My work has been recognized across academia, labour, health care, law, public service, libraries, philanthropy, education, and community organizing.
These letters – from Kathleen Cherrington, Dr. Andrea Zeffiro, Tim McClemont of the Positive Health Network, Anthony Marco of the Hamilton & District Labour Council, Anna Patterson of the Hamilton Public Library, criminal defence lawyer Naomi Sayers, C.A. Klassen of the Hamilton Community Foundation, retired educator Pat Dickinson, former elected representatives Matthew Green and Monique Taylor, and elected representatives Sandy Shaw, Nrinder Nann, and Cameron Kroetsch – document my consistent record of leadership, integrity, research, advocacy, and service. I also received the Hamilton Police Service Challenge Coin from Chief Frank Bergen.
For more than a decade, I have worked with communities too often excluded from public decision-making. As Founder and Executive Director of SWAP – Sex Workers’ Action Program Hamilton, I have built partnerships, delivered harm-reduction and community supports, provided professional training, contributed to public policy and research, and advocated for safer housing, health care, working conditions, and human rights.
My experience also includes constitutional and legal advocacy, academic publishing and presentations, municipal consultation, media commentary, archival preservation, arts organizing, and creating the Jelena Vermilion Fonds at Hamilton Public Library. I have received the YWCA Hamilton Women of Distinction Award and the International José Julio Sarria Civil Rights Award.
I am running for Mayor of the City of Hamilton because our city needs leadership grounded in lived experience, evidence, courage, and accountability.
These letters support my honorary-degree nomination and earlier community work. I share them as a public record of the experience and relationships I bring to this campaign – not as endorsements of my candidacy.
I have spent years building from the grassroots up. Now I am ready to bring that same determination, creativity, and community-centred leadership to City Hall.