As the first person in my family to graduate from college, I understand the barriers to education faced by today’s students. I grew up in a working class neighborhood of the Bay Area where few people even considered attending college. The product of local public schools, I earned both a B.A. in Sociology and a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley. At Cal, I led the student recruitment and retention center for underrepresented students and fought to expand educational opportunities. My efforts were recognized by the university and I was the only graduate of my year to receive the Priestly Award for “contributions to student welfare.”

My advocacy on behalf of students continues to this day. For the last six years, I have worked as an educational finance advisor for California’s community college and school districts. During that time, I have raised over $2.2 billion for school construction and modernization. I know that I have helped improve educational opportunities for thousands of students across California and now I would like to do the same in my own community.

As a Peralta Trustee, I will use my public finance and policy expertise to make the Peralta colleges:

More relevant for today’s students. I will promote workforce development to prepare students for higher-paying jobs and will work to reverse the declining transfer rate to four-year colleges and universities.

Fair to teachers and to staff. I will ensure that teachers and staff are given a strong voice in the shared governance of the district.

Accountable and transparent to the whole community. There is too little planning by the Board of Trustees and too much management by crisis. This leads to bad (and often costly) decisions being made in a hasty and nontransparent manner. I will bring the stakeholders together to develop a shared vision for the Peralta District and I will demand accountability so that decisions are made which reflect the values of the community.

Aside from my professional work, I am on the Board of a non-profit mental health agency as well as the Board of both the MGO Democratic Club and the East Bay Young Democrats. In June, I was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bay Area Youth Fund for Education.