Los Altos Hills, California, is a small town in the heart of Silicon Valley. It is a 10-minute drive away from the headquarters of Facebook, Google and Apple, and from Stanford University. Yet, this small town with just about 8,000 residents, most of them high-profile wealthy tech billionaires, astonishingly retains an old world rural charm with rolling hills and single homes.
The mayor is Kavita Tankha, an Indian American mother of four who has made this sleepy town her home since 2005, after working and living with her husband and family in various parts of the world.
Armed with a degree in law, Tankha once worked for various corporate companies in Zurich, London, Chicago and Toronto, before finally deciding to settle down in Los Altos Hills, lured to it by its agrarian beauty.
“I really love where I live,” she says. “It is in the heart of Silicon Valley. It is a rural hillside community. If you sit outside your house you can’t see the next house. It’s a kind of town that is very low key. There are a lot of wealthy people who live here but it is not cool to be flamboyant.”
The mayor grew up in New Delhi and after completing schooling at Loreto Convent, she went first to the College of Jesus and Mary, then Lady Sriram College. She earned her graduate degree in law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Tankha then began her career, working first in New York at a top law firm.
Talking about her decision to live around the world, she says, “Around that time my husband and I thought about an idea that how about we could live in different countries and work there – won’t that be fun? My husband is in finance and he could move and get jobs. Since I had a bar membership from New York, I could work anywhere and with any international law firm that did cross-border transactional work.”
After living and working in various countries, the couple with their children came to California around 15 years ago and found they really liked it there.
Tankha reminisces about her decision to make Los Altos Hills her home: “This is the place where I really want to stay. It was also the time when I got the time to think whether I want to continue with law. For me the attraction of law school was to get finally engaged in political work, community service, and the fabric of the country I live in.”
Tankha’s involvement in public service and politics is not limited to city hall. She has been actively involved in some high-profile political campaigns, includng the political campaigns of former president Barack Obama and, later, that of Hillary Clinton for president, and current vice president Kamala Harris.
Tankha had realized that federal laws had an impact at a local level and so sought to get involved at a national level. She was drawn first to Obama’s campaign based on hope and change and it was really compelling.
“Here was a man who was African-American. As a woman of color, I thought it would be amazing to have a man of color as president of the country, particularly when he was so smart, intelligent and articulate. He represented all of us.”
Talking about what drew her to the former president’s campaign, Tankha remarks
Obama had such a great influence on Tankha that she put her a lot of work into the campaign, becoming one of his top fundraisers.
“Barack Obama was so charismatic and so compelling as a candidate that the money would just pour in,” she says. “I feel pretty fortunate to have been a part of his campaign and to raise kids during his presidency. It taught a lot of young people what humanity and a good human being looked like.”
Tankha worked for Harris’ first campaign for district attorney and for the office of attorney general.
“She is smart, she is eloquent and she has the people’s attention,” Tanka says. “I remember the first event held for her. I had to tell people who she was to get them to come. In 10 years, there you go, she is the vice president of the United States.”
Asked if ethnicity played a major factor in her support for Harris, Tankha says, “She transcends all of that. I would definitely support someone of Indian origin and Iwould support a woman, but you cannot win on a single dimension of ethnicity.”
Tankha is vocal about the importance of women holding office to be well represented. She argues that women bring a different perspective and that no one else can best represent their interests. That is also why she ran for mayor and why she is all for putting women in top positions.
“For so many years, we had a Congress that was predominantly male. Why do you think we are lagging when it comes to issues involving women in the workforce? Because they could not think from a woman’s perspective when it comes to equal pay, maternity leave and all these things that impact women. That is why we need more women in office – so that they make the rules that best represent their interests.”
As mayor of Los Altos Hills, Tankha has another year in her term. Thereafter, she can run for another four-year term. While not performing her mayoral duties and working to put women in office, she spends time with her husband, three kids and two dogs.
When she isn’t diving into politics, though, Tankha indulges some of her more sedate interests – golf, travel and visiting art museums.
WINS AND VALUES
- Has served on the board of many women’s organizations specially the Feminist Majority Foundation and advocated for their causes at the UN. One of them was a petition for the US to ratify the CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women).
- Was on the board of Emerge California, which was the template for Emerge America. It was formed when the question was raised, why don’t women run for office.
- Worked on a successful recall campaign of a judge who gave a rapist a sentence of just six months after an attack on the Stanford campus in the Silicon Valley.
- Focuses on fire safety, a huge concern in Los Altos Hills, which has narrow, winding hillside roads that make it tough for fire engines to traverse and people to be evacuated. The last fire came within five miles of the town.
- Feels the need for more women in office so that they can make the rules that best represent their interests when it comes to equal pay, maternity leave and all the other things that impact women.
- Believes that both American and Indian values are somewhat similar – to work hard, study hard, do well and enjoy life.
