Candidate for
Governing Board Member; El Dorado Union High School District

Amanda grew up in a household of educators. It was only recently that her father and mother retired after each completing over 50 years of service to the public education system. Public education has been a big part of her family's life and that now continues as she watches her step-daughter navigate her own high school career in the El Dorado Union High School District.

Amanda lives with her husband Eric, her step-daughter Kaitlyn and their two Labradors in Rescue, California. A great job opportunity brought Amanda to Sacramento and she was fortunate enough to meet the love of her life and has happily laid down roots.

Working with an energetic can do attitude and implementing creative solution focused strategies that foster collaboration, forward momentum and increased partnerships is how Amanda adds value. As an accomplished mental health professional in executive management, she has extensive expertise in staff management, contract negotiation, building sustainable infrastructures, formulating solutions to complex problems and developing a Quality Improvement program from the ground up. She is well qualified to serve as a Governing Board Member on the El Dorado Union High School District's Board of Trustees.

She has a long history working for nonprofit organizations and maintains a passion for helping disadvantaged people. Her positions in executive leadership have required that she work closely with various Boards of Directors as well as Board subcommittees including those of Finance, Compliance, Risk Management and By Laws. Currently, she serves as the Clinical Director for a non-profit mental health organization that operates multiple clinics throughout Sacramento. She enjoys her current work environment and feels fortunate to work alongside a great team of professionals that value collaboration and measurable progress.

Prior to her current work, Amanda served as the Program Director of a team administering a 14 million dollar federal grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Amanda is also licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in the state of California. Her training began after she received her Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and completed an intensive Inpatient Psychiatric Internship program as well as an equally intensive Drug and Alcohol Internship program at Overton Brooks Veterans Administration Hospital. Upon completion of her internships, she worked as Director of The Therapeutic Learning Center; a community health organization geared toward helping children in disadvantaged and underserved areas. She also worked with children diagnosed with learning disabilities at The Learning Center in Encino, California for 13 years.

Amanda has developed and managed multi-million dollar budgets while working closely with both federal and state entities to ensure fulfillment and compliance of contract obligations. Additionally, she has created and written agency policies and procedures.

Before obtaining her Marriage and Family therapy license, Amanda worked in the film industry acting, writing, directing and producing independent film. Amanda has said of her time in film that there is no greater training ground for learning how to mobilize people to work together to get an impossible amount done, with little money, in an impossibly short amount of time. It was a valuable education she will draw on the rest of her life.