Candidate for
School Director; Berkeley Unified School District

Many early experiences of my childhood in Fresno, California, have shaped the values I bring to my community work in Berkeley and nationally.

I love wilderness, the high Sierras, and the open spaces of California; I am an avid backpacker, back country skier, cyclist. This love grew from my Fresno Bee journalist father whose beat was the national parks and forests of California. He is a historian of the Sierras, and I have inherited his prodigious library and am very knowledgeable about the geology, watersheds, natural and human history of our mountains. He and I plan to co-author a book on the history of the Inyo National Forest where I was a wilderness ranger and guide; and to co-edit a book on the early poets and artists of the Sierra.

When I was in 7th grade, in 1970, my junior high school was integrated. The adults did not do a good job in helping the 12-15 year olds negotiate a new reality. I remember the African American students who were bussed almost 10 miles from home felt terribly alienated in that strange new environment. Similar experiences in the subsequent three decades, about how society embraces and negotiates its different social and racial pasts into the present, have made me passionate about social justice issues.

My orientation toward social justice issues grew during my education at Cal, where I majored in Narratives and Culture, an independent major that combined Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Anthropology, Journalism, and English. This experience taught me the richness of an education in a high achieving environment with very diverse participants.

My education led me to spend the last 20 years working on gender issues, economic and community development, racial justice, international development, education, and housing issues. I wrote a book on Indian women, Where Women are Leaders, and continue to author one or two articles annually on the issues I am currently working on. I edited a popular journal on women and economic issues in the United States for the Ms. Foundation for Women for 5 years ("Equal Means"), and have continued to author many reports for the organizations I work for: two being released this fall include "Increasing Housing Opportunity in New York City" (release September 23); and "Expanding Opportunities: New Resources to Meet California's Housing Needs." (see http://www.policylink.org)

What is common to all of this history, these publications and these jobs is their basis in bringing various community stakeholders together to analyze their problems and propose innovative and practical solutions for change. I began to apply these very principles to my kids schools when they began in 1990.

Because my commitment to social change took place largely in the nonprofit sector, I have worked closely with foundations and philanthropic organizations for over 15 years, and forged many public/private partnerships. These relationships will allow me to forge new partnerships for the school district. They have allowed me to help raise over $1 million for BUSD during my years of volunteer effort.

Finally, all of this has made me a community builder, committed to bringing the diversity of our community together to identify the challenges we face, bring experts to our table to advise us on possibilities, and work tirelessly to forge compromise and consensus to bring that change about. In this spirit, I authored the policy and guidance that is shaping the high school reform currently proceeding at Berkeley High School.