Campaign 2017

Chris Spaulding is currently serving as a member of the Board of Selectmen. He has volunteered in Weston for the past 7 years; two as a Selectman and as a member of the Conservation Commission, and the Commission for Children & Youth. Chris has a long-term vision to protect Weston’s unique character, improve the quality of life for all residents, and maintain high performing schools in the face of changing national demographics. As a Selectman, he has been proactive in planning for Weston’s future by managing taxes, growing social services, building community, and protecting the environment. Chris drove the initiative to reform the Sustainability Committee in town. He has worked to deliver responsible budgets to keep taxes low while supporting an outstanding school district and maintaining town services for all residents. He has worked to build relationships and consensus among town departments and stakeholders to make decisions which best serve Weston. Chris and his wife Sara have lived and worked in Weston for 13 years. They are very active in the community and have two children who attend Weston Public Schools. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a BA from Tufts University. He is a marketing strategy consultant and an Executive/Leadership Coach.

“As a parent of two young children, I am looking at Weston’s long-term sustainability, in terms of managing taxes, growing social services, building community, protecting the environment, and supporting our outstanding school district.”

Sara Spaulding has been a member of the Weston Board of Education since the spring of 2013. She chairs the Communications Committee, serves on the Curriculum and Facilities Committees and sits as the BoE representative on the board of the Weston Education Foundation. She has served on the Negotiations, Policy and Wellness Committees and also as the liaison for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. Sara has served as Hurlbutt PTO President and on the Board at Norfield Children’s Center. She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, an M.A. in counseling psychology from Boston College and a B.A. from Bucknell University. Sara practiced corporate and securities law at Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar in Boston. While in law school, Sara spent a summer as a legal intern for the Federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Prior to practicing law, Sara was an outreach mental health clinician for the Center For Family Development at the Beverly Hospital where she provided family and individual therapy to children and consulted with school systems. Sara has lived in Weston for 13 years with her two children and husband.

Gina Albert has been a member of the Weston Board of Education since the Fall of 2016. She serves on the Policy and Communications Committees and sits as the BoE representative on the Wellness Committee. Prior to joining the Board of Education, she was very active with school and community organizations. Gina served as President of the Weston Intermediate School PTO and Treasurer of the Weston Intermediate School PTO, Hurlbutt PTO, Weston Little League and Weston Lacrosse Club. Gina also was a founding board member of the Weston Park Project, a not-for-profit organization that raised funds for the renovation of the playground, picnic area and fitness trail at Bisceglie Scribner Park. Gina holds degrees in accounting and finance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She was a Certified Public Accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and held a senior finance/accounting position with a large multinational corporation. Gina moved to Weston 16 years ago with her husband, Eric. Together they have three children: Andrew and Sarah, who are freshmen at Weston High School, and Eli, a 4th grader at Weston Intermediate School.

Samantha Nestor leads Chrysanthemum Partners, a strategic communications consulting business she founded in 2010. She is an entrepreneur and a strategic consultant for domestic and international, and established and emerging brands. Her background — more than two decades of experience in real estate, arts, media, and not-for profit work — has honed her skills in building common ground, negotiating, advising, writing, and adhering to strict fiduciary responsibility. Degrees in Art History and Communications from Cornell University led to positions at the New York Public Library, The Frick Collection, the New York Design Center, and Metropolitan Home Magazine. While at Met Home Samantha also authored two books published by Random House. In addition to work in the cultural arts sector Samantha also gives back as a founding Board Member of a non-partisan, not for profit organization that seeks to educate the public on the economics of social issues. She hopes to bring her strategic and financial management skills to benefit the town to ensure Weston makes appropriate investments in our local education system. She and her husband, Michael, have two young boys (ages 5,10) in the Weston school system.

Anthony (Tony) Pesco has lived in Weston for 24 years with his wife and two children. Tony received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and was a research scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories before embarking on a twenty-five year career in finance. Tony recently retired from Credit Suisse where over the last 18 years he created and lead several significant businesses for the bank. Tony has also been active at his alma mater where he served on the Board of Visitors for the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is working with Barnard College to help create better relationships with financial institutions with the goal of increasing the number of women professionals in finance. In his retirement, Tony wants to give back to the community that has given so much to his family over the years and can’t think of a better way to combine his financial and academic background than to serve the community as a member of the Board of Education.