Letter: A Vote for Ellisha Walker is Vote for Progress

Last year, 64% of Amherst voters entrusted Ellisha Walker to represent their needs on the Amherst Town Council and for great reasons. In 2020 Ellisha Co-chaired the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG) with me. We, the CSWG, provided the Town of Amherst with a roadmap of recommendations (see also here) to make our community more safe, more equitable, and a place where all can thrive in response to the murder of George Floyd. Our reports were a plea for safety service reform in our own community. 

Working alongside Ellisha gave me so much insight into who she is, not just as a resident or advocate but also as a community leader. Ellisha is a woman of integrity, one whose actions and words are in consistent alignment. As Co-chair I saw her create safe spaces to deeply listen to others, build new relationships with stakeholders to think collaboratively, and be innovative in group thinking to brainstorm creative solutions to the challenges that we faced. 

Although the CSWG was disbanded in 2021, I spent additional time working with Ellisha as a member of the implementation team for the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS) where she prioritized engaging the public in the process of implementing CRESS. Behind every public implementation team meeting was an audience Ellisha had encouraged to join, speaking notes she had tailored to provide transparency to the public, and space she created at the end of each presentation to provide members of the public with the chance to express questions, comments, and concerns to leadership molding CRESS. 

This past term Ellisha has used her seat on the council to support CRESS, to work towards making the Amherst Police Department anti-racist, to increase affordable housing, and most importantly to engage with the community and remove financial barriers to being on the council. Ellisha’s deep commitment to community engagement is not only prominent in the motions she has supported in the past but in her active participation in initiatives happening throughout town. When I log onto a Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) meeting I can count on hearing Ellisha public comment and her deep gratitude for the committees work. When the office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is having an event I can count on Ellisha forwarding it to me, friends, and neighbors; and when I log onto council meetings, I can count on her to bring community issues to the forefront.

Ellisha is a valued member of this community- an Amherst Public School and Umass Amherst alumnus, a longstanding resident and mother of three, and a champion of racial equity initiatives in her role as a councilor but also in her occupation. With that, I am encouraging residents in Amherst to vote for Ellisha Walker for Councilor at Large. A vote for Ellisha is a vote for progress, a vote for deep listening, a vote for collaborative and creative solutions, a vote for a consistent commitment  and a vote you will not regret.  

Brianna Owen (she/her) 

Brianna Owen is former Co-Chair of Amherst’s Community Safety Working Group