Lisa Kennedy Sheldon

Lisa Kennedy Sheldon earned a bachelor's degree from Saint Anselm College, a graduate degree from Boston College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 2007. Her career experience includes working as a nurse.[1][2]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have spent life my in service to others.

I was raised in a family that believed service meant stepping up when others needed you. My father lied about his age to join the Army at 17 and fight in World War II. My mother was a maternity nurse and Red Cross volunteer.

My parents' choices helped shape my lifelong belief that public life should be about courage, responsibility, and doing your part for others.

As a nurse, educator, executive, mother of four, and grandmother, I have spent my life caring for people and strengthening the institutions that families rely on.

For decades, I have cared for people with cancer in New Hampshire, mentored future healthcare professionals, and helped organizations work better for the people and communities they serve.

I am running for Executive Council because Granite Staters deserve leadership grounded in service, independence, and common sense.

After earning PhD in nursing, I taught as tenured faculty mentoring future healthcare professionals and helped them deepen the connection between evidence, practice, and public service.. Then I became the first Chief Clinical Officer at the world's largest oncology nursing society.

Through leadership roles at the Oncology Nursing Society and board service with Saint Anselm College, Waypoint, and the National Cancer Policy Forum, I have worked with contracts, budgets, grants, appointments, and policy decisions that matter. In New Hampshire, we can care about people and the bottom line.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Affordability

Everything costs too much from housing and child care to health care, schools, and taxes. Too many families in District 3 are paying more and getting less.

After more than a decade of one-party rule in Concord, families are getting more ideology, more excuses, and too little accountability.

The Executive Council approves major contracts, confirms key appointments, and helps decide whether your tax dollars are being spent wisely. They also approve or reject federal money - sending your money back to Washington. It's time for NH not to be a donor state for the rest of the country.

This is an office with real power to ask hard questions, demand better answers, and protect New Hampshire families from bad state decisionsHealthcare - 44% 0f NH Budget

Everyone deserves access to healthcare. I will review every health-care contract, appointment, and funding decision through one basic lens: are they expanding access, protecting public health, and making it easier for patients to get the care they need?

I understand that the Executive Council's decisions shape whether health systems have the funding, leadership, and accountability to support patients, families, seniors, and people who rely on public health programs.

As a New Hampshire nurse practitioner who spent 22 years caring for patients at St. Joseph Hospital Cancer Center in Nashua, I have seen the consequences up close, and I will bring that experience — and that urgency — to the Executive Council.Education

Students get less as property taxes go up.

New Hampshire ranks last in the nation for state-level public education investment, and we fund about 75% of local public education through town property taxes.

And while our public schools struggle, our Republican lawmakers give $52M+ of our tax dollars to private and religious schools via school vouchers this year.

I will treat strong public schools as a question of what kind of future New Hampshire is building for the next generation.

As a PhD faculty member, former Saint Anselm trustee and mother of four, I know how to evaluate systems, review budgets and appointments. will bring real scrutiny to contracts, appointments, and funding decisions that affect public education and our kids.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a nurse practitioner, educator and executive, I am passionate about providing the services we need to our working families, neighbors, communities and fellow Granite Staters. I have lived in NH for over 40 years, raised four children here and served my community in the cancer clinic at St. Joseph Hospital and on numerous boards including Waypoint and Saint Anselm College. Our state is not developing policies that make life easier for families; in fact, Concord is making life more challenging and more expensive for families. We need to provide an educational system that does not bankrupt our property owners and provides the quality the next generation needs to succeed. We need a healthcare system that is accessible and affordable for all.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

AFT-NH, 314 Action, 2026 Moms Demand Action Gun Sense

Note: Kennedy Sheldon submitted the above survey responses to [the profile publisher] on August 17, 2026.

August 4 submission

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Lisa Kennedy Sheldon is a Portsmouth oncology nurse practitioner, PhD scientist, and public-policy advocate with more than four decades of healthcare experience - from bedside oncology care in New Hampshire to shaping national cancer policy at the National Academies of Sciences. A resident for 40 years, she and her husband raised four children in the Granite State. She spent her career translating complex health challenges and leading large organizations into evidence based solutions for real people. Now she's bringing that expertise home for Granite Staters' health, economic security, and educational opportunity on the Executive Council.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Lisa will address the cost-of-living crisis. She will connect these dots in every forum - education, affordable housing and childcare - and deliver evidence-based solutions not a political agenda.

The Executive Council has rejected federal money - our tax dollars - to push a political agenda. Millions of dollars have been sent back to Washington for use in another state.

Property taxes have risen because of the state's lack of funding for public education. NH ranks 50th in the country for funding public education. Tuition costs are rising in higher education at our public universities. Rising costs have directly impacted working families making living and working in New Hampshire more difficult.Lisa will use the Executive Council's contract power to support affordable housing. She'll advocate for state contracts with organizations providing affordable housing, and push for appointments to housing-related boards of people who treat housing as a social determinant of health and a family stability issue.

The Executive Council needs to analyze contracts to address the bottom line and take care of the people of New Hampshire.Lisa will support healthcare and childcare as economic infrastructure. Working families can't participate in the workforce without affordable, accessible healthcare and childcare.

As a nurse and nurse practitioner, she understands the outcomes if we don't take of our health, get cancer screening, or if need emergency services instead of routine health care because we can't afford insurance. She will support contracts and appointments that treat healthcare as a right.

Childcare as foundational to a healthy economy - not as a luxury. As a mother of four, she understands that supporting and respecting childcare workers is essential to the success and wellbeing of working families.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Healthcare, Education, Childcare and Affordable Housing

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

AFT-NH and 314Action

Campaign websiteKennedy Sheldon's campaign website stated the following:No matter how you cut it, people in New Hampshire are struggling.We’re all just trying to stay healthy, pay our bills, put food on the table, make sure our kids get off to a good start. And none of it’s easy or affordable. We deserve elected officials who care about that struggle, while also caring about our wallets.And that includes the Executive Council.New Hampshire's Executive Council is supposed to serve as a check on the governor.The five Executive Councilors oversee billions in state spending, approve key appointments (like Supreme Court Justices), and decide whether we accept — or reject — millions in federal funds.It’s the most important elected office you’ve never heard of.But too many decisions have been rubber-stamped or driven by national politics instead of what’s best for Granite Staters. I'm running for Executive Council because New Hampshire needs someone who understands that every vote at that table is about two things: people’s lives and taxpayers’ money. As a nurse, an executive, and a mom, I’ve spent my life both delivering care and watching the bottom line — without losing sight of the families behind each decision. I will bring the steady oversight that’s been missing, ask consistently hard questions, and demand evidence‑based decisions that reflect both compassion and fiscal responsibility. Because New Hampshire can care about people and the bottom line.WHAT MATTERS MOSTLisa's PrioritiesI will bring both the compassion of a nurse and the common sense of an executive to the table to ensure our tax dollars deliver real results for the people who live here.No rubber stamps, no outside agendas.Cutting costs so families can thriveProtecting health care and family planningStrengthening public education and child careMaking New Hampshire a better place to live, raise a family, and age safely at homeWhy Life in District 3 Feels Harder — And What Lisa Will Do About ItEverything costs too much.From housing and child care to health care, schools, and taxes, too many families in District 3 are paying more and getting less.Housing is getting more expensive. Child care is harder to find. Health care costs more. Public schools are under pressure.After more than a decade of one-party rule in Concord, families are getting more ideology, more excuses, and too little accountability. It’s time for a change.The Executive Council does not pass laws, but it does approve major contracts, confirm key appointments, and help decide whether your tax dollars are being spent wisely.This is an office with real power to ask hard questions, demand better answers, and protect New Hampshire families from bad state decisions.Lisa Kennedy Sheldon is running for Executive Council to bring care, competence, and common sense to one of the most important jobs in New Hampshire government.PROBLEM #1Families are Paying More for the BasicsToo many families feel like every bill keeps going up.the problemYou're paying more and getting less.Housing is too expensive. Child care is too hard to find. Too many families feel like every bill keeps going up.In Rockingham County, the median home sale price has topped $699,000 and the median two-bedroom rent has hit $2,194. Both of those numbers are the highest county figures in the state. New Hampshire also faces a shortage of 9,100 licensed child-care slots for children under six.All these challenges are pieces of the same cost of living crisis hitting families from every angle.Janet Stevens’ RecordNo urgency. No accountability.New Hampshire has roughly two open jobs for every unemployed person. Families and employers alike are running into the same barriers: a housing shortage estimated at 23,000 units and a child care crisis that leaves over 17,000 parents struggling to stay in the workforce. That is capping our economic growth and your economic opportunities.Janet Stevens has not used her seat on the Executive Council to push for better outcomes on housing, child care, or the broader cost-of-living crisis that families are facing.We need a Councilor who demands urgency and accountability.what lisa will do about itMake affordability the test.Lisa will treat the cost of living as an Executive Council issue. She will ask whether contracts, appointments, and public spending decisions are helping families stay afloat or just locking in a failed status quo.With years of experience reviewing budgets, contracts, grants, and leadership decisions, Lisa knows how to read the fine print and push for accountability. She will insist that state government focus on practical results: more housing, more child care options, and decisions that make New Hampshire more affordable for working families.PROBLEM #2Health Care is Too Expensiveand Hard to FindWhen the state fumbles health care oversight, patients pay more, wait longer, travel farther, and fall through the cracks.the problemThe cost of good care has exploded.Too many people are paying too much for care, waiting longer, and traveling farther to get it. Up to 29,000 Granite Staters could lose Medicaid coverage. We are watching Medicare Advantage markets collapse for 77,000 of our neighbors.When access breaks down — whether in primary care, maternal health, reproductive health, mental health, or rural care — patients and families pay the price.Janet Stevens’ RecordIdeology first. Patients second.Janet Stevens voted against family-planning funding five consecutive times — in September 2021, December 2021, January 2022, July 2022, and November 2023.Those votes blocked care for 12,000 of the 16,000 people in New Hampshire’s low-income family-planning program — including cancer screenings, STI testing, and contraception — even after state audits found no evidence that public funds were being used for abortion services.She also voted to reject $27 million in federal COVID vaccination funding that would have created 13 state health department positions and supported vaccine outreach for children and adults. Even Republican Governor Chris Sununu said there was “no logical reason” to vote no on that money.When care is already hard to find, Janet Stevens keeps choosing ideology over access.what lisa will do about itMake access the standard.Lisa will review every health-care contract, appointment, and funding decision through one basic lens: are they expanding access, protecting public health, and making it easier for patients to get the care they need?She understands that the Executive Council's decisions affect far more than one program. They shape whether health systems have the funding, leadership, and accountability to support patients, families, seniors, and people who rely on Medicaid and other public health programs.As a New Hampshire nurse practitioner who spent 22 years caring for patients at St. Joseph Hospital Cancer Center in Nashua, Lisa knows these decisions are not abstract. She has seen their consequences up close, and she will bring that experience — and that urgency — to the Executive Council.PROBLEM #3Our Schools are Under PressureWhen the state falls short on schools, local taxpayers pick up the tab.the problemStudents get less as taxes go up.New Hampshire ranks last in the nation for state-level public education investment, and we fund about 70% of local public education through town property taxes.That means when the state falls short, local communities and taxpayers make up the difference. Students feel it in strained budgets, uneven opportunities, and a system where too much still depends on ZIP code.And while our public schools struggle, our Republican lawmakers give $52M+ of our tax dollars to private and religious schools via school vouchers every single year.Janet Stevens’ RecordMore money for private and religious schools.Janet Stevens voted to keep former Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut in charge of New Hampshire education in 2021—even though it was clear he was one of the state’s top advocates for a voucher program that gives tens of millions of our tax dollars to private and religious schools.Janet also approved the no-bid contract for Children's Scholarship Fund to administer the expensive school voucher program. This "non-profit" takes 10% of our tax dollars right off the top for their administrative costs—that's over $5M a year!Since then, Concord Republicans have expanded the school voucher program while school building aid fell by about $60 million, and local districts have been told to expect less special-education aid — pushing more pressure onto schools, taxpayers, and families.Janet Stevens refuses to use her seat on the Executive Council to push for stronger public schools, fairer funding, or better outcomes for the students and communities who depend on them.what lisa will do about itAsk harder questions. Protect opportunity.Lisa will treat strong public schools as a question of what kind of future New Hampshire is building for the next generation.As a PhD faculty member, mentor, and former Saint Anselm trustee, Lisa has seen how educational outcomes depend on leadership, funding, and whether institutions are serving students well. She knows how to evaluate systems, review budgets and appointments, and ask whether public decisions are expanding opportunity or shifting more pressure onto local communities.On the Executive Council, she will bring real scrutiny to contracts, appointments, and funding decisions that affect public education, educational access, and long-term opportunity for New Hampshire families.PROBLEM #4Oversight is the Job. It's Not Happening.When oversight fails, New Hampshire families pay more and get less.the problemThe job is to ask hard questions.The Executive Council is supposed to review contracts, scrutinize appointments, and make sure public dollars are being spent wisely. It is supposed to serve as a check when government drifts, falls short, or refuses to ask the right questions.But too often, that is not what New Hampshire families are getting. Families are paying more, getting less, and seeing too little accountability for the decisions driving those consequences.Janet Stevens’ RecordRubber stamp for the insiders.This office is supposed to review contracts, scrutinize appointments, and make sure public dollars are being spent wisely. It is supposed to serve as a check when government falls short.Janet Stevens has a 99.3% yes rate on Executive Council votes — 14,921 yes votes, 100 no votes, and 5 abstentions out of 15,026 total votes.The issue is not that every vote should be no. It is that District 3 needs a Councilor who knows when to slow things down, ask harder questions, and demand accountability. Too often, Janet Stevens has not done that for families facing rising costs, strained schools, and weak state oversight.what lisa will do about itMake oversight real.Lisa will treat oversight as a real responsibility. She will read the fine print, ask hard questions, and insist that contracts, appointments, and public dollars actually serve Granite Staters.She will bring independence and common sense to one of the state’s most important offices — and she will remember that the point of oversight is never her own personal ideology. It is protecting families, communities, and the public interest.As someone who has spent decades evaluating systems, serving on boards, and helping institutions work better for the people they serve, Lisa knows how to ask tough questions for the right reasons — and how to make decisions grounded in evidence, service, and common sense.It's time for a different kind of leadership.District 3 families do not need more drift, more excuses, or more politics-as-usual.We need leaders who understand what families care about now – and what the next generation will inherit if we keep getting these decisions wrong.That is why Lisa Kennedy Sheldon is running for Executive Council.Care. Competence. Common sense.— Lisa Kennedy Sheldon's campaign website (September 4, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.