I grew up in an educator and small business family in Philadelphia and coastal South Jersey.  I have lived in Rochester since 2006, where I raised my three children Lee (Mayo High School Class of 2018), Elizabeth (Mayo Class of 2021), and Ben (Mayo Class of 2025) with my husband, Andrew.  Before moving to Rochester, I've lived all around the country for education and job opportunities, including upstate New York (the 'other Rochester'), the Pacific Northwest, and Atlanta, GA.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

My personal interests include reading, writing, running, gardening, choir singing, art in any form, green living and lifeways, conservation, women's health, education, and child development.  I've also become a soccer fan as a volunteer manager for North Star FC and a Mayo High School team volunteer.

Before I had my 3 kids, and various fur kids, I worked in small business hospitality and restaurants, the nonprofit arts and human services sector, and then in horticulture, floral, and garden design companies.  In these roles, I worked primarily in operations, customer service, planning, prospect research, and fundraising.  When working in the 'green' industry, I was also a project manager, designer, and maintenance staff member.  

In Atlanta, I served on the Inman Park Preschool board and helped to create an outdoor classroom that became a curriculum focus and still exists today, 20 years later.  I worked for many years on the Bamber Valley Garden in Rochester as well, using many of the same skills at that unique property.  

My more specific classroom teaching experience includes 8 years as a K-1 teacher at B'nai Israel Religious School, from 2009-2017, and being a para at Riverside School from 2019-2020, when COVID closed the schools. I've been a parent volunteer and/or board member in the organizations our family has been part of, including; B'nai Israel Synagogue, North Star FC, Mayo High School Theatre, Band, Swim and Soccer Teams, Southeast Minnesota Youth Orchestras (SEMYO), Rochester Art Center, Ballet Blake, Children's Dance Theater, Rochester Montessori School, Allegro School of Dance, Inman Park Cooperative Preschool, and Big Sisters of Puget Sound.  

I've served as a PTA volunteer and president at both Bamber Valley and Friedell Middle Schools. I’ve also been an intermittent grant reviewer for the Rochester Public Schools Foundation and a volunteer on the referendums in 2019, 2023, and 2024.

For 10 years, I've been a volunteer officer with the DFLs of Olmsted County, specifically with the Olmsted 20/24 party unit, which represents the western precincts of Rochester into the rural areas of Olmsted and Dodge Counties.  I've served as treasurer, vice chair, event coordinator, and as a campaign volunteer.  More recently, I've been a voting member of the MN DFL State Central Committee, the DFL's policy-making body.  Before that I chaired what was ultimately an unsuccessful, but interesting, campaign to redesign the City of Rochester Flag from 2016-2018.

Running for Rochester School Board is an honor, and a long-considered next step in my life's work of community service and capacity building.  For me, this has always been about supporting women, children, families, education, the environment, and the arts...the bedrocks of our lives. 

There is nothing more important in this time period of low investment in education and the public sector than keeping these resources available for the success of all of our students and families. We know they are essential, and we know we must work to ensure all future generations have access to quality public education and other public programs…the commons if you will. 

I will bring my years of experience and leadership as both a parent and a hands-on community volunteer to make sure this critical mission succeeds now and in the years to come.