Gabrielle Hedlund

Bay-Area native and philanthropist Gabrielle Hedlund is being welcomed as the newest member of anti-poverty nonprofit Golden State Opportunity’s board.

Hedlund brings her long history with philanthropy and a background in education, technology, and journalism to her role on the board. After a successful career in marketing and journalism covering Silicon Valley and technology innovations for the consumer market, Gabrielle left the tech industry in 2000 to pursue teaching, bringing her love of communication and social justice together to demystify curriculum and inspire youth to find and use their voices. She taught English at Bay Area schools for several years at both the high school and middle school level.

With this perspective in mind, joining the GSO board felt like a natural way to contribute to further supporting the most vulnerable in California.

“It feels more necessary than ever to support organizations like GSO because, more and more, the safety nets and social services don’t exist in the United States,” she said. “Most can’t move up the economic ladder. That’s been taken away.”

Hedlund and her husband have supported a multitude of charities and organizations throughout the years with both their money and their time, but Hedlund wanted to get more directly involved in working on issues like the ones GSO addresses.

As a long-time friend of GSO President Amy Everitt, Hedlund has seen the work GSO has done over the years and was interested in getting involved. She knew first hand the impact of tax credits, as she has a good friend who claims them and has explained the impact they have on her family.

“I wanted to be more involved,” she said. “I want to learn more about how to reach more people about these important issues and help to fundraise. Having more grassroots groups like GSO and the groups they support with grants and assistance is more important now than in the past. I’m excited to see GSO grow and help in that effort. This seemed like the time to get involved.”

Hedlund holds a BA in English from UC Santa Cruz and received her Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration from Mills College. She is pursuing a second Masters in English from Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. In addition to being part of GSO’s board, she sits on Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Gala and Capital Campaign board.

She and her husband, Marc, are parents to two teenagers and a sweet American Staffordshire.