Honorable Renee Baskerville, M.D announces run for Montclair Mayor 2020 – TAPinto.net

MONTCLAIR, NJ – Fourth Ward Councilor Renee Baskerville has announced her intent to run for Mayor of Montclair.

By profession, Baskerville is a pediatric and school physician. According to her bio, she is a fourth generation Montclair resident and has served the residents of Montclair for more than three decades. A former Montclair School Board member, Baskerville has been Fourth Ward Councilor for the past four years.

On running, Baskerville said, “As a lifelong, active and involved resident, I have a deep love for our Montclair. This a community that I have helped to prosper, and want to lead in prospering even more and for every resident, in every Ward, in both zip codes. I want to offer you, my neighbors and friends, new hopes, new possibilities, and better results. I want to build on the strides Mayor Jackson has led us in achieving in fiscal responsibility, and in a number of initiatives that have made us a more vibrant Montclair.”

Also according to her bio, Baskerville is a graduate of the Montclair Public Schools. She is a member of St. Paul’s Baptist Church and former councilor of Montclair Grass Roots. She received her BS from Oberlin College and her Medical Degree from the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry.

Community Involvement:
Montclair School Board vice president
Montclair Planning Board
Montclair Board of School Estimate
Montclair Housing Commission
Montclair Civil Rights Commission
Montclair Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee

According to her bio, Baskerville immediately began teaching in the Montclair Public Schools following her graduation from Oberlin College. She taught a group of students who were in the Interim II Program – a program populated by students on whom many given up and marginalized, believing that their behavior precluded them from attending regular classes and thriving in the “main stream.”

Dr. Baskerville’s service as a health provider and healer began as a Pediatric Resident at UMDNJ- United Presbyterian Children’s Hospital. She expanded her service to the East Orange area in 1993 when the company for which she was working, Newark Community Health Centers, opened a satellite to serve the Oranges. Following her tenure in the East Orange satellite office, she served as Director of Pediatrics at the Newark Multi- Medical Plaza Comprehensive Care health facility, the Newark Mini-Surgi Site, and later as a private practitioner.

She established a community-based center for “at risk” teens in Newark and participated in the development and health care provision for several school-based health facilities to expand access to quality, affordable health care. She served as the pediatrician for the Leaguers Head Start facility and on the Board of Directors as the Health Advisor for the Newark Head Start. She also served on the board of directors of the Montclair and Orange Head Start programs, and the Newark Babyland Nurseries, and as the school physician for East Orange Campus High. She is currently employed by the East Orange Public Schools Early Childhood Division.

Here’s her full announcement below:

As the Township of Montclair, the State of New Jersey, and Americans across the Nation celebrate the 150 ^th anniversary of the 15 ^th Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing black men the right to vote, the 100 ^th anniversary of the 19 ^th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote, and the 55 ^th anniversary of passage of the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination in voter participation, three seminal actions reflecting the power and the promise of “We the People;” reflecting our slow and ebbing progress toward Democracy, I present myself to my fellow residents as a candidate for Mayor of Montclair, my hometown, that of my father and my grandfather.

I come urging all Montclairites who believe in “We the People,” the power and potency of Democracy, the Beloved Community of humankind, and the possibility of one Montclair Rising together, to join me in moving Montclair to its next level of greatness and in making history in the process by electing Montclair’s first female mayor of color. I write respectfully requesting the vote of all Montclair eligible voters for Renee E. Baskerville, M.D. for Mayor and the #MontclairRising slate.

Our community has a rich history and a bright future. Believing, as I do, in the power of faith combined with affirmative actions; and the potency of ordinary people coming together across racial, ethnic religious, geographic, economic, wealth, political, and other lines that divide, working collaboratively, and fighting, for our shared ideals to make change happen, I thoughtfully, humbly and resolutely seek to become Mayor of Montclair.

Building on the rich tradition of service of my grandparents and parents in the Township of Montclair, I have been serving in my hometown all of my adult life, providing potent voice for residents in every Ward, bringing people together within and across Wards, building bridges and moving Montclair forward as One Township, indivisible. After serving for three years on the School Board, I was privileged to be elected to the Town Council while I continued providing medical and wellbeing services to children and families in Essex County.

As Montclair’s Fourth Ward Town Councilor I focused with myopic precision and determination on the issues identified by my constituents as their priorities, in our monthly ComeUnity meetings, and the impact of those priorities on every Montclairite and visitor to our Township. I served and actively engaged as a member of every committee and commission, garnering affirmative results. As Mayor of Montclair, I will continue my life’s work of bringing people together and working toward a thriving, sustainable, resilient, and just Township, with protected, secure, green environments, a thriving local economy, and world class services.

As a lifelong, active and involved resident, I have a deep love for our Montclair. This a community that I have helped to prosper, and want to lead in prospering even more and for every resident, in every Ward, in both zip codes. I want to offer you, my neighbors and friends, new hopes, new possibilities, and better results. I want to build on the strides Mayor Jackson has led us in achieving in fiscal responsibility, and in a number of initiatives that have made us a more vibrant Montclair.

As your Mayor, I will continue to build bridges between neighborhoods and ensure that we all and climb higher together. I will lead and together we will make Montclair a more prosperous, inclusive, just, equitable, safe and secure thriving community for all. We will become #Montclair Rising.

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