KNOX — Democrat Tara Murphy, new to town elections, is running for town clerk to meet more people and use her background in communications.

“I just really like meeting people and hearing their stories and talking with them,” said Murphy. She is running for the part-time, two-year position on Democratic and Independence Party lines.

Greeting hikers around their property on the Wolf Creek Preserve, Murphy and her husband, Nathan Giordano, are stewards of the preserve and volunteers with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy. They have lived in Knox since 2008.

Murphy, 36, grew up in the village of Castleton-on-Hudson in Rensselaer County and graduated from The College of Saint Rose with a bachelor of science degree in public communications. She handled graphic design and communications for the School Administrators Association of New York State before working as a director of admissions and communications for The Center for Natural Wellness School of Massage in Albany.

“As director of admissions, it was really dealing more with the public, a more customer service-based job,” Murphy said. “I was the first person that anyone met wanting to come into the school.”

Since 2010, when her son was born, Murphy has worked for the school part-time from home, a job she said she could work around her position, if elected, as town clerk.

Murphy said she would like to have hours in the clerk’s office that accommodate weekend, morning, afternoon, and evening times on different days.

As she has with her previous employers, Murphy said she would like to update the town’s website, making more forms and documents available over the Internet, and digitizing the town’s paper records, for which grants could be pursued. That way, Murphy said, filling requests for records is more efficient.

“It would be a nice way to bring in the younger residents of the town,” Murphy said of a Facebook page for Knox.

Murphy said she would like to be in the clerk’s position for multiple terms.

“I’d have to see how it fits, but it seems like a natural fit for me, and I could see myself doing it for a while, if the town residents approved of that,” said Murphy.