Hi, I'm Christine Meiers Schatz. I was elected to the Westport RTM in November 2017, and I live in district 2 with my husband, Scott, and our four young children.
Yes, four young children. The oldest just turned six-years old. Our lives are frenetic – sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the number of eyeballs looking at me – but we’re happy.
I grew up in a Navy family. We lived all over the country and the world.
For college, I attended Harvard University, where I captained the water polo team, played viola and trombone in various musical groups, and graduated magna cum laude in 2002. My senior thesis was a sociological/philosophical/economic analysis of reality television, what human behavior we deem authentic, and why. Believe it or not, the thesis foreshadowed the Trump presidency.
I subsequently went straight to law school at the University of Virginia, after which I passed both the New York and California bar exams.
For over seven years I worked as a corporate litigator at the New York City office of Shearman & Sterling LLC. This was a more interesting job than you might think. I litigated the fallout of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, including Lehman’s collapse and the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America merger, and I worked on some controversial cases including the Madoff fraud.
While at Shearman & Sterling I also did a pro bono secondment in Tanzania as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Currently, aside from taking care of my family, I am
- an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority,
- the founder and president of a local, educational non-profit named Sleep for Success Westport
- an admissions interviewer for Harvard University, and
- a volunteer water polo coach at Staples High School
I first became involved in Westport town government through my work for Sleep for Success Westport. After seeing the extraordinary work done by most of our public servants, I was inspired to try to make my own contribution to the town as an elected official.
In turn, I hope to inspire my children - and especially my three daughters – to take on leadership roles in the community. Like many others, I’ve been deeply disturbed by recent events in national politics. While I can’t fix those problems, I can realistically contribute to positive changes right here in Westport. And I’m writing this blog to help keep you informed so you can do the same!
