Candidate for
Council Member; City of Santa Barbara; Council District 3

I was born to immigrant parents, who arrived here with 2 suitcases and $200. My parents undertook the long path towards citizenship when I was small. I became keenly aware as a child that they had invested a great deal of themselves to become citizens of this country, though the outcome was not guaranteed, and this generated constant concern. Even after they attained citizenship, they worried that it could be taken away. US Citizenship is incredibly important to them. These early experiences had an impact on me, and how I think about being an American.

I put myself through college, graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in Industrial Engineering, Economics, and Management. In my senior year, Georgia Tech was invited for the first time to compete in a national business case competition in Dallas, TX. I was the team captain for our school, and we took first prize.

I moved to Dallas to work for AT&T's billing systems division, first as a software engineer, then as a manager of several engineers. I led my team to implement process improvements in our billing systems that saved the company $1 million per year. I was promoted to lead a team that delivered AT&T's quick-to-market offers, and honed that process from 20 days down to to 10.

As you can see, I like solving problems, fixing things, and leading creative teams to find new solutions and make things run better.

I joined Verizon in their headquarters division and launched new wireless and internet-based products to expand Verizon's reach into new markets.

That led me to the world of high tech start-ups, and I landed a dream job in a dream location - here in Santa Barbara! I had an infant daughter, and traveled the world for my job with my daughter in tow. I won an award from Wired Magazine for Product of the Year in 2001.

I wanted more flexibility in my work schedule when my daughter began kindergarten because I wanted to volunteer in the classroom. So I started my own consulting business, and worked with various firms to get the mobile internet working on your phones. I rolled out a mobile internet strategy to China Mobile, worked on search engine optimization, and helped small businesses figure out how to package and market their products. I won a Female Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2013.

I liked the flexibility and challenges of consulting, but I wanted to do something more meaningful with my career, to serve others.

I moved into the non-profit sector, first working on transparent government, campaign finance, and fair elections, and was on the team that in 2010 helped pass Prop 20 + Redistricting Reform for the State Senate, Assembly, and Congressional districts.

But issues in my own community really opened my eyes to some of our city's most pressing problems. I live in a neighborhood that has some affordable housing, but only because the crime rate was quite high. I have witnessed gang violence, graffiti and vandalism, dumping, homelessness, and drug abuse on my street. Friends and family exhorted me to move. It's not safe, they said.

Rather than move, I decided to stay and do something about it.

I met up with some incredible neighbors that were trying to turn the area around, but it was still very dangerous. A young man was murdered on our street by a gang in early 2009, and we organized a huge march through this area to protest the violence. I called the candidates for mayor, and asked them to come down here and address our situation. One promised us streetlights, and the other promised us police patrols. Both delivered on their promise.

We did nightly dog patrols, and got our neighbors involved. I organized multiple neighborhood clean-ups, encouraging children to participate, so everyone can feel a sense of ownership of our community. They might not be able to vote yet, but they can and should certainly have a say in what goes on here.

We worked closely with SBPD, and were assigned 2 beat officers that knew our community, and our problems, and worked actively with us to form a watch and keep our community safe. I became a huge fan of community-based policing as a result.

We had a large wall that was constantly covered by gang graffiti, to the owner and community's collective despair. I organized a public art mural on that wall so that the neighborhood was in control of what went on that wall. We did a large neighborhood clean-up around it, and a big BBQ for the neighbors and artists while it was going up. The mural remains pristine 2 years later, and gave our neighborhood a sense of identity and pride.

I met some Milpas businesses and Eastside neighbors concerned about their community while I was serving on the Franklin Advisory Committee in 2010, and we formed the Milpas Community Association in response. They hired me as their executive director, and it's the best job I have ever had. We revived the 62 year-old Milpas Holiday Parade and created a new Trick or Treat on Milpas St for our community's children. We put on a Healthy Community Initiative so neighbors could discover the fitness, well-being, and healthy eating resources available in our community. I put children's art up on our battered trash cans to give them an outdoor gallery and Milpas a welcome facelift with bright colors and vivid artwork. And I engineered the city's first solar-powered Christmas Tree for the Milpas Roundabout, and lit it in a neighborhood celebration. We also put on a Taste of Milpas event that brings people to our community to enjoy Milpas' unique culinary culture and raise funds for our community non-profits.

We have made huge strides with a serious social issue in the Milpas corridor - homelessness. The impacts to the Milpas area are dramatically reduced from a high in 2010. We now have a great Milpas Outreach Project that pulls together all kinds of social service partners and the business community to help the most chronically homeless into a sustainable living situation. We've successfully housed 9 formerly chronically homeless individuals in the Milpas area.

My philosophy is that working together, at the community level, we can do amazing things!

We won a national title for Neighborhood of the Year for all of this work on Milpas.

I am also Chair of the Santa Barbara County Advisory Board on Alcohol and Other Drug Problems, and have put on forums across the county to educate the public on the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

My daughter is now 18, and a student at City College. I am very proud of her, and happy that I was able to raise her in Santa Barbara. Getting our community's children involved in neighborhood activities is a passion for me. They are our future, and I love seeing what they come up with when we work together in the community.