About John Bartlett
John with wife, Khyati, and son. |
Thank you for coming by to spend time at our web site, reading about my campaign and ideas for how to make Wayne the best it can be. I don't just want you to know what I stand for, I want you to know who I am.
I'm the son of a country doctor who grew up in Montclair. He's the kind of pediatrician we all wish for our kids. Like me, he's also an Eagle Scout. I learned about commitment and being the best you can be from him. As a kid, I remember riding with dad when he went on house calls. He had one of those classic old black doctor's bags, and he kept it in the back of his pickup next to a chainsaw, in case a downed tree ever stood between him and a patient. That's commitment.
My mother, of blessed memory, was a Jill-of-all-trades – realtor, seamstress, teacher, linguist. She was a woman of extraordinary creativity and compassion. She ran a cottage business sewing appliqué clothing when I was a child, a long way from the University of Maryland where she had once taught French and Russian. In my adolescence, as the Soviet Union was opening up to the west, she taught Russian to American high school students bound for study abroad, and taught English to Russian hockey players bound for the AHL.
I earned a degree in International Relations at Brown University, where I served on the editorial board of the Brown Daily Herald – Rhode Island's second largest morning daily newspaper. I spent a year of graduate study in Jerusalem as a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at the Hebrew University. Later, I went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 2001.
Between my year abroad and law school, I spent two years in Washington, D.C., working with police chiefs, prosecutors and crime victims to promote strategies that make communities safer by focusing on children and teens. Since finishing law school, I have practiced law at Lowenstein Sandler PC in Roseland, combining a corporate litigation practice with rewarding pro bono work on behalf of non-profit and volunteer organizations. I spent a year at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, using litigation and legislation to help regular folks deal with their most basic challenges, from driver's license suspension to mortgage debt to the need for more and better economic opportunity.
My extraordinary wife, Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi, recently earned tenure and is an Associate Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her first book, New Roots In America's Sacred Ground, is making a real difference building religious tolerance and understanding in schools and communities nationwide. Earlier in her career she taught at Columbia University in New York City and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our four-year-old son attends Apple Montessori School on Nevins Road and will start kindergarten at Lafayette in 2009.
I entered this race as the heir to my parents' lessons of service and my own commitment to being an active member of my community – listening to my neighbors and constituents, keeping government focused on real people's real priorities, and lending my knowledge and skills to making a great town even better.
Throughout this campaign, I'll be knocking on doors and calling folks up to introduce myself and ask what I can do for you. Please, NEVER hesitate to give me a call, send me an e-mail, or stop me around town with a kind word, criticism or question.
Thank you.