Baton Passes At East Rock CMT

The leadership baton — or is it the Zoom account? — of the East Rock Community Management Team (ERCMT) passed a longtime chair who is retiring to California to a New Haven native returned from the golden state to resettle in East Rock.

At Monday night’s regular meeting, David Budries who has led the group for the past seven years, introduced the new chair, Elena Grewal.

Attendees at the Zoomed meting expressed gratitude to Budries for his well-organized, consistent, and fair minded leadership over the years.

“Thanks for being an effective mediator,” said Karen King, the representative to the group from Yale University’s Office of New Haven Affairs. ​“You have been both a strong and a kind presence.”

Budries is also retiring from his day job chairing the sound design department at Yale’s School of Drama. He plans to ​“reinvent” himself in a town near Yosemite (lucky guy).

Elena Grewal, meanwhile, has returned to New Haven, where she grew up, from California, after a career there in Big Tech, She takes on the job of helming the CMT beginning with the July meeting.

A graduate of both Yale and the Hopkins School, Grewal, in brief remarks at Monday night’s meeting, described herself as a data scientist by training who is grateful to be returning to New Haven from 14 years in the Bay Area. She worked for seven years at Airbnb, first as a data science manager, then as head of data science. She current works for a firm she founded apolitical consultancy called Data 2 the People.

She told the CMT she will bring those data chops to her new post.

“My first order of business may be a survey you guys will be getting about what you have loved about the East Rock CMT” and how you might want to shape it in the future, she said.

“I live on Cottage Street, and I have a porch with a swing and a chair. I’d like to meet any of you any time.”

“Elena will be a great advocate for this team,” Budries said. He added that part of the survey will be to help determine if the next meeting will be a continuation of the pandemic mode, via Zoom, or in person, or a hybrid option.

Budries reported that Grewal was the only candidate who stepped forward to be chair of the ERCMT. So an informal vote was held online, and she was elected.

In the spring Grewal had also taken steps to set up with the Democracy Fund an exploratory committee to run for mayor in the upcoming Democratic primary.

Grewal did not respond to email and phone inquiries about whether she continues to consider a run for mayor, and how that might impact her taking on the CMT chair position, if at all.