Community Health Leader Seeks Livingston Commission Slot
An experienced leader in community health who says the County’s pandemic response was driven by politics rather than well-established principles of public health is running for the Livingston County Commission.
Lisa Wojciechowski of Deerfield Township says she will bring tried-and-true problem-solving skills to the County board.
“Deerfield, Tyrone, and Oceola Township pride themselves on their collective sense of community, but the current governing bodies don’t adequately represent the full makeup of the community,” she said.
That means that many voices in the community have no representation. A reasonable approach to problem-solving involves entertaining all positions across the spectrum. “This is a largely working-class community, so we need solutions that benefit working men and women, their families, and retirees. I plan to engage all interested members of the community in shared decision-making,” the candidate said.
Wojciechowski is seeking the Democratic nomination for commissioner in District 2, which includes all of Deerfield Township, all of Tyrone Township, and most of western Oceola Township.
As a commissioner, Wojciechowski said she would concentrate on services for senior citizens, addressing PFAS and related chemicals in our water, and keeping politics out of public health.
She notes that nearly half — 47 percent — of Deerfield Township’s population is made up of people who are retired or approaching retirement, including 519 households with someone 65 years old or older living alone. “As a community we need to tailor services to meet their needs, and actively recruit them to share their cumulative wisdom as we develop those services,” Wojciechowski said.
The widely used PFAS chemicals are present in our water and air, and in the fish, and animals we eat, but their effects on human health and environmental risks to our area are poorly understand. “That’s why we need to develop and deploy strategies to reduce the risks and ensure that any new industries in our area do not make our problems with PFAS even worse,” she said.
Wojciechowski said it was regrettable that the County’s COVID response was driven in such large part by political interests.
“Health and safety are not partisan issues, and responses to the continuing Covid-19 threat needs to be based on the best interests of the residents of the community,” she said.
Wojciechowski has extensive leadership experience in the health care field. She is currently a Senior Patient Safety Specialist in the Office of Patient Safety at the University of Michigan, where she also is a member of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. She has a Master of Science in Nursing and a Master of Business Administration from University of Phoenix, and successfully completed Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification course that attests to her experience applying structured problem-solving to issues of quality and execution.
She was a founding member of CHECK (Concerned for the Health and Education of Our Community’s Kids), a grassroots organization formed in response to health issues associated with a Livonia elementary school built on a toxic landfill. She also has volunteered with the Community Health Awareness Group, or C-HAG, in Detroit.
Wojciechowski has lived in the county for eight years. She has two adult children.
For more information, contact Wojciechowski at lcd2boc@yahoo.com.
