I was born and raised in the desert in Tucson, Arizona. My mom was a special education teacher who spent her spare time collecting food for the food bank and tutoring students. My dad is an engineer who spent weekends doing science experiments with me. During freshman year of high school, I met my partner, Brendan. We have now been together 15 years!

I went to college at the University of Arizona and studied Environmental Economics. While I spent most of my undergraduate years working on sustainability initiatives, I became interested in the role of business in society, which led me to work in financial services after school.

Rather than hopping from job to job, I committed 7 years to building my career at a single company, the investment management firm Dodge & Cox.  I worked in most of the departments at the company, including in several operational and client services roles. In my final position, I founded the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing team.

Community service has been an important part of my life since I began volunteering at an animal shelter when I started high school. After graduating college, I served on the board of the League of Women Voters of San Francisco for 6 years, including 3 years as President. In this role I led a 15-person board, part-time staff, and 50+ volunteers. I was then elected to serve as Treasurer of the national League of Women Voters, which oversees 750+ state and local Leagues, a 22 million dollar budget, and 50+ staff. I also served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit Bond Oversight Committee, which oversaw the spending of $3.5 billion in bond revenue to rebuild BART’s aging infrastructure.

These roles taught me things you can’t learn in a classroom: how to manage through a leadership transition when a senior leader unexpectedly left, how to work through budget deficits, and how to resolve conflicts between strong-willed leaders, all in service of an organization’s mission.

I recently completed my MBA at Stanford, where I deepened my understanding of business operations, finance, and entrepreneurship. Brendan and I have moved back to San Francisco, where I’m focused on finding and leading a business I can commit to for the long term.