I moved to SF 10 years ago when I was 22, and since I moved to the Excelsior, I've worked to make District 11 safer, vibrant, and more equitable:
Giving back to my community & solving problems is what I’ve always done — growing up, I volunteered with my local Rotary Club & the American Cancer Society. In college, I was a volunteer civics teacher & ran a student teaching program. For the last decade, I served San Francisco by building a new, cheaper nonprofit college headquartered in SF with campuses around the world. During COVID, I built over 30+ early childhood schools with a new model that provides housing for teachers and serve on the board of the largest Head Start network. I’ve served breakfast at Glide Memorial Church & organized Asian community events.
I was proud to get the first ever political donation, $100, from my friend Ethel, 92, born and raised in the Excelsior.
And proud to be endorsed by long time District 11 community leaders, including:
Until last year, I had no intention to enter SF politics. But the status quo forced me to. During COVID, I saw a city that defunded police, renamed schools instead of reopened them and thought — what is going on?
Unlike other candidates for District 11 Supervisor, I haven’t been a part of the status quo system or padding my resume for a life in politics. COVID made things worse in SF & exposed bad policies & underlying problems in D11 — neglect and generational disinvestment. At a time when the city is facing a $790 million deficit, we desperately need competent new leadership that can bring creative problem solving, fundraising, organizing, and connections to empower our district & make changes to a broken government.
That’s why I’m working 7 days a week, reaching out to voters in my community and city. I’m hungry to take everything I have to help District 11 and fix our city. That work won’t stop in November, and neither will I.
Tinycare was a new model for daycare I founded serving hundreds of children during COVID while providing teacher housing from 2019 - 2023.
Tinycare rented 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartments in SF, provided housing & utilities for lead teachers, W2 employment plus health benefits, & empowered teachers to turn living rooms into licensed bilingual daycares with small ratios.
The idea was inspired in 2016, when I was a volunteer preschool teacher in the Tenderloin. An amazing teacher I worked with made $18/hour, had a BA in child development, & lived in Pinole and commuted daily to SF on public transport. Meanwhile, parents were on 1-2 year waitlists for infant daycare. It became clear the long term solution is universal childcare.
In the short term, Tinycare was a solution to both teacher housing & quality infant / toddler care. Here were our first three Tinycares:
During COVID, when daycares around the country shut down and furloughed teachers, I cut my small salary to keep all our teachers on payroll during lockdown and raised more money to keep us afloat.
In 2022, we expanded infant/toddler daycare when there was really high need, and at its peak, Tinycare had 35 locations across the Bay Area & Arizona that employed dozens of teachers, served hundreds of parents, and most importantly provided quality care to children.
Quality was critical to us, so we had half the teacher: student ratios as other centers (1:2 for infants & 1:3 for toddlers), meaning average tuition was not cheap ($3300 per month). Lead teachers were paid W2, and also paid $0 for housing & utilities, and over time we added 401K. Total take home pay including housing was much higher than as a lead teacher in a childcare center. We knew that to increase teacher pay even more while lowering tuition, we need policy change, because the US subsidizes only $500 / toddler per year, the average OECD country subsidizes $14,500.
Parents & children loved Tinycare:
Tinycare had growing pains during COVID, and like any innovative solution, there were things we could have done better. But overall, I'm proud of Tinycare. And so are former teachers:
In February 2023, Tinycare was acquired by Higher Ground Education, a large Montessori School network that had ~200 large schools around the world to combine our small infant / toddler daycares with their large preschool - grade 5 large centers. They renamed it Guidepost Picco.
As a large company employing thousands of people globally, Higher Ground Education had multiple lawsuits. After I sold Tinycare, one lawsuit directed to both Tinycare & Higher Ground was settled for a small sum.
In August, I was sad & shocked to find out from a former teacher that the company that Higher Ground Education, was abruptly closing sites nationally, including large schools & former Tinycare sites. It was yet another reminder childcare is broken. We need policy change and that's part of why I'm running.
I live in and am registered to vote in District 11. In July, there was a clerical error with my driver's license renewal that was fixed in a couple days. The Department of Elections immediately confirmed this.
I’ve lived in San Francisco since 2014, but the Excelsior is my home. It reminds me of where I grew up and where I want to raise my future family, because I deeply value diversity, community, & fighting for the underdog.
I’ve voted in every election since I was 18 and have volunteered to support candidates I believe in during the 2016 Presidential election and in 2020, the Georgia Special Election, coordinating volunteers to write thousands of letters to drive voter turnout in Atlanta because there was a chance to get universal childcare policy passed at the federal level.
Instead of misinformation and smears, let’s address the very real problems in D11 and San Francisco, like:
I'm focused on the issues that hurt us day-to-day, not attacking other people.
If you want bold, optimistic, commonsense leadership that gets things done, vote for me #1.
