Where I Have Come From

By Kalima Rose

Gives a background of Kalima's relevant experience

My 12 years of my work as a parent in Berkeley's public schools consists of building multi-racial efforts to improve the academic achievement of all of our students. With other parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community partners, I have played a leadership role in shaping the reform measures currently transforming Berkeley High.

Since the passage of the reform policy, I have done the day-to-day work of implementation at Berkeley High--where new small schools already show improved student achievement, reduced segregation, and more engaged students. These positive beginnings need strong school board support to realize their full potential.

I have a
Strong and lifelong focus on achieving equity.
Capacity to listen deeply and respond to diverse communities.
Solid data analysis and policy advocacy skills.
Persistent engagement with diversity of our whole community for what really counts: the future of our children.

Relevant Community Service

I have worked as a parent in Berkeley's public schools for over 12 years to build multi-racial efforts to improve achievement for all of our children. Most recently, with parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community partners, I helped shape reform measures for Berkeley High School. I served on the planning grant team for small school reform at Berkeley High; researched key reforms; visited national reform model schools; served on the Superintendent's Advisory Committee for Small Schools and drafted the Committee's policy that was adopted by the Board in 2003. Over the last two years, I have done the day-to-day work to implement the reforms at Berkeley High, where already, new small schools show improved attendance, reduced segregation, and more engaged students and teachers.

Professional Experience

I have 15 years of nonprofit policy advocacy experience in economic development, civil rights, women's issues, and affordable housing. This work has cultivated strong fiscal analysis, research, and data monitoring skills that have informed my effectiveness in moving policy within the Berkeley Unified School District.

As a Senior Program Associate at PolicyLink, I support policy campaigns with diverse community coalitions that bring together labor, faith, business, community, environmental, and transportation interests in key regions of the United States. My current projects in New York City, Washington D.C., Portland, Oregon, and the states of California and Massachusetts advance affordable housing throughout those regions. I lead the PolicyLink Equitable Development Toolkit, a resource to thousands nationally.

I have strong relationships with philanthropic institutions, both in California and nationally. As Program Director at the Tides Foundation, I oversaw grantmaking on environmental and social justice issues, and led philanthropic initiatives on living wage jobs and Native American cultural continuity. At the Ms. Foundation for Women, I served as a grant officer and edited the journal Equal Means: Women Organizing Economic Solutions. These positions have built strong skills in crafting public/private partnerships.

Relevant Public Service

1992 - 1994: LeConte School Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Co-President
1994 - 1996: Berkeley Healthy Start Collaborative
1996 - 1999: Chair, Willard Middle School Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP) Committee
1999 - 2000: Berkeley High School (BHS), BSEP Committee; Federal Small Schools Planning Grant Committee, BHS
2001 - 2002: Drafted BHS School Reform Policy for the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Education
2002 - 2003: Member, Superintendent's Advisory Committee on Small Schools
2003 - 2004: Representative, BHS School Site Council; Representative, Small Schools Transition Team
2003 - 2004: Co-Chair, Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) High School Coordinating Committee; Representative, CAS Leadership Council