Nancy has worked on campus for 20 years and has served as president of the Fresno chapter of the California State University Employees Union for 17 years. She is also the longest sitting president on the board of directors.

She was born in Massachusetts and grew up on the east coast. When she was 16 years old, her father’s best friend convinced him to move his family to San Jose, California, and she fell in love with the Golden state.

After she graduated high school, she declined her parents’ offer to pay her way through Vassar College in New York. Instead, she decided to pay her own way through San Jose State. Nancy moved out and worked as a dispatcher for a trucking company to support herself and pay for tuition.

Because of her job, she did not have the time to take the units necessary to graduate. She was one course shy of attaining her degree. This would not hold her back from becoming successful however.

After deciding the Bay Area was too congested for her to commute to work, Nancy transferred to Fresno. There she met Michael, a Japanese only child. The couple married and raised two boys.

Nancy quit her job as a dispatcher to follow in the footsteps of one of her college advisors and became a real estate broker. At the age of 20, she was the youngest broker in her firm.

She loved her time as a real estate agent. She took great interest in business law and working with contracts. Many of her clients were first-time homebuyers. She found helping them to be a rewarding experience.

Nancy worked as an agent for 22 years until the market tanked. Afterwards, she worked at a temp agency. She also worked for a vending machine company and the National Park Service before she was hired as a temp at Fresno State in the Academic Innovation Center. She was offered a permanent position after four months.

She went on to work for the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

While working, she became involved in an issue with one of her supervisors. She contacted the union for help but they said “they could not assist her.”

This inspired her to pursue a leadership position in the CSUEU. After becoming president, she vowed to never let what happened to her happen to another employee.

Nancy is most proud of the fact that, “All employees who were laid off in 2000 were able to return to their jobs.”

Nancy is proud to work at Fresno State because of the sense of community.

“All of us being part of one another and interacting with one another. The sense of camaraderie, the students – working with them keeps me young,” she said.

Nancy continues to fight for employees rights as president of CSUEU Fresno chapter. She also still works in the ROTC program.

On her last birthday, the cadets threw her a surprise birthday party.

“It meant so much that they went out of their way to do something special. It’s like having lots of children, hundreds of them,” she said.

Nancy has four grandchildren aged 18 years old to six months. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, reading and spending time with friends and family.