Lisa Laliberte’s main interest and education in politics came from her role running her brother Mark’s failed 2008 campaign for seat 54A in the state House of Representatives.

“It was very interesting,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work and I met a lot of fascinating people.”

Laliberte, 47, has been working for two-and-a-half years in marketing and communications for Minnesota Gastroenterology after a 20-year career in art publishing.

She grew up in the Robbinsdale and Burnsville areas and moved to Roseville with her family around the time she entered college at St. Thomas.

Laliberte bought a home with her husband in Roseville 17 years ago and their 14-year-old son is about to enter Roseville Area High School.

She’s served as vice chair of the Minnesota Humanities Center and is active in the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. She said the two open seats on city council spurred her to run in order to contribute to the community.

“I don’t think I’m a person who’s running on key issues,” she said. “I’m looking at my race and looking at Roseville in a holistic way.”

But Laliberte said she sees the “changing and aging” population as the No. 1 issue facing Roseville .

“We have a high percentage of people who are older,” she said. “Some of them want to stay in their homes as long as possible, and we want them to be able to do that, but when they do need to move out, we want to make sure there’s a place in Roseville where people can move to.

“With the economy working against everybody right now, it’s a critical time to be a leader in the overall community.”