As a resident of San Mateo County since 1988, I've been so fortunate to grow up with access to high-quality public education from incredible educators that have been a part of their community for years. This is what I am working for, for all of our children. 

I was born in Michigan in 1979 where my dad took his first job after grad school. Our family returned back to the west coast a few years later, and in 1988 moved from San Francisco to Millbrae, CA where my sister and I grew up. My husband and I have known each other since we were in middle school, and in 2012 we settled in San Mateo so we could start and raise our family. We have a six-year-old son who is the first grade in our district and absolutely loving it. 

My experience attending school in the Millbrae School District, San Mateo Unified High School District, and the University of California at Berkeley has left a powerful impression with me on what is possible for public education - and I am passionate about the promise of public education for all in our district. Core to my belief system is that learning happens everywhere for children, and it takes a community to nurture that learning. We are all busy, I know. But, I also know that it's imperative that we come together as a community to build trust and open lines of communication with clear fiscal accountability, increase educator and staff retention, and ensure that we are supporting the whole child in order to best prepare all of our children for the incredible adventures that lie ahead of them. 

My professional background has thoroughly prepared me for the challenges and responsibilities of being a Trustee of our school district. For the past 18 years, I've built, grown, and led teams and companies through good and tough times. Today, I help companies solve business challenges and develop employees to achieve their leadership potential. My areas of expertise are strategic fiscal accountability, customer and employee retention strategy, and branding and communications. From a career of developing strategic and fiscal acumen, as your board trustee, I will make sure that every dollar is invested as effectively as possible.

Aside from this skill set, which I feel is a critical asset to the Board, I have a deep and empathetic understanding of the challenges facing our educators, students, families, and school district. I have a young child in our district, am a PTA board member, have spent hundreds of hours observing teachers working in classrooms and interviewing administrators/staff, and worked in the community to help ensure 9 years of funding for teacher/staff retention, outstanding school programs, enhancement of STEM classes, and support of classes for the arts via Measure V.

For the past several years, I have spent a large part of my time giving back to my community. I currently sit on San Mateo County's Housing & Community Development Committee and Emergency Medical Services Committees, two services which are critically important to maintaining the safe, healthy, and diverse communities that we enjoy in this county. I'm so proud to be a part of the solution with bringing affordable housing units to our residents and am energized by the idea of applying my experience to helping solve housing affordability for educators and district staff.

Lastly, I have worked hard to listen and build relationships with the community and our local governments, and am confident that we will be able to work together to thoughtfully solve the challenges we face in the coming years.

Our family will be a part of this school district for another eight years, and I am committed to giving my everything to all of our children. Thank you for your consideration in this very important decision. I hope you will join me in bringing this mission to life! 

With Regards,
Annie

Our Binding Agreement. I believe that as a community, we must do choose to move forward with a binding agreement that respect, collaboration, and transparency are core values. Furthermore, it is important and necessary to ensure that we are as a board asking the right questions to staff and the community, come prepared and informed to our sessions, and are not afraid to respectfully challenge the status quo in order to best serve our children and the evolving needs of our community. 

For All Kids. Everything for me is about our children. I will always look at our challenges from the lens of "how does this impact all stakeholders?" with the students being the priority. Our reality is that it's likely that every challenge we face will require trade-offs of some sort. This is where clear and transparent communication of our vision and plan are so important - we must all understand how the puzzle pieces fit together in order to see how we can best work together and ensure our dollars are most effectively spent. 

Collaborative Solutions. Many of the problems our district is facing or will face in the coming years are not going to be unique to our district alone. As well, solving these challenges will almost certainly have a better outcome when we work with the cities represented in our jurisdiction, our neighbors, and partners to look beyond what has been and instead envision what is possible. I commit to this community that I will always approach the challenges we face with a data and community informed view and use that as the starting point for supporting the conversation around "what's possible" and "what's right for our kids".