People in my community know me from my work with the Blackwell School. Under my leadership, we took an old Mexican American schoolhouse here in Marfa that was precious to many alumni, and turned it into a National Historic Site—because Hispanic history is American history. And I believe that everybody gets to tell their story.

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In addition, I spent 25 years in public service working for the federal government, most of that time with the National Park Service and two years with the Peace Corps. I have always felt that people can work inside the system or outside the system—and both are valid ways of trying to make a better world. Working on the inside always felt like a good fit for me. And when I took early retirement earlier this year because of the DOGE cuts, it made sense to run for public office.