Candidate for
State Representative; Pennsylvania State House of Representatives; District 132; Democratic Party

Before I'm anything else, I'm a husband and a father, and it is because of those things that I consider myself one of the luckiest men on Earth. In 2007, I met my wonderful wife Brenna. Bren teaches English at Dieruff High School on the city's East Side. We married in 2009 and quickly started our family. Our son Auron was born in April 2011, and our daughter Ayla was born in November 2012, just 13 days after I was first elected to the House of Representatives. They motivate me to do a better job; after all, I'm not only fighting for my community, I'm fighting for my family.

In 2012, my friend and mentor, Representative Jennifer Mann, announced that she would not seek reelection. Jenn and others encouraged me to run for Representative; I ran and was elected, taking office in January 2013. My biggest priority as a State Representative is to increase funding for education, particularly to the Allentown School District. My biggest accomplishment as a Representative is working with Senator Pat Browne to get an addition $9.6 million for ASD in 2013. This is something I will continue to work for in 2014.

I serve as a member of the Transportation, Health and State Government committees. As a member of the Transportation Committee, I was deeply involved in the passage of the recently passed $2.4 billion transportation package. Over the next five years, that package will generate thousands of jobs and over $200 million in transportation funding for the 132nd district.

My Representative office is at 2030 W. Tilghman Street, and we've worked very aggressively to reach into the community to assist the people in my district. I'm also proud of the work we've done in the area of Social Media and community outreach: we've lead the way in terms of using Social Media to better connect with our constituents, and last year, in an effort to better connect with the residents of the 132nd District, I became the first member of the House to hold a Social Media Town Hall.

I'm also very active within the Allentown and Lehigh Valley community. I serve on many boards, including the Allentown School District Foundation, the Allentown Jewish Community Center (JCC), Temple Keneseth-Israel, the Muhlenberg College & Cedar Crest College Board of Associates, the nominating committee of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Hamilton District Main Street Program.

In 2009, I was elected as the youngest member of Allentown City Council. During my two and a half years on Council, I was Chair of our Public Works and Finance Committees. I was also elected by my colleagues to serve as Council Vice President. While on Council, I worked on a variety of issues, including writing the law that banned the use of hand-held devices while driving, increased spending on our water and sewer infrastructure, increased penalties for noise ordinance violators and enhanced protections for the city's Risk Management fund.

In 2007, I was hired by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce as an Urban Revitalization Specialist, where I worked as a Main Street Manager in four small Valley communities. That experience exposed me to the various problems faced by urban communities. It also gave me an outstanding education about the needs of the business community, particularly small businesses. By the time I left the Chamber in 2012, I was the organization's Vice President of Member Relations and Applied Technology. In that capacity, I ran the Chamber's sales and Social Media efforts.

My dirty secret is that I was actually born and raised in New Jersey. I'm the son of Burt Schlossberg, who owned an office supply business and is a die-hard Yankees fan. One of my greatest memories with him is seeing David Wells' 1996 perfect game. My Mom, Rose, is an English teacher. She currently teaches High School in Hillside, New Jersey. I came to Allentown in 2001 as a freshman at Muhlenberg. My senior year, I interned for Representative Mann. It was during this time that I first got to know Allentown, and it was during this time that I fell in love with my adopted home. I graduated Muhlenberg magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology. I then went to graduate school at Lehigh, where I earned a Masters in Political Science while working for my friend, Representative Mann.