Swinomish health advocate makes school board run

At her job, Marlys Baker is a healer.

She hopes to do the same as an elected official.

“I want to be a unifying force rather than a dividing one,” says Baker, the first of four La Conner School Board candidates to respond to questions posed by the Weekly News. “I believe we can work together for positive change.”

Baker, a registered nurse who serves as community health representative at the Swinomish Medical Clinic, is vying for the Board seat held by Janie Edwards Beasley, who chairs the five-member school panel.

Beasley is a sister of the late Susan Edwards Wilbur, the first Native American...