City Council Candidate Profile: Alex French

Editor’s Note: The Oxford Free Press is publishing one City Council Candidate Profile per week until polls open. All candidates were contacted for an interview and asked similar questions. Each profile highlights experience, policy and goals for the Oxford community.

Oxford City Councilor Alex French grew up in Richfield, Ohio, a small town nestled between Akron and Cleveland, and found herself studying psychology at Miami University. Now, after 20 years in Oxford, she lives down the block from her college dorm.

After experiencing corporate psychology work, she decided to go back to school and study political psychology at SUNY Stonybrook on Long Island. After achieving her master’s degree, she came back to Oxford to work for Miami’s then-Center for School Mental Health Program.

During the day, she focused on student-age mental health intervention work with districts, counties and state-level grants. 

Afterhours, however, French worked as a bartender at Quarter Barrel Brewery, which no longer exists in Oxford. 

While balancing these two jobs, French began working with Sandy Hook Promise, a youth violence prevention organization that was founded by several family members who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook shooting. 

French soon became a national trainer for the organization, traveling around the country teaching students about violence and inclusion in and out of school. 

Since January, French has been the associate vice president of research and evaluation at Sandy Hook Promise.

“I help our organization conduct research on our programs,” she said. “My job is to be able to demonstrate to people that our programs work the best for the most people.”

French adds that her work with Sandy Hook Promise has been extremely meaningful, making sure that kids and adults know how to deal with warning signs and how to approach individuals  in a safe and trusting way.

“It’s nice to be in a large-scale mission-driven nonprofit,” she said. “Everyone’s really aligned with the work.”

Even after all of her experience and travels across Ohio and the country, French found herself drawn back to Oxford.

“It was really amazing how quickly I was able to form a community there after I graduated – I think that is what really brought me back,” she said. “It just felt like home.”

French first became involved in the Oxford City Council during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she became a frequent viewer of the meeting livestreams. 

After watching one specific meeting that included the university and Oxford City Council members, French found that some approaches to bring students back to campus after the pandemic by Miami were unfair to off-campus students.

“It felt like Miami was not doing its due-diligence to handle off-campus students,” she said. “It felt like Miami was really taking a step back with this.”

On the other hand, the meeting presented multiple voices that expressed pessimistic concern and assumed the worst of returning students. 

French believes that there needed to be just as many protocols when handling off-campus students as there were with on-campus students.

French believes that her experience as an Oxfordian and a former student and educator at Miami, has and will continue to be a balanced voice on the council. 

“I’ve been a student, I’ve been a resident, I’ve been a bartender,” she said. “I’ve kind of seen it all (and) been all of the different things you can be in Oxford for the most part.”

French believes that there isn’t a perfect fix for student housing on campus, but increasing density in and near mile square could be a great option. She believes that seeing more family-owned houses in this area would be great as well.

“My secondary goal is for the housing that the students are renting,” she said. “I would like to at least see the students and community come together around protecting those homes and making sure that they stay as intact as possible.”

French, also a staff representative for Oxford’s Historic and Architectural Preservation Commission (HAPC), believes that preserving Oxford’s old houses and historical buildings is important.

“It would be great to help engage the students in remembering and protecting that history,” she said. “Ideally (it) will pull some of the student rentals out of those single-family houses.”

French also believes that maintaining the quality and habitability of these houses is important.

French added that soon-to-be graduates and new professionals have little options for housing in Oxford. 

“One of the big things that I’d really like for us to do is prioritize economic development and long-term sustainability of our population,” said French. “And increasing access for early career, entry-level, postgraduate folks is one way to do that.”

French aims to start a half marathon for Oxford before the end of her next term, if she is re-elected. She believes that creating these sorts of avenues for residents to have a fun time and enjoy the city will draw more people in.

“The more enjoyable we can make Oxford to live, the more people will want to live here,” she said.