my first major management role in my 20s I was the leader of the Emergency Department at Mass Vet Referral Hospital. We were facing issues with growing patient counts and increasing space needs. I was able to lead and facilitate the opening of a new patient ward in the hospital, doubling capacity while right-sizing the staffing needs to each patient through extensive data collection, analysis and management.

During the pandemic I was responsible for the financial health of a small business, keeping the doors open and lights on, as well as maintaining morale for our employees. Throughout the course of 2020 and 2021 I secured over $1.2M in Paycheck Protection loans and an Emergency Disaster Loan. Utilizing these funds not only allowed us to maintain the security for all employees and the business' operating funds, but it also allowed us to hire additional employees and grow during this uncertain and difficult period.

I am proud of my ability to overcome difficulty with dedication. I build community and coalitions that help me accomplish big things and am forever grateful for the relationships and connections I have made through challenges. This coalition-building skill in the face of challenge is what I hope to bring to the City Council.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

"Drive carefully, precious cargo in that car." -Janice Botti (my mom)
"It's good to be curious about many things." -Mr. Rogers
"Remember to center the people.” - Erin Rodriguez (a mentor)

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I'm an optimist. I believe things can change for the better if we work hard enough and are willing to ask probing questions before making decisions.

I believe leadership begins with kindness and cannot think of any positive change that has ever come from divisiveness, intransigence or dismissal of other people's needs.

I am capable. I have the educational and professional background to back up my claims.

I believe every human is entitled to basic dignities like stable housing, autonomy over their own medical decisions, respect and kindness from their neighbors and strangers.

I believe in the concept of Universal Design and have studied this through the Mass Cultural Council's Grant in collaboration with the Institute for Human Centered Design.

I think the arts are crucial to our continued improvement as a society.