WENDELL — Marina Apostol was elected to the Selectboard on Tuesday, besting opponent Chris Kranz by 41 votes.
Apostol received 152 votes to Kranz’s 111 and will fulfill the two years remaining on Adam Feltman’s term following his resignation earlier this year. She said in a phone interview on Wednesday morning that she was refreshing the Wendell Townsfolk List, the privately run email list of town residents, on Tuesday night when she saw the results.
“I was excited. I was also floored, you know?” she said. “I’m humbled.”
Apostol said she plans to stop by the Wendell Town Offices on Saturday so Town Clerk Anna Wetherby can swear her in as the newest Selectboard member. The next Selectboard meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
“I really want to learn and listen at first,” Apostol said. “I can’t dive in without learning the ropes. So that’s going to be most important.”
During her campaign, she said she wants to help ensure affordability in town.
Apostol, 48, grew up in Worcester and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in communication. She also holds a master’s degree in traditional Chinese medicine and is a licensed acupuncturist in Massachusetts, though she does not practice much anymore.
She works, mostly remotely, as the program coordinator at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School.
Apostol said her opponent, Kranz, wrote a nice message congratulating her on the town’s listserv.
“I hope he continues to be involved with the town and that we get to work together in the future,” she said.
According to Wetherby, there were 272 votes cast in the Selectboard race, representing 34.56% of the town’s registered voters.
