Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Martinez Unified School District

I am a graduate of Sonoma State University, with a major in History and a minor in Political Science. While a student at SSU, I was instrumental in the development of the first "Women in History" class and in the hiring of SSU's first female History professor. I returned to SSU and received my secondary teaching credential in Social Studies in 1975.

I returned to SSU for additional graduate units in History, and due to the scarcity of teaching jobs, I began working for the American Heart Association while also volunteering as a crisis line volunteer for the Marin Suicide Prevention Center. I continued my work in the human services area as an Assistant Executive Director for the United Way of the North Bay in Santa Rosa. When I moved to Contra Costa County I began working for the Rape Crisis Center as Director of Community Education. In that role I helped to develop a six week violence prevention curriculum with the Alternatives to Violence and Abuse Coalition. I also began volunteering with the Child and Adolescent Task Force, the Expanded Youth Services Board ("ancestor" to the current Children and Families Policy Forum), the Children's Coalition, and later became the Child Advocate and Chair of the Children's Committee of the Contra Costa Mental Health Advisory Board and Co-chair of the Family and Children's Task Force. During this time I began working as a teacher at a local psychiatric hospital treating adolescents. Later I moved as a teacher to another locked psychiatric hospital serving only adolescents and then became the facility's Education Director.

Upon moving to Santa Clara County I became the Coordinator and teacher in an alternative high school program located with a vocational education center. When the position was split into two half-time positions (on my recommendation) I changed jobs and became the Principal and Executive Director of a nonpublic school serving learning disabled and emotionally disturbed students. A nonpublic school is licensed by the State of California to provide services to public school students whose districts feel that they are unable to provide needed special education services to some of their students on their district-run campuses. While in Santa Clara I continued my human services volunteer work by serving as Chair of the Social Services Advisory Commission, on the Santa Clara Mental Health Board as Family, Adolescent, and Children's Committee Chair and then as Board Chair, and as a founder and officer of Resources for Families and Communities of Santa Clara County, a nonprofit agency working to preserve and support families and their communities.

Upon my return to Contra Costa County(after six years in Santa Clara County)I was again appointed to the Contra Costa Mental Health Commission as Child Advocate and Chair of its Children's Committee. In July I was elected Co-chair of the Commission. When I returned to Contra Costa I became a contract grant writer for the Contra Costa County Office of Education and the Martinez Unified School District. While serving in that capacity I was instrumental in writing two technology grants (one for the junior high school and one for the high school programs)which together brought in more than $400,000 to Martinez Unified. Last year I worked as a classroom teacher at Vicente Martinez High School, MUSD's alternative/ continuation program.

In addition to my volunteer work on the Mental Health Commission, I currently work as a volunteer and program consultant to the Family Resource Center which provides education and support services to families whose children have special needs. I am also a volunteer with the Parenting Task Force of the Children and Families Policy Forum, and with the FamilyLinks television program providing parenting information on CCTV.

I have owned my home in Martinez for more than 10 years and before that lived in Walnut Creek for more than 5 years. I have been active in my community since I moved here and I have been a strong advocate for quality education for all students as well as an advocate for mental health consumers and their families.