About

I’m a system designer working in child care, early learning, and family support. My work brings together data, narrative, language equity, and community insight to help organizations create structures that truly support families and providers.

My Path

I was born in Guangzhou and spent my early years in Canton and Hong Kong, largely raised by my grandparents. My grandfather would ride a bicycle over an hour each way to take me to school. That kind of quiet commitment shaped how I understand care and responsibility.

Later, moving to the United States layered in questions of migration, belonging, and family closeness. Those experiences continue to influence how I see systems: not as abstract mechanisms, but as human environments that either hold people—or leave them to navigate alone.

Today, I’m married and raising an almost-five-year-old. One of the biggest realizations from becoming a parent is simple but profound: parents will want to give the best to their little one within their capacity. That instinct is universal — and it’s made the gaps and barriers in our care systems feel far more personal and urgent.

Over more than a decade across family child care, nonprofit operations, advocacy networks, and local government partnerships, I’ve worn many roles: provider, data manager, translator, connector, technologist, advocate.

Across all of them, one pattern kept repeating:

I help people navigate complexity and build clarity together.

How I Work

Human-Centered Systems

I approach system design the way good caregivers approach children—with attention, respect, and a belief that context matters. A “good” system is one that families and providers can actually use without feeling lost or blamed.

Insight Over Information

Data only becomes meaningful when it improves decisions and relationships. I focus on building insight infrastructure—shared understanding, feedback loops, and narratives—not just dashboards.

Language & Access

Families should not be excluded by language, literacy, or digital barriers. I integrate multilingual content, translation, and plain-language design into the tools and processes I work on.

Belonging as a Design Principle

Policies and tools should help people feel seen, not invisible. Belonging isn’t an extra; it’s a structural choice embedded in tone, timing, forms, questions, and follow-up.

Professional Roles & Collaborations

I currently serve as Web Content Manager for the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network, supporting MyChildCarePlan.org and statewide infrastructure for helping families find and understand child care options.

Beyond my primary role, I contribute to several efforts advancing equity, systems design, and community-informed policy:

• Secretary, Family Child Care Association of San Francisco (FCCASF)
• Founding Member & Strategic Contributor, Asian Early Childhood Education Alliance (AECEA / ACECA)
• UPK Mixed Delivery Workgroup Member, San Francisco Local Child Care Planning Council (LPC) — supporting alignment between early learning programs and community-based child care
• Advisor, Child Care Justice Network
• Advisor, Heising-Simons Foundation’s Child Care Justice work in California (including feedback on grant frameworks and selection criteria)

Home-Based Child Care Research

I collaborate with the Center for Home-Based Child Care Research at the Erikson Institute, where I serve in multiple roles:

• Technical Work Group (TWG) Member – contributing to the HBCC Research Essentials Toolkit and reviewing resources on including HBCC providers in research
• Advisory Committee Member – advising on research related to networks, FFN care, and PreK in family child care settings
• Webinar Panelist – speaking on the Principles of Conducting HBCC Research and advocating for approaches rooted in dignity, respect, and contextual understanding

These roles allow me to bridge provider experience, community insight, and system-level design into statewide and national research conversations.

Published Work

• The White Scarf Story — CAEYC eConnections, 2019. On how family child care providers became visible at the policy table, and why you don’t need to be a leader to have a voice.

In the Press

• “Can SF afford a ‘Day Without Child Care’?” — San Francisco Examiner, May 14, 2024. Featured with photo as a day-care provider and advocate at the Day Without Child Care rally at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, speaking on the gap between what families pay and what providers earn, and the need for middle-income support.

• “Can Breed budget fulfill ‘Baby Prop. C’ promise?” — San Francisco Examiner, June 5, 2024. Quoted on the capacity implications of expanding subsidized child care to middle-income families, early-intervention limitations, and the need for conservative monitoring of the rollout.

Growth & Perspective

I’ve often taken on the role of peacemaker, avoiding conflict to preserve harmony. In recent years, I’ve been learning to pair that instinct with a commitment to truth, clear feedback, and structural honesty.

I’m especially interested in:

• The future of work and family support in an AI era
• How narrative and power shape what communities believe is possible
• Designing systems that honor culture, emotion, and lived experience
• Creating structures for listening, learning, and mutual care

My goal is to help build systems that are not only functional, but humane.

If this resonates, I’d be glad to connect.