Joann Pritchett has lived in Madison for more than 50 years, and has jumped into local politics for the first time.

“I thought it was time for a change, and so I represent a change,” she said in an interview for the 365 Amplified podcast. “Turning the page and looking at everything that I have learned before, but then how you conceptualize it, and you turn it into something brand new. And this brand new thing for me is politics.”

Listen to the full interview:

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she studied nursing at Tuskegee University and had to go to New York for her clinicals because Alabama was still segregated. She went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of Illinois and PhD at UW-Madison, where she was a clinical faculty member in nursing and later assistant dean at the School of Pharmacy.

“I am an environmentalist,” Pritchett said. “It is something that I had to grow up with… my home as a child does not exist anymore because of flooding.”

She said the yearslong process to create a plan to improve and maintain the Sauk Creek Greenway, a mile-long stretch between Old Sauk Road and Tree Lane, is one of the reasons she decided to run for office, as she isn’t happy with where the plan landed. Friends of Sauk Creek, the local organization that Pritchett said did “the groundwork, the homework, the research” on the plan, has endorsed Pritchett.

She said Sauk Creek is just one example of what she sees as the city’s failure to manage water and other environmental challenges.

“If you purchase a house, you have to maintain it,” she said. “The city has to have a well-developed maintenance plan as well.”

Pritchett said she’s also aware of the need for more affordable housing, but thinks there’s been too much talk and not enough action.

“It’s one thing to say, ‘I believe and I support’” affordable housing, she said. “But I’m looking for an idea. I’m looking for a concept.”

She noted the vacant Copps building at the corner of Whitney Way and Tokay Boulevard, a plot she feels could be repurposed for housing. She’d also like to see a “rent to buy” option created for low-income families. 

She said the Common Council also needs more cooperation.

“You have to always go back and say, what is my role? And then… collaboration has to be on the table,” she said.

She also feels the council’s Executive Committee is made up of allies of Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who aren’t likely to challenge her ideas and proposals.

“When you circle yourself with a group of people who will agree with you each and every time… the other voices are not heard,” she said.

She said she’d like alders to remain more connected with their constituents.

“One thing we don’t do is listen,” she said. “The residents are the historians. They know the ebb and flow of Madison.”

Pritchett, who narrowly finished first in the February primary election, faces incumbent Nikki Conklin in the general election on Tuesday, April 1.