About Me
I came to Santa Barbara at 18 to attend Santa Barbara City College and graduated from USCB. I have now lived in this community for 25 years and my husband and I built our family and careers here. I have two children, Dean and Ellie who attend school under Santa Barbara Unified.
I volunteer in my children's classrooms twice a week, which gives me the opportunity to see firsthand the work educators are doing, the needs students bring into the classroom, and the everyday realities facing families and school communities.
Public service has also been part of my life from an early age. My grandfather served as a mayor, and my mother has served on her local school board for more than 30 years. I grew up understanding that public leadership requires preparation, listening, accountability, difficult decisions, and a willingness to put the community's interests first.
My own leadership experience spans nonprofit governance, youth advocacy, fundraising, organizational management, and the private sector.
As President and in other leadership roles with the Junior League of Santa Barbara, I helped lead an organization of more than 350 women and oversaw strategic planning, operations, advocacy, community programming, organizational priorities, and budgeting during a period of significant change, including COVID.
That experience taught me how effective boards should operate: establish clear priorities, understand the finances, align people and resources around the mission, evaluate results, navigate difficult decisions, and hold leadership accountable for implementation.
I helped lead a project to renovate the children's library and program room at Transition House, raising more than $11,000 to create a warmer and more supportive environment for children experiencing family homelessness. That project required turning a community need into a concrete plan, building support, raising resources, and delivering a tangible result.
I have also been deeply involved in anti-trafficking and at-risk youth advocacy through my leadership with 4 Kids 2 Kids, an organization I helped found. I have helped guide the organization through start-up, growth, staffing, fundraising, management challenges, leadership transitions, and restructuring. That work has reinforced my commitment to protecting vulnerable young people and to building organizations that are both compassionate and accountable.
Professionally, I bring more than 15 years of experience in SaaS leadership, sales management, operational strategy, hiring, team development, process improvement, partnership building, change management, and organizational scaling. I have led teams responsible for significant revenue, managed budgets and resources, created systems and training, improved internal processes, and helped organizations navigate periods of growth and transition.
Across each of these roles, I have had to do many of the same things an effective trustee must do: understand complex information, ask difficult questions, manage competing priorities, listen to stakeholders, make responsible financial decisions, evaluate results, and keep an organization focused on its mission.
I would be honored to have your vote in November.