Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District

Anne's Childhood in the Midwest --

Anne was born Anne Elizabeth Rodems in the heart of the midwest in Alton, Illinois - a Mississippi River town. Alton was a terminal of the underground railroad and is home to the Elijah Lovejoy Press used to print abolitionist material in the 1830's. Also, Alton's Lincoln - Douglas Square commemorates the site of at least one debate. Today there is a modern bridge across the Mississippi at Alton. You may have seen the PBS special about the building of this bridge.

When Anne was 10, the Rodems moved to Hammond, Indiana and Anne became a Hoosier. She started fifth grade at Kenwood School, a K-6 school composed of 8 quonset hut sort of buildings with a special kindergarten area and an attached gymnasium building (with a stage). It was quite a lot like our elementary school multi-purpose rooms. Anne walked several blocks south to school where everyone went home for lunch. There was no supervision at school at lunch time.

For junior high Anne walked several blocks north to Washington School, a K-8 school. Seventh and eighth grades were housed in the original two story brick building with four classrooms on each floor. The cafeteria, library and principal's office were in the basement. There was single sex P.E.. in a detached gym. Anne worked in the library and was cashier in the lunch room. A "free" lunch was part of the deal.

In contrast, Hammond High School had a student body of 2000. Again, Anne was able to walk to school, east this time. There were seven periods. School began with home room at 8:30 and was not finished until 3:45. One period - either 4 or 5 - was lunch and at least one study hall was required. Are you keeping track? That's only 5 periods to take classes. No wonder Anne often thinks the 6 periods Livermore students are offered are a luxury. She had no real option to take art, music, photography, drama or drafting. All clubs met after school, including student government activities. Anne did do props for a fall play and had the lead in the senior play "The Torchbearers."

Dear old Hammond High School (DOHHS) had championship football and basket ball teams - very important when the whole state is afflicted by Hoosier Hysteria in the spring. Its colors were white and purple just like our Junction Avenue Middle School. The mascot was a wildcat. Go Wildcats!!

After graduation Anne found herself traveling by train to college at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At Brown University, Anne was a biology major and participated in dormitory and student government. She was senior class secretary.

In fact, Anne attended Pembroke College in Brown University. Brown, founded in 1764, was a men's college. In the late 1800's in the rush to educate women, Pembroke college was established because, in New England, it was considered inappropriate to educate young men and young women together at the "inflammable age." Pembrokers were instructed by Brown professors, but separately, and always received Brown University diplomas.

Anne was a scholarship student and worked at the dormitory switchboard both sophomore and junior years. There were no phones in student rooms. As a senior, Anne was a lab instructor for the introductory biology course and also was a lab tech in a faculty research lab.

At Purdue:

For graduate school Anne chose Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She was familiar with Purdue because she had been a National Science Foundation summer science camper there in high school. Also, tuition was low because she was still a Hoosier. Anne was interested in developmental biology and worked with Ulrich Clever on a project involving protein changes in midges as the larvae metamorphose into adults.

As a typical graduate student, Anne was a part-time student and a part-time instructor. Her first teaching assignment was three lab sections each week in "Biology for Elementary Education Majors." For part of that year the classes were the subject of a Ph.D. student's research. The question: "Do students learn better with live or preserved specimens?" Monday, Wednesday, Friday groups had formaldehyde preserved frogs and the Tuesday and Thursday groups used (and pithed) live frogs. Both groups learned, but each mastered different things. Another year, Anne taught "Anatomy and Physiology for non-Science Majors."

In the summers, Anne was the girls' science counselor in the dormitory in the same NSF program where she had been a camper in high school. She lived in the college dorm with 16 eager, creative, dynamic girls for 8 weeks each summer. WOW what an experience!!

At the University of California, San Francisco

When Anne came west to seek her fortune, she landed a job at U.C.S.F. in the Department of Anesthesia. A research group there had received a grant to test an new inhaled anesthetic. The drug company of course hoped that the compound would be effective, not harmful, and would eventually be approved by the FDA. In the course of Anne's 10 years at U.C.S.F. tests were performed on dogs, both mongrel and AKC registered beagles, many species of rodents, healthy, paid volunteers and consenting patients having elective surgery. Anne earned increasing levels of responsibility. She began as a Staff Research Associate I, step 1 and reached the top of this category, SRA IV, step 5, several years before she stopped working.

Anne became an active member of the research staff. She prepared grant proposals and wrote and presented research papers. She did projects with the group and on her own.

Anne participated in staff development opportunities at U.C.S.F. and took classes to prepare her for the increasing management and supervisorial responsibilities. The classes and workshops include Team Building, Negotiations, Writing Evaluations, Decision Making, and How to Read a Person Like a Book. This last was a lighthearted discussion about understanding body language. Anne used the skills she learned in coordinating the many aspects of a large research effort. It was necessary to have people, equipment and animals all at the right place at the right time. She wrote job descriptions, hired, evaluated and sometimes terminated employees.

When Stephen was born, Anne retired and became a full-time homemaker. The FDA approved the drug, Forane (TM), shortly thereafter.

Anne had married Ronald White, a phycist at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. They came to Livermore in 1982. In the late 1980's Anne began volunteer work in Livermore Schools and becme a leader in the Livermore Association for Guiding and Teaching Students (LAGATS). She first ran for the School Board of Trustees in 1990.

Their two boys Stephen and Mike attended Livermore schools. Stephen was in the Granada High Class of 1996, the first block plan class, and the Class of 2000 Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Mike is Granada's millenium Class of 2000 and UC San Diego, Revelle College, Class of 2004.