Daniela Solano-Ward’s journey into local politics was unconventional – to say the least.
In May, she became the first female and first Latina mayor of Collingswood. Over a cup of coffee at Haddon Avenue’s Upcycle Fitness on a recent afternoon, Solano-Ward shared her journey and her goals for the next four years.
She grew up in Virginia as an only child and first-generation daughter of parents from Colombia. But while she spent summers and every other Christmas there, Solano-Ward remembers trying not to stand out.
“I know as a kid, I didn’t want to be different,” she recalled. “I didn’t want to not speak English.”
But seeing her 8-year-old daughter, Isabel – or Isa – embrace her Colombian identity and language can be emotional for her mother.
“She loves it so much,” gushed Solano-Ward, who makes it a point to speak to her children in Spanish. “She’s so proud of who she is with the language and how she can speak and how she can communicate.”
It has made Solano-Ward’s current mayoral role that much more powerful.
“I have a couple of friends who are Hispanic in town and it means a lot to see,” she acknowledged. “I’m a woman of ethnic background, and to hear a figure be a young Latina, it says that, ‘Oh wow, you can do this. This is what it looks like.’
“So it’s really powerful to get to be that.”
Solano-Ward and her husband, Jared, moved to Collingswood in 2017. The couple was relocating from Miami to South Jersey for Jared’s medical residency in Vineland, and the borough seemed a good fit.
“My husband found Collingswood on Google,” Solano-Ward remembered, adding that a New York Times article further contributed to their decision. The article noted “a great farmer’s market” and pointed to a strong restaurant scene.
The couple – who met at the University of Virginia (UVA) – settled into a rowhouse near Sara’s Produce on Lincoln Avenue, and in July of 2017, welcomed Isa.
Solano-Ward graduated with a double major in history and foreign affairs from UVA and finished a master’s program at Johns Hopkins University. Jared had three years of medical school left at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University, so she joined him in Miami.
Solano-Ward was a commodities trader for Cargill, an agricultural trading company. Her Miami office sold products like soy beans and wheat to Latin America.
“Spanish came in handy,” she pointed out, “because my office was mostly Spanish speaking.”
Then 2017 came. The couple was preparing to move up north for Jared’s medical residency and welcome their first child. Her job did not allow her to go remote, so another decision on work had to be made.
“At the time I was nine months pregnant,” Solano-Ward said, “so interviewing for jobs was not (feasible).”
A decision was made for her to stay at home, then go back to work in three to four months. But the couple hadn’t bargained for medical residency hours.
“That was before I understood that (the) intern year in the emergency room means you’re working like 80-to-90 to 100-hour work weeks,” Solano-Ward explained. “You don’t get more than one day off in a row.
“It’s never the same day,” she added. “There’s four different schedules. You don’t know who you’re covering.”
So the couple figured out how much she needed to make monthly to finance staying at home.
“I found two part-time jobs,” Solano-Ward shared. “I did those at night and during nap time, and that was enough for me to stay at home and take care of my daughter.”
The couple welcomed their second child, Luka, in February of 2020, and Jared began a fellowship in critical care that extended his training to five years. Because of COVID, he started his fellowship three months early in the intensive care unit.
And with a newborn, Solano-Ward kept up her two part-time gigs.
“They were enough to fund our lifestyle,” she explained, “and as COVID got a little easier, and I was finally able to get my littles vaccinated and people started coming out a bit, I started coaching rec soccer, my daughter’s 4-year-old team.
“That was a big introduction to the community here.”
Solano-Ward also made friends at the library’s toddler story time. And for the first Halloween during the pandemic, she posted a safe route trick-or-treat map of 130 homes on social media through a mom’s group in Collingswood. It also went out to the township’s unofficial Facebook group.
“That was my first time talking to a bunch of people in town that I didn’t know,” Solano-Ward said, adding that the holiday was memorable because people were so excited to come out of isolation and live in a community again.
“People put so much time into it and everyone was so happy,” she recounted. “It was such a beautiful day.”
Solano-Ward got more involved by attending school board meetings and recommending policy changes, finding a middle ground as her daughter started school. She advocated for Isabel to start kindergarten a year later.
As she learned more about the board, Solano-Ward knew it wasn’t for her. So when Amy Henderson Riley asked her to consider running for a commissioner’s seat, Solano-Ward realized it was what she was looking for.
With her children in school – Luka is now in kindergarten and Isa in second grade – she prepared to look for work again. After a discussion with Jared, they decided Solano-Ward would give the commissioners’ campaign a try.
That’s when she and Riley built the Collingswood Forward ticket – which also included Meghan Adamoli – before the May 13 election. The duo won commissioner seats in what was described as a “big upset in Collingswood.”
Although long-time commissioner James Maley was reelected, he would no longer serve as mayor, a position he had held since 1997. Riley and Solano-Ward became the fourth and fifth women to hold commissioner seats in Collingswood. And with more availability, Solano-Ward was chosen as the borough’s next mayor.
“It has always been my dream to work for a nonprofit or foundation,” she remarked. “This wasn’t exactly what I was envisioning as the cause, but what better place to put your time and energy in than in your own town, a place as special as Collingswood?
“It’s really a unique community that is outside the city, with culture, creativity, education, and the history of this town is wild to me,” the mayor continued. “To me, you live in a place where you know your neighbors, but Philly is right there.”
With a steep learning curve, Solano-Ward has hit the ground running – sitting in on meetings and setting evolving goals.
“One of the biggest goals that we would like to achieve is to build a new master plan for our borough,” she averred, noting that the last one was created in 1999. “Jim has done a great job, really achieving most of what’s on that master plan, including the Haddon Avenue Corridor.
“When I close my eyes I see Collingswood as three corridors: West Collingswood, Haddon Avenue and the corner of Browning Road and Haddon Avenue,” Solano-Ward added.
“It would be really wonderful if everyone in town could walk – not just the ones who live near here (Upcycle).”
Another goal is addressing affordability. How does Collingswood make it easier for residents to age in place? How can the town make the housing stock reflect the reality that it takes a village?
Grandparents are becoming a source of child care and families want to live close to each other.
“There is not a lot of land,” Solano-Ward observes of Collingswood’s 2.2 square miles. “How do we be intentional about making this a semi-urban space where every part of town is maximized?”
Among things to look at, she believes, are accessory dwelling units. The mayor and other officials are also working with Habitat for Humanity of South Central Jersey to help neighbors who are elderly or low-income with repairs.
Another goal is to continue the borough’s partnership with the school district and to achieve the next generation’s sustainability.
“I think people are deeply invested in this community,” Solano-Ward opined. “I think people move here or stay here because they recognize how unique it is.”
The mayor says she sees people in town wanting to invest their time and make others feel like part of the community.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you know,” she insists. “All of a sudden, you get folded in and feel accepted. I think Collingswood is really strong in that way.”
