Montclair Councilwoman Joins Murphy’s Transition Team

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Montclair Councilwoman Renee Baskerville has been named to serve on Governor-Elect Phil Murphy’s transition team as part of the Healthcare Committee. During the course of the next two months, Baskerville will help to make recommendations on healthcare policy issues and initiatives as the new administration prepares to take over office as Governor Chris Christie makes his exit, Montclair town officials stated Monday.

“I am privileged and humbled to have been asked by Governor-Elect Murphy to serve on the Health Committee of his transition team,” Baskerville said. “I am honored to join such an august body of colleagues.”

• See related article: 10 Heartbreaking Reasons Why New Jersey Needs Better Healthcare

Baskerville said that she has three decades of service as a “physician, healer, education and wellness advocate and policy shaper at the local, state and federal levels,” and that she’s eager to help shape public policy from the vantage point of a “community activist, school board member, city councilor, state health and wellness policy advocate, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust for two decades.”

Some of Baskerville’s goals include “building on the good things going on in our state” such as:

• School boards increasingly moving toward integrating school-based health care and wellness centers
• Rethinking the quality of the food in cafeterias and vending machines
• Examining the amount of exercise students are getting

“I want to ensure that in the state of New Jersey every child has what the Children’s Defense Fund has defined as, ‘a healthy start, head start, a fair start, a safe start, and a moral start in life,’” Baskerville said.

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Photo: Montclair Township