I am the biracial mother of four neurodiverse students and the spouse of an immigrant. We moved to Bothell in 2014 when my older children were entering 1st and 3rd grades because of the reputation of Northshore schools. My oldest graduated from North Creek High School in 2024, and I have two current North Creek students and one student at Skyview Middle. From my days with them in co-op preschools through the first year of college, I have been involved in their education, learning along with them in their classrooms, volunteering in their schools, working with their PTAs, becoming a Girl Scout leader, and being elected to the HiCap Parents Council.

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As a kid, I attended excellent public schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1996, and then went on to earn a BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University. My degree taught me how to optimize people, finances, and resources. My first job after college, as a Plant Engineer for GM in a factory working to implement lean manufacturing, taught me about the importance of continuous improvement. I love to learn about new ideas and ways of doing things and then apply them to improve the system. Some of my recent learnings over the past decade have included growth mindset, grit, strength based parenting, universal design for learning, the science of happiness, and the social and emotional needs of highly capable children.

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Since moving to Bothell, I’ve been a member of all of the PTAs of my children’s schools and served on the board of two. I’ve volunteered in classrooms, libraries, and school offices. I’m a band booster and have loved helping support the North Creek Band especially during football season and at marching competitions as my parents did for me. I’ve worked as a lead proctor for HiCap screening and assessment as well as serving as Secretary and President of the HiCap Parents Council. I love hearing from parents and either answering their questions by sharing my experiences and knowledge or sharing their challenges with district administrators so we could make positive improvements.

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I am running for school board because I believe that the primary job of schools and educators is to inspire a love of learning inside and outside of the classroom. When we get this right, students excel and become life long learners who are able to take on the challenges of future problems and technologies. We must provide students with a safe learning environment where all of their differences are understood, celebrated, and supported by a community that models working together to creatively solve our challenges and always striving to be better. We must ensure that we meet all learners where they are and teach them that sometimes learning will come easily and sometimes they will have to try and fail many times before reaching mastery and that both are okay. Finally, we must remember that meeting the needs of all students, whether those needs are based in disability or strength, academics  or social/emotional, or are mental or physical, is crucial to our mutual success. Our progress is not a zero sum game and the methods developed to help one group can be beneficial to many others.

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At a minimum, we will have four board members in their first term and a new superintendent, but we can choose board members who, like me, have deep, current experience with schools and systems in our district and strong experience working jointly as part of a team. Because of my many roles in the district, I bring both an understanding of how far we have come and the current challenges that we are facing. I want to watch my kids graduate knowing that I have done everything possible to ensure our district provides the best education not just for them but for all of our students.