I’m very proud to report that my brother-in-law Daniel Cocchiola was just elected to the Watertown Connecticut town council. Way to go, Dan.

A lot of people are upset with the way the world is going these days and spend a lot of time complaining about it.  I’ve definitely done that with my in-laws over holiday meals. But actions matter.  One of the reasons I’m so proud of Dan is that he said yeah I know the world’s in a lot of trouble, but let’s go do something about it.

Daniel Cocchiola is a leader in education – he says K-14 on his linkedIn page.  That’s both weird and true.  He runs a new type of school, which leads high school students towards taking enough college credits to earn an associates degree in job ready careers. It’s innovative – people have actually written PhD‘s on the work that he’s done.  Not many people can say that.  Both him and his team at EdAdvance have demonstrated real leadership and innovation in a field (education) that is very difficult to innovate in.

I really think it’s amazing that he’s gonna turn his diverse sets of skills onto local government.  Our town really needs it!  It’s awesome that he has chosen to make a difference.  

And it was pretty fun to go and vote for him yesterday.  Of course the mushroom and sausage pizza that we got after was better – hehe.

We need more people like my brother-in-law, Daniel Cocchiola, who isn’t just gonna sit around and complain about the way things are when things aren’t great.  We need people who will take action and make a difference. Go Dan!  Love you man!