GREENFIELD — After encouraging residents to become community leaders, Lora Wondolowski decided “to take [her] own advice” and join City Council in December 2023.
Now, a year after becoming Greenfield City Council president, she has her sights set on former state Rep. Natalie Blais’ open seat.
Blais resigned on Jan. 19. As Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano opted not to call a special election to replace her, Blais’ seat will remain open until the November 2026 election and the winner will be sworn in next January to represent the 1st Franklin District.
“It’s a big decision and I don’t take it lightly,” said Wondolowski, 56. “I saw how Rep. Blais did the job, and she was everywhere and she really worked to make sure that she got out there to all [18] towns and listened. … The district deserves leadership that listens, collaborates and delivers.”
Since Blais’ resignation, Corinne Coryat, a Deerfield resident and former aide for Blais; Johnathan Creque, a Greenfield resident and former staffer for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren; and Whately Town Clerk Amy Lavallee have announced plans to run for the open seat. Deerfield resident David Wemhoener also filed paperwork with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to run, but decided against it.
Wondolowski works as the director of advancement and communications at the Peace Development Fund, a foundation based in Amherst that supports social justice organizations across the state and country.
Before her career path curved to nonprofits, she earned a degree in biology with a concentration in ecology in her home state at the University of Illinois. At Bard College, she earned a master’s degree in environmental science, but her plans moved away from the science lab when she realized she wanted to act on information, instead of just studying it.
“I had a passion for environmental issues, and I decided that I needed to do something instead of just studying things,” Wondolowski said. “I liked the idea of having policy being rooted in the science.”
With this purpose in mind, she dedicated decades to advocacy, working at the National Audubon Society and the League of Conservation Voters in Washington D.C., as well as with the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters. Wondolowski also served on the board of directors for several nonprofits, including the Connecticut River Conservancy, the United Way of the Franklin & Hampshire Region and the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, and helped found the Friends of the Great Falls Discovery Center.
She described the advocacy throughout her career as “giving voice to things people care about.” With several years in the field, she said she “[understands] the State House from the outside,” equipped with a “perspective of how you can move issues and also work really collaboratively with legislators.”
Before the Peace Development Fund, she was the founding executive director of Leadership Pioneer Valley in Springfield.
“That’s really where I got to know this region,” Wondolowski said. “We built community leaders and really worked to make sure they understood the challenges and opportunities in communities across this region.”
She decided to become a community leader herself and was appointed to Greenfield’s City Council in December 2023. From her seat in council meetings, she spoke out against proposed cuts to Greenfield’s education spending.
“Education is so important to everything, whether it’s the local economy and jobs, but also having people who know what’s going on and can be good citizens of the world as they grow up,” Wondolowski said.
In January 2025, she became City Council president after her fellow councilors nominated her for her “ability to bring people together to collaborate and really work across differences to create an atmosphere where everybody could be heard,” she said.
Reflecting on accomplishments from her time as City Council president so far, Wondolowski mentioned her early support for an approved resolution declaring Greenfield a “sanctuary city” for transgender and gender-diverse people, an important measure as the federal government targets transgender individuals, she said.
She also highlighted City Council’s decision to declare the Hope Street parking lot as surplus and sell it to a developer. Greenfield residents defeated a ballot measure in November that sought to reverse the decision. Wondolowski described the vote as a win for expanding housing in the city.
If elected as a state representative, Wondolowski plans to continue advocating for affordable housing in Franklin County.
“We are hitting a housing crisis in this region and throughout the country, and that’s both lack of affordable housing — and by affordable, we’re not just talking low-income housing, but it’s homes for nurses, for teachers, starter family homes — and then there’s also a lack of available housing,” Wondolowski said.
In the State House, she would aim to increase investment in infrastructure, like water and sewer systems, to ease the process of building housing and draw developers to the 1st Franklin District.
As City Council president, Wondolowski voted in support of an amendment adding $350,000 to the School Department’s budget for fiscal year 2026. Although the amendment fell short of a two-thirds majority to pass, she described it as another source of pride.
At the state level, she hopes to “fix” the formulas determining Chapter 70 funding to schools, and secure stronger financial support for rural schools as enrollment drops and school buildings age.
“We’ve made progress here [but] we’ve got to do more. We’ve got to really help these regional districts,” Wondolowski stressed.
Rural equity will serve as a guiding priority for Wondolowski if she is elected. Beyond education, she hopes to shift funding formulas for transportation projects that give western Massachusetts towns “less money on the dollar.”
She also plans to take her calling since college, environmental protection and climate resilience, to the State House.
“People come to Franklin County because of the beauty, the rivers, the forests and the farms. Farming is really important to our identity and all of the issues — whether it’s natural disasters and flooding that our farmers have faced, or drought, heat, unpredictable weather — [have] made farming really tough,” she said. “I support climate solutions that are going to strengthen our resilience, lower our long-term costs through green energy, create local jobs and make sure we’re developing at the right scale at the right places.”
To help the state reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, Franklin County towns cannot do their part alone; the state must step in, Wondolowski said. She plans to push the state to invest in the infrastructure needed to help largely volunteer-run towns to become Climate Leader Communities and secure grants.
“Our cities and towns are at the forefront in addressing climate change. We’ve got to give them the boost that they need. … We can’t wait for the federal government on this; they’re trying to take us backwards,” Wondolowski said, mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s recent repeal of the “Endangerment Finding,” which identified six greenhouse gases as health threats. “Rollbacks are happening every day, and we’re going to keep the course here in Massachusetts and we’ve got to help our towns do the same.”
On City Council and in her nonprofit work, the Greenfield resident said she has witnessed the impact of federal decisions rolling down to the state and Franklin County, including the “skyrocketing” costs of health care and health insurance, and nonprofits cutting or shrinking programs after losing “millions and millions of federal dollars.”
“We’re really at a critical time given that the status quo isn’t working for Franklin County families. … We need folks with experience who have the ability to collaborate but also have the humility to listen, and I think I bring that to the table,” Wondolowski said. “Given the moment that we’re in, I’ve got to take that leap.”