REBECCA FLYNN
PVForum Founder
&
PV Volunteer of the Year 2021

I grew up in a small university town on the Cumberland plateau of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee, called Sewanee and spent half my childhood in Brussels, Belgium attending French-speaking schools.  I attended college at Bryn Mawr and double majored in Chemistry and Molecular Biology (the latter at Haverford College). I then pursued a Master’s degree in Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania.  I moved out to California to work for Genentech in biomedical research. After that, leveraging my biology and nutrition education, I worked for several nutritional supplement companies. 

 

After getting married, we moved to Paris, France where I pursued an MBA at INSEAD while juggling a newborn daughter. We returned to the Bay Area where I worked for several internet startups in medical supplies, receivables financing, and then in government permitting software.

 

We moved to Portola Valley in 2000 as our son was born. While remodeling part of our home as the general contractor, I started my volunteering journey at Ormondale, was appointed to the PVSD Bond Committee. I subsequently joined Portola Valley committees such as the Parks & Rec and the Town Center rebuilding committee, then joined the Ad Hoc Water Conservation and Sustainability Committees. I’ve enjoyed getting to know people from all walks of life and all ages in Portola Valley through volunteering.

 

I started the PVForum in 2004 to keep residents updated originally on the Town Center remodel project and to encourage the sharing of diverse ideas and opinions to help bring our small community closer. I am continuously amazed that even with the most obscure requests, the PVForum seems to always deliver, whether it’s knowledge, experience, or a particular item. We are a town made up of people of immense generosity, helpfulness, and expertise.

 

I've become more active in political campaigns over the last decade following in the footsteps of my great grandfather, James Beriah Frazier, who was the Governor of Tennessee from 1902-1905 (known for his frugality, reducing the state debt, his oration skills, and being a champion of public education and mine safety) and a US senator from 1905-1911 (favoring federal support for highway construction). I've been helping elect state legislative and federal candidates to office and defending our Democracy, rights, and freedoms.

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