I am a native Southsider -- born in Hyde Park and raised in Roseland. My parents were an unlikely pair. My Dad was from the former Yugoslavia. My Mom is African American. They met on the old 57^th Street Bridge that crossed DuSable Lake Shore Drive near the Museum of Science and Industry. Being bi-racial but looking white has made me acutely aware of the systemic injustices experienced by the African American community and as a result, I have been a justice seeker all my life. I knew I needed to be a lawyer to fight the good fight. I graduated on the Dean’s List from the University of Chicago – becoming the first in my immediate family to graduate from college. I earned my law degree from the University of California-Berkeley, where I was an Associate Editor on the law review. After practicing law for a few years, I traded the courtroom for the classroom and joined Teach For America on the heels of the Rodney King verdict. Teaching was an incredible privilege. But I soon realized that my skill set would allow me to help my students and their families more in the policy arena.

I moved to Washington, DC where I worked on a range of social justice issues and groundbreaking legislation like the Affordable Care Act and No Child Left Behind. Sad circumstances brought me home in 2016. Within months of each other, my mother had a debilitating stroke and my husband died suddenly and unexpectedly. I moved home to Hyde Park to be near my Mom and sister Jennifer, who some of you may know from St. Thomas the Apostle Church. Moving back to Hyde Park has restored me. I now live one block from where I learned to ride a bike and saw my first shooting star. I can also easily walk to the Point – one of my favorite places on the planet. My love of the Point is why I have been working with the Promontory Point Conservancy to elevate its concerns to the highest levels within City Hall, as I have done and will continue to do on many other issues that impact the 5^th Ward. Read more about my work related to the Point here.