Director, Systems Operations
Shelley Curnow originally joined in early 2002 as the Foundation’s first Grants and Data Administrator, bringing a background in database design and administration to bear on the Foundation’s homegrown grants database. She left the Foundation in 2006 to pursue an apprenticeship in custom cabinetmaking, where she was able to exercise her long-standing obsession with building efficient storage systems in a more literal way, splinters included. Shelley rejoined the Foundation in 2012 and is excited to be part of the Operations team tasked with building the better box of New Heron (splinters still included). Prior to her years at Heron, Shelley served for four years as the Operations Manager at San Francisco’s Horizons Foundation, and before that as the Office Manager for the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. Shelley earned her BA in Women’s Studies and Cultural Criticism from San Francisco State University, and studied relational database design at San Francisco City College.