She received her BA in English literature from California State University Long Beach and her JD from Santa Clara University. She and her wife, Eileen Ridley, have been together since 1989, and they are one of the 18,000 couples married in 2008 when same-sex marriage was legal in California. They have been with CDS since 2005. Their daughter Meghan ('16) began her CDS education as a preschooler.