Corolina Zumarán-Jones, Candidate for FHV Council

Our Elizabeth neighbor Carolina Zumarán-Jones is running for the Friendship Heights Village Council. She subscribes to the suggestions made in the open letter by concerned citizens.

Karren Alenier, #301

The Friendship Heights community needs your vote for the Friendship Heights Council election on May 8.  We must hear from you at the ballot box so you can have a say in what happens in the community where we and our families live.

My name is Carolina Zumarán-Jones and I’m running for a seat on the Friendship Heights Village Council.  My husband Jim and I have lived at The Elizabeth for 18 years.  I have lived in the Chevy Chase area on and off for over 52 years. I graduated from Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School and Georgetown University.   

I am running for a Council seat because I care about my community.  I’ve seen this area grow, change, and adapt over many years.   For the past year, through community work, I’ve had ample opportunity to meet new and long-established residents of Friendship Heights Village.  I’ve listened to their hopes, their expectations, and their needs.  I am now more than ever convinced that it is imperative for us to strengthen our sense of community so that we can face the challenges and seize the opportunities that loom before us.  But for this to happen, we must bolster the ties that bind us, not through focusing only on any single issue, but rather on the complex array of issues that confront us.  

FH Village Council members have begun to reach out.  Yet, more is required of us.  To consider the important issues affecting us, we must open spaces for participation and dialogue through effective committee work.  Our community is blessed with invaluable human capital, but we must use its skills wisely.  We must determine, for example, whether current educational and recreational programs remain relevant, and how many people participate in them.  Again, our community has changed over the years, with the result that we must know who we are if we are to enjoy success in programming FH Village Center activities.   And our Village must be proactive in working with community organizations, with Montgomery County, and with other groups so that we can identify common causes and can strengthen our position and competitiveness. 

Last but clearly not least, we must encourage participation of Center staff—the Village’s institutional memory, and a talented, creative, and dedicated group—in meetings with community groups.  Great ideas will surely come forth.   

My professional career includes over 30 years of managing complex projects in multi-cultural settings in the U.S. and abroad. I have worked in non-profit, in corporate, and in public sectors.  I have had to navigate their institutional cultures.  For the past decade, I have managed corporate sponsorship for the American Association of Community Colleges, where I successfully established partnerships and secured non-restrictive funding for the organization.   I Speak English and French, and am a native Spanish speaker.