Candidate for
Trustee; Santa Clara Unified School District; Trustee Area 2

Next Vista for Learning Advisory Board, March, 2007 to Present

As a member of the Next Vista advisory board I am an advocate for their cause. I discuss their vision with potential users and contributors while being a support system both technologically and financially (through fund-raising). We are currently rebuilding the entire technological infrastructure, providing a stable environment for current users and keeping growth in mind. The team that is currently rebuilding the site consists of members that I recruited to help with this venture.

Santa Clara Schools Foundation, Board of Directors, 2005 to Present

In 2005, the Santa Clara School District was going through some of the worst budget cuts since the Dot-Com bust. I was approached by Rod Adams to join the Santa Clara Schools Foundation. As a new member, I helped them to focus on taking the next steps of fund-raising and to create a new vision.

During my three years with them I have gained the trust of the established board and was asked to be a part of the four person team who developed a new road-map for the future, re-organized the group and produced new by-laws.

Along with Music Rivals (a district wide musical talent competition), which I produced, I helped initiate the Annual Campaign for the Santa Clara Schools Foundation (which raised 50K), and assisted in securing donations for the Marilyn Rea Golf Tournament.

In addition to my fund-raising work with the foundation, I created, designed and developed their brand new website.

Santa Clara Unified School District, Wellness Committee 2005 to Present

I assisted in creating new policies and acted as an advocate for the students in helping to provide healthy food choices in the schools. I was in constant contact with press and was interviewed on the new policies and the bold step that we so aggressively pushed through the school board.

Bracher Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, President June 2004-June 2006

My time at Bracher was spent focusing on rebuilding communication between parents, teachers and administration. Due to my ability to connect to a variety of people, our volunteer base went from 20 parents to just over 75 parents. We also increased our profits by 25%.

With the money raised we were able to improve many projects. The one most visible to the children was our free fun day, turning it into a huge carnival where each child received a backpack, toys, games and food, all for free. We also were able to include a mostly free Santa's workshop, and Mother's and Father's Day workshops, where children were able to come in and make art projects to give to their families. Finally, we were able to increase the amount of money we gave to teachers yearly from $150 to $200.

My focus during those two years was to create an organization that would be self sustaining. I did this by creating new Bracher PTA policies. We focused on healthy eating, open communication, community building and getting parents involved. My husband and I produced the Bracher PTA Website

Santa Clara University Psychology Club Founder and President, 2002-2004

During my time at Santa Clara University there was a lack of support for those interested in Psychology. On my own, I created the psychology club which included writing the bylaws, finding club officers and creating the club's vision.

While president, we visited Apple and NASA, giving psychology majors the opportunity to see there are more careers out there for them. We started a Senior-Freshmen mentoring program and had monthly socials to check in. Because of my work I was awarded the Senior Award for Service, for Outstanding Service to the Psychology Department of SCU.

Bracher Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, Vice President June 2002-June 2003

Co-Organizer for "Walk for Education", 2003

I was a co-organizer for the protest walk against Governor Gray Davis when he was threatening to take away our local taxes and pour them back into the state's general fund. YWCA Mid-Peninsula Rape Crisis Counselor, 2002

I served as Crisis Counselor and the main scheduler for all the crisis counselors. Other Accomplishments

• Speaker for NCLB panel for Manny Diaz, 2003
• Received Public School Week Award for Volunteer Work, 2003

• Notre Dame de Namur, Graduate Student, Psychology
• Santa Clara University, BS in Psychology, 2004