Leigh Hudson, Portsmouth School Board Candidate

Leigh Hudson

Age (as of Election Day)

54

Position sought (including district number if applicable)

School board, District ID 449, SAU 52

Party Affiliation

Independent (but more often than not lately vote Democrat)

Family

Jennifer Friel (spouse), 49 - daughter of Gerry Friel (deceased) former 20-year basketball coach at UNH, noted for his commitment to his players education.

Hunter Hudson (son), 4 - our son since his second day of life and adopted 11/18/2020. Hunter has disabilities related to MECP2 duplication syndrome (a rare neurogenetic disorder).

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

None

Education

2018 University of Illinois, MBA (international/global business)
2004 University of Wisconsin, BS Mechanical Engineering
1997 Bentley University, BS Accountancy

* date graduated listed only

Occupation

Business Development Executive, 5 years (17 year in various roles at Siemens)

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website

https://www.facebook.com/leigh4portsmouthschoolboard

Why are you seeking elective office?

I want to improve the inclusion and access for all student demographics. There is a greater than 16% student demographic with disabilities and an increasingly larger portion of the budget expended each year on out-of-district tuition for that segment. We can choose to better serve students with disabilities within our own district and in doing so better our community in multiple ways - lower family burden, increasing rate of higher education, higher employment rates, and lower poverty rates are a few examples.

When we are not purposefully inclusive, we are unintentionally exclusive.

The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue is equitably balancing resources available to achieve positive community results. With a focus on students with disabilities, my initial action is to raise awareness with the school board about the perceived inequity in budgeting and expenditure and by suggesting the school district to engage families, students with disabilities and the greater community to understand the impact on community and its strategic goals.

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

1. My passion for a well-rounded public education and system that serves the entire student demographic.
2. A student that is currently in the schools within the district and has his entire education ahead of him.
3. Experience in listening, negotiating and compromising between internal and external parties to achieve success for all.
4. My vision to understanding that the investment a community makes in its public schools pays dividends longer term to the community as a whole.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

The school board has worked at addressing diversity and inclusion as exemplified by its recently revised policy on gender identity and expression. The boards pillars speak about equity, and I would like to extend those goals to achieving that for the underserved demographic 16+% of students with disabilities and ensuring that we don't continue to the trend of expending over 3.5M or 43% of special education instruction budget on out-of-district tuition.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

My platform is about diversity, inclusion, accessibility and openness. We need to be open to hearing others experiences and views. However, we need to be cautious to not let our desire to "protect" one manner of living, result in book banning that shields our children from differences in thought, lifestyle, religion, skin color or unsavory history. By restricting curriculums we would defeat our own developing "portrait of a graduate" as having a "deep appreciation for other cultures" and becoming "contributors in the global landscape."

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

I am an executive responsible for a 100M+ revenue business for the 5th largest conglomerate in the world with no direct reports. To be successful, I need to listen, negotiate and compromise internally to convince others of a path to our company's goals and how to execute for achievement. Externally I need to listen and understand what our customers business objectives are, build a trusting relationship, and deliver solutions that eliminate the barriers to achieving those objectives.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Emotional intelligence is as important as intellectual intelligence and sometimes more so.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

My experience spans accounting\finance, engineering and business. My background in diversity, inclusion and accessibility and societal challenges to that started a home with a sister who had spina-bifida. My cultural diversity is resultant of years of business abroad including 5 dedicated years in countries including China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.