Kara Murray-Badal was born and raised in District 2 and feels deeply connected to Oakland. With a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School at UPenn, Kara has been balancing business leadership with community organizing and local policymaking most of her career. 

As the director of the Housing Venture Lab at Terner Labs, Kara has directed funding towards affordable housing across the country. She acknowledges that new housing comes with significant environmental impacts and has worked to fund innovative organizations, like Kit Switch, to make retrofits possible more often. She also encourages modular builds to avoid waste and has set up a “hub-and-spoke” model to reduce emissions during transportation. She is a big proponent of dense urban housing closer to public transit, which greatly reduces carbon emissions. 

Kara weaves consideration of climate and sustainability in with her thinking about housing, transportation, and design. 

Kara has also worked as Crisis Project Manager at Bayer Health care and as Deputy Director at the Mosaic Project.

350 Bay Area Action is pleased to endorse Kara Murray-Badal, whom we believe is not only a great climate champion but also a leader who will be committed to the principles of “Just Transition,” and who believes in partnering with grassroots community organizations. In her  own words: “Co-governance is the key to effective leadership. I don’t want to make decisions on behalf of my community; I want to make decisions with my community.”

Kara is one of two candidates whom we have endorsed for this seat, along with Charlene Wang. Oakland has ranked-choice voting. We strongly encourage you to rank both candidates in whatever order you prefer. And, both candidates are car-free.

Website : https://www.kmb4oakland.com

Volunteer some time : https://www.mobilize.us/karamurraybadalforoaklanddistrict2/