Candidate for
Member, Community College Board; County of San Francisco; 4 Year Full Term

Fresh Leadership for City College

City College is at a critical juncture. The College serves over 80,000 students of all ages, races and incomes. For the good of us all, City College must get back on track with solid, hard-working leadership.

I am passionate about public education. My kids attend public middle and high school, and my eldest is taking a course at City College right now. I went to public schools, taught at the college level, and attended two community colleges at different times. I believe that education should be accessible to all, and that higher education has become prohibitively expensive. College is the only "path out" for many lower-income students. We cannot let that path close.

I have served San Francisco and California in many ways over the years. It would be an honor to put my energies and skills towards making sure that City College is ready to meet the needs of all San Franciscans. My work experience combined with my leadership and participation in the City and for the State of California make me uniquely qualified to help lead City College forward.

When I was Chair of the Citizen's General Obligation Bond Oversight Committee, we took the committee from a sleepy committee overseeing a few bonds to one capable of overseeing the current $7B of bonds. Under my leadership, we increased the frequency of meetings, restructured the oversight so that liaisons were assigned to each bond, and began making use of the funds at our discretion to look for best practices in oversight of the Whistle Blower programs, City Auditing, and General Obligation bonds.

As a small business owner, I am used to making hard decisions to keep things afloat while keeping the bigger picture in mind. I am comfortable with budgets, I am level-headed and know how to fight and then reconcile.

I know how to work with a variety of people to get things done. In 2010, as President and co-Founder of the Lower Haight Merchant + Neighbor Association, I worked with neighborhood residents, merchants and artists to coordinate the "Love in the Lower Haight" mural that turned what the Examiner called a "blighted wall" into a beautiful welcoming mural. In 2013, we successfully completed a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign to make our iconic "silly pink bunny" into a permanent 10 foot bronze statue in the neighborhood.

In my work as a transportation activist, I know what an uphill battle looks like and what excellent leadership and a good board can do to keep things moving in the right direction. I am a proud California High Speed Rail Authority Board member and I have been honored to learn from outstanding leadership and have seen how we are moving the project forward against opposition as a result. I am a long-term member of the San Francisco Transit Riders and current Chair. We know the importance of making a plan and sticking to it, working with everyone while remaining independent, and pushing for responsible funding to take buses held together with trash bags and duct tape off the streets.

I am an alumna of Emerge CA, which trains Democratic women to run and win office. My late mother, Lucy Garretson Selby, worked for Ann Richards, who was the first woman in more than 50 years elected governor of Texas. I graduated from UC Berkeley, and completed an MBA at the University of Oregon, where I was elected President of my class. With my longtime business partner, I own and operate a digital content and marketing company in the heart of The City, Next Steps Marketing.

My husband Robert and I are parents of two boys, 17 and 13. I am grateful to my husband and sons for their support as I undertake this exciting campaign.