Beverly Hills has been my home for most of my life. I'm a proud product of our public schools and a mom raising three children in the same community that shaped me.

My own story is an immigrant story. I came to the United States in 1980 as a toddler, an asylum seeker from the former Soviet Union. My family arrived with little more than bags of books and a fierce belief in hard work. My parents and grandparents sacrificed everything to build a life here; my grandmother even had to re-earn her medical degree before she could practice as a doctor again in this country.

We didn't start in Beverly Hills. My family arrived with nothing and worked their way here, because these schools represented the pinnacle of excellence they had crossed the world to reach. Education was at the center of everything we did. My brother, my two cousins, and I all graduated from BHUSD, and those schools delivered: the four of us went on to become two doctors and two lawyers. I'm living proof of what a great public education makes possible, and I'm running to keep BHUSD that engine of opportunity for every child.

I went through public education at every level. I attended Hawthorne School and graduated from Beverly Hills High School, then earned my undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and my law degree from the University of Michigan, both public universities.

I'm a business owner as well as an attorney. In 2008 I opened my own law firm here in Beverly Hills, and I've built and run it ever since. My practice takes on complex litigation, including mass tort, employment, and civil cases, work that demands discipline, careful management of large budgets and teams, and the resolve to hold powerful institutions accountable. Running a small business for more than fifteen years has taught me how to balance a budget, meet a payroll, and make every dollar count, which is exactly the mindset our school district needs right now.