I am your neighbor in West Berkeley, a single mother with a child in the Berkeley Unified School District. I am an investigator at the California Public Utilities Commission. And like many in Berkeley, I am here because of the sacrifices made by previous generations.
My parents are immigrants from India who knew struggle early in life. My father became a refugee in partitioned India barely out of his toddler years. Having left everything behind to live across a newly constructed border in India, there were days he could not go to school because his one shirt was drying. My mother was the eighth child among ten children. She almost did not go to high school because she lived in a village that did not extend high school to girls until the year it was her turn.
That little boy with only one shirt went on to become the Executive Project Manager for all of New York City’s water treatment projects - the world’s cleanest metropolitan water system. And that little girl whose education nearly stopped at middle school? She went on to become an anesthesiologist in New York City, always among the doctors standing during rounds of layoffs.
Despite their early challenges, my parents were able to achieve great things not only because they worked hard to fulfill their potential, but also because of visionary and thoughtful leadership by decision-makers in their community. Their leaders were able to recognize the potential of their people, meet the challenges of their time, and provide equitable opportunities to those who pursued them.
Berkeley is full of so much potential. Our city also faces serious challenges that are specific to this moment in history. Housing in Berkeley is largely unaffordable for people in low- and moderate- income brackets, seniors in our community cannot meet rising costs and face homelessness, and our country is devolving into a lawless autocracy. While homicides are down in our city, traffic fatalities are up. Berkeley is quickly losing large portions of our black population.
And yet, we have everything we need, right here in our city, to address these challenges: we have a wealth of knowledge and resources, a collective commitment to equity and free speech, and systems that are capable of supporting us. I am running to work with you to help channel our community resources into meeting the challenges of our time, to provide equitable opportunities to those who pursue them, and to realize our great city’s exceptional potential.
I have always had an interest in studying systems and infrastructures and how they support communities and our living environment. Since 1997, I have been working on policymaking in one way or another, whether on economic policy, poverty alleviation, clean energy policy, or utility regulation. I have led policy efforts to shape $3 billion dollars of the State’s energy efficiency portfolios on behalf of utility customers. Over the past five years, I have been an investigator in cases of utilities committing fraud, or violating State rules, in the provision of water, telecommunications and energy services. Most recently, I helped discover roughly $10 million in fraudulent appropriation of low income subsidies by a phone company. I have advised State Legislative offices and Commissioners on our State’s clean energy policy, worked with a wide range of stakeholders and contractors and led public participation meetings. And while I am an experienced policymaker with over two decades of experience, I have also been a K-12 educator in neighboring Oakland. Early in my career, I was a journalist in Bangladesh. Later, I studied indigenous ecological knowledge while getting my Masters in Environmental Management at Yale University, focusing on climate policy.
I am confident that I have the kind of expertise and skill to design, refine, and collectively shape smart initiatives that are targeted towards addressing a well-defined challenge or goal; initiatives that work and are cost-effective. Because of my international experience, my work in journalism, and my study of indigenous systems, I know how to think outside the box in ways that get us out of this cycle of increasing inequity and societal dysfunction. Together, we can shape a city that is not just barely surviving, but thriving - for all of us!