About Me
My name is Peter Whitesell, but I go by Rocky as my Dad is also Peter. I’ve actually never seen the Rocky movies, we’re both just Rockford Files fans.
I grew up on the Eastern Shore, first living in MoCo as a NIH urologic oncology intern in 2014. After my B.A. in Biochemistry & Biology at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, I came back to the “big city” to keep working in science.
A while back, I traded the labs and pipettes for work as a policy analyst at NIH in the Office of Research Services. This was my absolute dream: supporting critical research, having access to the widest range of libraries and lectures, and being surrounded with the most brilliant and kind people. Ideas are welcome at NIH, and for the first time in my life, I could lead in pushing big things. Like thousands of folks I was laid off last year in the mass firings by DOGE, but by then I had already resolved to keep working in policy and to run for council.
For a long time I’ve followed the big questions and debates in our county. I’ve seen how so many people, particularly young people, have become disillusioned with the state of things, how little they believe that any good can come out of government. What I want to bring with me to the council and amidst all this, is just the absolute conviction that things don’t have to be this way, that we can actually make things better.
I think the first part of doing this is honestly recognizing where things aren’t working. I already spoke about housing, how there’s an unwillingness to talk about the real failures, but there are many other areas we’ve done this.
The second part is to answer questions with intellectual humility. I have definite ideas of how things work, but I am not smarter than everyone else, nor can I see everything happening on my own. I need to meet and hear people where they physically are, not just those who seek me out. I always tried this at NIH, and while I very often felt like a fool, never once was it the wrong move.
That’s the approach I want to bring to the council.