Why I’m Running
I believe CUSD can be exceptional — and still do better.
CUSD has been part of my life since I was six years old. I attended Carmel Unified schools and graduated from Carmel High School. The education I received here helped prepare me for the opportunities that followed, and that tradition of academic excellence is one of the reasons my family chose to raise our child in this district.
Today, I’m experiencing those same schools from a very different perspective: as a parent.
As the parent of a special-needs student receiving supports in CUSD, I’ve seen firsthand the extraordinary dedication of teachers, specialists and staff who work every day to help students succeed. I’ve seen people go above and beyond for my child, and I have enormous respect for the work they do.
I’ve also experienced how difficult it can be for families when the systems surrounding those people don’t respond as clearly, consistently or effectively as they should.
Those two things can be true at the same time.
We can have exceptional educators, high academic expectations and deeply committed people throughout our schools while still asking hard questions about the systems and decisions that determine whether students, families and educators get what they need.
That experience is an important part of why I decided to run.
Experience making consequential decisions
For more than two decades, I’ve worked in fast-moving technology environments where consequential decisions often had to be made with incomplete information, competing priorities and real constraints.
My work in product and engineering leadership has required evaluating emerging technologies, making significant investment choices, understanding the people affected by those decisions, measuring results and changing direction when the evidence required it.
Nearly six years of that career was spent in education technology. That experience reinforced both the possibilities technology can create for students and educators and the importance of distinguishing investments that genuinely improve outcomes from those that simply promise to.
A school district is not a technology company, and it shouldn’t be run like one.
But the discipline of defining the problem before choosing a solution, examining the evidence, understanding costs and consequences and measuring whether an investment works translates directly to responsible Board governance — particularly as districts make long-lived decisions about facilities, technology, instructional resources and public dollars.
Why now
As my son entered CUSD, I became increasingly involved in our schools, including service on School Site Council and as River School PTO Treasurer.
Those experiences deepened both my appreciation for the people doing the work and my understanding of how district decisions ultimately reach individual schools, classrooms and families.
I’m running now because these parts of my life have converged.
CUSD gave me the foundation of my own education. Today, my child is growing up in the same district. I’ve spent years volunteering in our schools, and as the parent of a special-needs student I’ve had a close view of both what CUSD does exceptionally well and where its systems can do better.
I’m also at a point in my professional life where I can bring more than twenty years of experience making complex decisions, evaluating significant investments and leading through technological change to public service.
I owe a great deal to these schools. Serving on the Board would be an opportunity to give something meaningful back to the school community that helped shape me and is now helping shape my son — while having a real impact on the decisions that will shape CUSD’s future.
How I would approach the work
Good governance is not simply approving the recommendations placed in front of you.
Board members should ask hard questions, examine the evidence, understand alternatives and consequences, and make independent judgments. That doesn’t mean assuming every recommendation is wrong. It means taking seriously the Board’s responsibility to determine whether it is right.
The Board’s role is governance, not day-to-day administration. Professional educators and district leaders should be empowered to do their jobs. But independent oversight still requires Board members to understand the recommendations they are being asked to approve and to hold the district accountable for the results.
The people most affected by important decisions should also have a meaningful opportunity to be heard while those decisions are still being shaped — not simply have those decisions explained after the fact.
And accountability shouldn’t end with a Board vote. Once a decision is made, the Board should expect to understand whether it is producing the results that justified making it in the first place.
I don’t expect every decision to be easy or everyone in the community to agree. But families should understand how important decisions were reached. Educators should have the support and clarity they need to do their work. Students should receive an exceptional education that challenges them, supports them when they need it, and prepares them for what comes next. And taxpayers should be able to see that district resources are being used thoughtfully, transparently and responsibly.
Those principles lead directly to the three priorities I would bring to the Board: