She may be new to politics, but it’s a natural progression for someone as people-oriented, energetic and concerned about her fellow Greenbelters as Amy Knesel. She grew up in subsidized low-income housing in Gaithersburg. In elementary school, she found herself confronted with injustices. She was a white girl in a primarily Black neighborhood and was troubled to see herself treated better, given attention and encouragement by the school system, while other kids in her neighborhood struggled, faced low expectations and received little help. “It’s in large part thanks to my stature as a white middle-class woman that I’ve been able to have opportunities to do things without a four-year degree,” says Knesel. Those early experiences motivated her to learn more about what brings about such situations and what can be done to change things.
Living in Hyattsville as a stay-at-home mom, Knesel says, “I felt so alone…. I was really craving community.” She discovered Greenbelt when she and her husband wanted a good nursery school for their son. They loved Greenbelt Nursery School and found the community appealing too. “When we bought in Greenbelt, it was like, this is where we’re supposed to be! This was the best decision we could have made for our family, for our kids, for our mental health, for our physical well-being,” says Knesel.
From her active involvement as a nursery school parent, Knesel went on to be part of the PTA, Cub Scouts and Soccer
Alliance, and became coordinator of Greenbelt’s Pumpkin Festival in 2017. Securing a grant, she expanded its reach from Old Greenbelt to the Springhill Lake Recreation Center and Schrom Hills Park. Her job as office manager for the Greenbelt Cinema from 2017 to 2023 taught her about the community, fundraising, event organizing, marketing, human resources, customer service and communications and allowed her to get to know a wide range of people who had many different perspectives and needs to balance and fulfill.
Busy raising her three children and with volunteer roles as a Girl Scout leader and secretary of the Labor Day Festival, Knesel wasn’t intending to get directly involved in local politics anytime in the near future, but friends planted the suggestion a couple of years ago. She didn’t think she would be able to add campaigning to her already full plate until later in her life. But she left the cinema job last September and then the shock of Ric Gordon’s loss hit the community and changed everything. With the need for another councilmember, her friend Holly Leon-Lierman said to her, “You need to do this.” It was unexpected, but soon she realized that it felt right.
Conscious of Gordon’s great legacy and the huge responsibility of taking the seat he held, she asks herself whether the actions she takes and her decisions on council are what Ric would have done. “I recognize fully that … I did not earn anyone’s votes here … And so I am going to do my darnedest to prove my worth.”
What does Knesel want to do with the opportunities that have opened up with her new position on the council? She says her guiding principles are “community, accessibility and equity.” One way these values are being expressed is in her work with Coach K to meet the needs of the youth of Franklin Park. Recreation facilities owned by the complex are broken and virtually unusable, surrounded by high fences that have given it the nickname “the cage” among the kids there. “It really does feel like you would have your kids playing in a cage,” says Knesel. “There is NO place for kids to play now.” She praises the alternatives outside Franklin Park, the work of Shaymar Higgs at The SPACE, of the Springhill Lake Recreation Center and Carolyn Lambright Davis with CHEARS, along with Coach K’s tireless work. She notes that Franklin Park management has made promises to create a new recreation center on their campus. We as a community can make a difference for the young people who some view as problematic, says Knesel.
For council’s future work, she believes that preparing for the arrival of the FBI will be of paramount importance. “We have such an opportunity to grow thoughtfully … we have four years before the FBI would even be breaking ground,” she says.
When she finds time to relax, Knesel and her family go camping, along with their dog Penny. A favorite getaway is Pocomoke State Park because of its closeness to beautiful Assateague Island.
