Three candidates are running for two Maplewood Township Committee seats in 2024: incumbents Nancy Adams and Jamaine Cripe, and Malia Herman. The primary election is on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. The general election takes place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Read all of our Election Coverage here.
Jamaine Cripe is in her first term on the Maplewood Township Committee and serves as Deputy Mayor in 2024. She is running for another term on the Township Committee as part of a team with Mayor Nancy Adams, with whom she ran successfully in 2021. They share the same outlook on key priorities for Maplewood, including:
- environmental sustainability
- sound fiscal practices
- inclusion and support for residents and families, and
- keeping seniors in their home
Jamaine is a 21-year resident of Maplewood and has a long history of community service, including on the Seth Boyden PTA (2010-13), as a Maplewood Middle School class parent, on the Columbia High School (CHS) HSA’s Cougar Cares Committee (2019-23) which provides regular support to our families struggling with food insecurity and lack of other essentials, as Assistant coach for the CHS Cougar Football Cheerleading team (2019-21), and on the Springfield Avenue Public Arts Initiative, raising money for art on the avenue.
Professionally, Jamaine serves on the Lifespan Ministry Team at the historic Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Summit, a progressive award-winning church that is LGBTQ+ affirming and welcomes people of all ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds. She is a Credentialed-Level religious educator with the Unitarian Universalist Association, holds NJ certificates in Elementary Education and Business Education from the NJ Department of Education, and is a certified “Trainer of Trainers” in all levels of Our Whole Lives sexuality education. Jamaine also serves as the Vice President of the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) and recently spearheaded the formation the IBPOC Chapter of the association.
Jamaine is married with one child and lives in the Seth Boyden (Lightning Brook) neighborhood of Maplewood, a community she is passionate about serving. She is credited by many of her neighbors with being their voice on the Township Committee. She is the only member of the Township Committee ever elected from this neighborhood.
On the Township Committee, Jamaine serves as Chair of the Public Safety and Health & Community Services committees, as well as on the Board of School Estimate. She is liaison to YouthNet, the Senior Advisory, the Recreation Advisory, and several other committees.
In her first term, Jamaine has championed the creation of the All-Access Advisory Committee, on which she serves. The All-Access Advisory Committee seeks to ensure that the township is sensitive to the needs of its many diverse communities. Together with community advocates, Jamaine has pushed for the construction of an inclusive playground, expected to become a reality in 2025 at Maplecrest Park. The playground is modeled after a larger one in Bloomfield and is designed to ensure that our neurodiverse and differently-abled kids have a safe and welcoming place to play. The township just received a Jake’s Law grant of $750,000 from the State of New Jersey in support of the effort.
Deputy Mayor Cripe has been a passionate advocate of more access to the Maplewood pool, including opening it to all residents on heat advisory days, providing more affordable memberships for those in need and ensuring there are free swim lessons for kids whose parents cannot afford them.
In her second term, Jamaine intends to continue the work of the All-Access Committee, seeking to ensure that all township buildings and events are ADA-compliant. She also intends to see that Maplewood is able to translate its key documents into the primary languages of its many immigrant communities.
Together with Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Cripe intends to push forward with their environmental sustainability initiatives, most importantly their effort to demonstrate that Maplewood’s grass fields can be more fully playable, with the right design and informed grass maintenance practices.
You can read more about Jamaine Cripe and her campaign at https://AdamsCripeForMaplewood.com.
