Candidate for
School Director; Berkeley Unified School District

I am a past President and a current member of the Berkeley School Board. I have been married for almost 30 years and have two sons who graduated from Berkeley High - my younger son is a sophomore at Columbia University and my elder son is a senior at Fisk University. I have an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master's degree in Political Science/Public Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

Currently, I am the Assistant to the Emeryville City Manager (City's principal analyst) and also serve as Emeryville's City Clerk/Public Information Officer. Previously, I worked in local government as an environmental analyst/program manager for 8 years and established the free Emery Go-Round shuttle that now has a ridership of almost 1.7 million going around the City of Emeryville and connecting to the MacArthur BART and established the first yard debris collection for compost program, the first municipal sponsored citywide commercial recycling program in California, and the first District-wide school recycling program in Berkeley.

Before being elected to the School Board, I was as an active parent for many years and served as the Washington Elementary School Site Committee President and Berkeley High Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Co-Chair. I also was a member of the Berkeley Schools Tax Measure Planning and Oversight Committee; Yes on Measure A (school parcel tax renewal) and Yes on H and I (school maintenance parcel tax and construction bond measure)Steering Committees; Longfellow Middle School Governance Council; District Advisory Committee (DAC); District Strategic Plan Committee; Berkeley High Principal's Advisory Committee; and Parents With Children of African Descent (PCAD).

I am currently a member of the California School Board Association, the NAACP, the National Women's Political Caucus: North Alameda, various local Democratic Clubs, the Municipal Management Association of Northern California (MMANC) and the City Clerks Association of California (CCAC). I am also a Board Member of the Intergovernmental Management Training Program (IGMT), the only leadership program inclusive of local, regional, state and federal government in California. And, I am a former elected by caucus member of the California State Democratic Central Committee (2010-2012) and was appointed by State Assemblymember Nancy Skinner to attend the 2012 Democratic State Convention. I am also a past member of the City of Berkeley Committee for Socially Responsible Investment, City of Berkeley Civic Art Commission, City of Berkeley Solid Waste Management Commission, and the City of Berkeley Committee on the Status of Women.