Austin ISD Graduate

Austin ISD Mom

Public schools advocate who puts students first

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I’m a homegrown Austinite & former Austin ISD student, graduating from Austin High School (Go Maroons!).

I’m a current AISD parent who grew up in southwest Austin & lives in East Austin.

I know and love this city.

After I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with dual degrees in business and Plan II Honors, I started my career in education as a 5th grade teacher in Baltimore City where I also completed a Master of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University.

To this day, that was the hardest job I have ever had! The systemic challenges I experienced with just getting basic necessities like clean water and functioning heat, not to mention enough classroom supplies for my students, prompted me to enroll in the LBJ School of Public Affairs (I love learning!) where I received a full scholarship and focused on education policy. 

Since then, I have worked in several education organizations providing strategic support to school districts across the country ranging from early warning indicator data systems to formative assessments strategies to new teacher support systems. 


I shifted my focus seven years ago to internal organizational leadership where I have leveraged my skills in systems thinking and strategic planning to solve some of the thorniest problems in large education non-profits.

I’m currently the Vice President of Technology and Business Operations at the National Math and Science Initiative, where I have the privilege of working with outstanding educators who provide high quality professional development to public school teachers and leaders in Texas and beyond to ensure better outcomes for all students.

As a parent, I have served as a Campus Advisory Council member for five years and co-chair for two, I’m a PTA member and have volunteered with Austin Partners in Education.

I live with my husband and three kids. In my spare time I love spending time in my “front-yard garden”, working out and having fun with the Dane’s Body Shop community, and being an active part of my faith community.

Priorities for Austin Students, Families, & Schools

  • About four out of ten students in our district boundaries are not attending our schools. Enrollment directly affects our financial stability and is also an indicator of how well we are - or are not -serving our community.

    Our enrollment process - the first touch point for so many families - is confusing, lengthy and not customer service oriented. When I was filing my trustee candidacy paperwork, I witnessed a grandmother walk into Central Administration looking for anyone who could help her. She had just received custody of her grandchildren - her family was in crisis. The online enrollment system wasn’t working and the phone number listed for her to call had not been answered for days. She had to take the time to drive down to find someone in person who could help her. I know that she is not alone in these types of negative experiences and I have spoken to several families who did not enroll in AISD because enrollment itself was a terrible process. 

    AISD needs to: 

    1. Overhaul the enrollment process. 

    2. Develop a comprehensive plan to support school staff with implementing customer service practices to drive engagement and retention.

    3. Connect with recent district leavers to better understand why they left and what could have made them stay.

    Our mission is to educate all children and while we have significant financial challenges, it should be of no debate where we focus our limited dollars. I would also work to ensure that staff roles most proximate to improving student outcomes and having a positive impact on a student’s day are prioritized for maintaining current salaries and hopefully pay raises when those are possible.

  • Austin ISD has persistent and deep achievement gaps between student groups.

    For example, 8 out of 10 economically disadvantaged AISD students did NOT meet grade level expectations for Algebra I last year. Students who don’t pass Algebra I have just a 1 in 5 chance of graduating high school, which is critical for being on a path to life success. 

    We need stronger vertical team alignment, increased and equitable access to Algebra I in middle school, and strong teacher supports for math instruction.

    For our special education students, the work that is being done now to fix the delays in special education evaluations and services must be paid close attention to with a strong focus on family engagement and seeking authentic feedback on progress being made or not made.

    Teachers need more training on supporting students with special needs, curriculum choices should reflect universal design for learning as much as possible, and our data systems must provide early warning indicators for when our inputs to improving special education are not yielding the results we want to see.

    Additionally, to ensure we are closing achievement gaps and improving outcomes for ALL students, I want to see our district leadership shift away from the current focus of “inputs” - such as number of training hours, number of teachers hired, etc. -  which is how the district’s annual reports are written and how updates to Trustees are given, to a focus of what are the actual outcomes achieved that are directly connected to fulfilling our mission of preparing every student.

  • It should be a cultural norm and expectation to share information in easy to access ways with families, beyond just an online gradebook. Any time a significant assessment is given that is used to drive instruction, families should receive information about how their students are doing and how a teacher will use that information to improve their students’ achievement.

    Families are sometimes given surveys for their input, but how that input is used (or not) is unclear. It is not enough to say that you got input; more must be done to ensure you are getting input from more families, show how the input is being used, and when the input wasn’t used, why. 

    For our community, we ask our taxpayers to support our bond initiatives and there needs to be more, clear, and consistent communication about how the bond money is being used equitably, when projects are completed, and how that work is directly tied to ensuring a supportive learning environment that improves student outcomes.