What inspired you to run?

My parents are immigrants, and so they’ve always been really big on education. I’ve always been a big fan of education, I’ve been a student. I’m still a student in my doctoral degree. When we moved here, we were really seeking the best public school system for our children because we had come from a charter school system, and it wasn’t everything that we had expected. 

Then, we came here and we saw how wonderful children were thriving, playing sports, getting involved, becoming leaders and they were just enjoying going to school. When you see your children thrive and be happy, you want to give back, so I was volunteering here and there, with different boosters, then I was asked to become PTO president. That’s when I started wondering, why are we raising so much money for all these boosters, events, clubs and sports when really, a school district like CISD should have so much cash on hand. 

People said, ‘Oh, well, the state funding, the Robin Hood situation,’ and then that really inspired me to go find out some more. So I took iLead, and it was really inspiring, and I thought, maybe one day I’ll run for school board. I didn’t think it would be this year.

Then, Mr. David Caviness stepped down, and I started getting phone calls and text messages from friends, neighbors and teachers in the district going, ‘Hey, you know, it’s opened up. What do you think?’ 
And I’m like, I don’t know. I just don’t think this is the right time, but the more I spoke to people, I had a conversation with Dr. Leanne Shivers, the more I felt like ‘You know what, the door’s open,’ and if I can give back to CISD by helping them make really good decisions and focusing on the long term success of CISD. Because I’ve had elementary students, middle school students and high school students I’m going to put my hat in the ring. I always tell my kids, door’s open. So sometimes, you just have to walk through them and be brave.

What steps have you taken to campaign, and what are your main objectives?

The best part about campaigning is having coffee, meeting, me telling you my story and you telling me yours. The ability to connect with people one on one, whether through coffee or meet and greets has really been great. But campaigns are multilayered, so you have to campaign in different ways. 
We have done videos on Facebook and Instagram and all the social media. I’ve completed a whole bunch of different forums, I’ve attended a whole bunch of different meetings for our community, met with students, met with families, met with community members who were retired, just trying to understand and listen, because that’s really what this school board role is all about. It’s about being able to make decisions based on what your community members are asking of you, and so I have really learned a lot about how much this community really hears for CISD, no matter if you live in Parkside or if you’re all the way up to Magnolia Park at 121. 

I have three main objectives: The first and foremost is to protect programs and the classroom experience. I love that CISD allows for students to do different things. 
You may be on that honor roll, AP, take three-four calculus classes path, that’s great. You know why you’re able to do that? Because of block scheduling, that extra block of time, so you’re able to be a student journalist, but still be able to take all the classes that you want. That wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have block scheduling. Sitting in a classroom with lectures may not be your thing. You may want to learn holistically and get your hands dirty and collaborate. 
And that’s great. I think the fact that we have so many programs like that and high school, even like our dual language programs for our little kids and our IB program for our elementary kids, not every district has that and it allows every child to find their success. That is so important because it’s not all about getting good grades. 
It’s about finding who you are and figuring out what you want to do, figuring out how you think and finding that way to be successful. 

The second thing is, you can have all the great programs in the world, but we need to sustain, support and keep great teachers. Teachers have a lot on their plate and I think it’s up to the school board to recognize that, not just compensate them, because money is great, but that’s not the number one factor. Teachers need to feel supported, teachers need to feel appreciated. People need to be able to advocate for the teachers and go, ‘You know what, your workload is so much. 
You’re teaching so many classes and what should we take off your plate so that you can focus on your students?’ 

And that’s the third thing. We need to keep the students at the center of all decisions, whether we have plans to consolidate a school or we have budget constraints. Every decision that we make should be for all the students in CISD, no matter where you live. 
No matter what neighborhood you come from, no matter what kind of student you happen to be, if we keep the students at the center of all our decision making, then that decision is going to be sound and it’s going to spearhead the future of CISD. 

What qualities of CISD motivated you to run for school board?

This community in CISD, no matter where you live, whether it’s from Valley Ranch, Irving or the heart of Coppell, they have a real big heart for students. No matter what opinion they have, it really all goes back to students. I have never seen a community rally together so much whenever big decisions have been made, on both sides of the decision point. 

I think that’s the one really unique thing about CISD, is that it has that small town feel, but that big city energy, and we value education, we value diversity, we value the ability to find who you are. I love that about this community. Some communities are very rigid in their thinking, but not here. I think CISD is very open minded. It’s just a wonderful place to grow up. 
My kids have told me ‘Why didn’t we move here sooner?’ I wish we did. The teachers know who you are, the teachers care about you, I think it’s a great place.

What is your favorite part about CISD?

I am a big fan of teachers. When I was in the second grade, I had Mrs. Stromberg, and she was this woman from Tennessee, who had the thickest Tennessee accent trying to teach me phonics. I grew up a lot like the kids here in CISD. I am a first-generation American. I had a lot of pressure on me to succeed, to do well to get good grades because a lot of sacrifices were made so that I could be here in America and find my path. She saw me, reminded me and guided me to say, ‘You know what? Your success is your own. You don’t have to do this for your mom and dad, and you’re doing this for you, and you are more than your GPA. You are more than what college you get into. 
You are a whole person.’ Good teachers see that, good teachers have gone through that. I know the experiences of my children and our friends who live in the area. CISD is so full of the most amazing educators I have ever seen. Educators are always great, but there’s something about the collection that we have here in Coppell I see that allows students to thrive. 

If any, what concerns do you have about the district?

There’s two things. 
Many things that are happening now are because the state is not funding our schools well enough. We’re still looking at 2019 numbers. 
Even though inflation has been up 26-28%, we have a budget deficit gap to close. I will say that Dr. Shivers is doing a really good job looking at the budget and finding different ways to make those adjustments. But, it’s just tight and nobody likes that. 

That’s concern number one. Coppell students are some of the most high achieving kids I have ever seen. I think there are kids out here in our community that need a little bit of extra attention and care from a mental health status. We want to make sure that we can take care of those kids.

How do you plan on addressing these issues as a trustee?

Making sure that we’re making really good decisions in order to keep that deficit gap closed, and still not lose the wonderful things that make Coppell, Coppell, not lose great teachers and not have to cut programs just because we can’t afford them anymore. 


We want to lower the stress levels so that students can learn and achieve, but not lose a piece of themselves. That comes from paying attention, that comes from being mindful and being meaningful, and the actions that we take. Everyone always says, ‘I’m worried about the mental health status of students’ but what are we actually going to do about it in this district? Where can we start? 

What will your leadership bring to the district?

These past few years have been tough for the district, and we’ve made some really big decisions, whether it’s been a school closure or a school consolidation, budgeting that makes things different or tighter or that we may not be able to fill another teacher position that we really want to. 
Whenever it comes to students, children and kids, adults can get very emotional and invested in it, because we care so much, and the intentions are so good in this town. But the temperature has been really high, and that’s what motivated me to run. I’ve been watching on the sidelines, I’ve been seeing people who used to get along, but because they’re on different sides of a decision point, kind of lose that friendship or lose that good feeling. I think that we can rise above all of that and get to a point where we can rally together as a community to make the right decisions for students.


I do that because my personality is very calm, cool and collected. I have to be, I’m a nurse by background, and I’m consulting now, but we nurses are taught to do three things really well. 
We assess the situation calmly and coolly, because when a life is on the line, there is a lot of chaos that happens in that patient’s room. We know how to listen. 
And so, I’m going to listen to you. I’m going to listen to students, listen to parents, listen to teachers and educators, and listen to community members who may not even have children anymore because they contribute to CISD. Then we’re going to advocate for who needs it most, because as board members, we are responsible for what happens in this district by making really good decisions. 

I make good decisions every day as part of my career. I’m a consultant where I help health care organizations come to good conclusions so that they can have safe, sound, financially successful hospitals. And so that’s what I’ll bring to this board. I’ll bring collaboration, to collaborate and to be able to disagree but respectfully, be able to be proactive and not reactive. And those are all the things that I want to bring to the board with my leadership, and I hope that if I’m voted in, that I’ll spend my three years living out these words.

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