Meet Rui Bao, Head of Data & New Schools for Caliber!

Meet Rui Bao! Rui is The Head of Data & New Schools at Caliber. She has been with Caliber from the early days in 2014.  Rui was born in China and grew up in St. Louis and then went to college at Yale where she graduated with a degree in Ethics, Politics, and Economics. Prior to  Caliber, Rui was a Senior Associate at McKinsey & Company where she worked closely with clients on a topics such as long-term strategy to improving and sustaining operational efficiency. Prior to McKinsey, Rui worked at United Way and America's Promise Alliance.  Rui LOVES to cook, travel and push her boundaries. You will often hear her talking about explorations and adventures like skydiving, improv classes, Game of Throne parties, and Escape the Room (she is an expert). Rui is also an organization and strategy guru who is known around Caliber for sharing her email classification system. Rui does A TON of behind the scenes work at Caliber and has her hands in almost every bucket. We are lucky to have her sharp mind and smiling face in our organization. Congratulations, Ru and keep up the amazing work! 

Words about Rui from her team: 

• Rui always pitches in. She takes on every challenge, even if it is outside of her technical job description. Last year she worked with our 8th graders to make sure they had good high school choices. She has recruited families, written grant applications and reports, and worked with our coding team. There's nothing she won't try to do if asked or if she sees it needs doing.
• Rui is a project manager extraordinaire! She excels at managing multiple work streams and keeps everyone focused on the task at hand with clear next steps and deadlines. From negotiating with vendors to helping define Caliber's strategic vision and model, Rui is the glue that holds Caliber together. Rui takes on so much behind the scenes and is a great ambassador for Caliber in the broader education community. Many people may not know that in addition to everything she does with Caliber,  she also leads a work group of innovative data leaders and participates in a prestigious leadership residency program. Finally,  she is an excel wizard and an awesome cook to boot! I'm so lucky to collaborate with Rui around data and have already learned so many things from working with her!
• In addition to being a data wizard and leader at Caliber, Rui is extremely genuine, warm, and caring. She brings a smile to everything she does and is always willing to be a sounding board for her coworkers. She is devoted to Caliber in a very serious way and is an absolute pleasure to work with. I can't imagine Caliber without Rui! 

All about Rui! 
1. What is your favorite thing about working at Caliber?
I have so many! On the top of the list is definitely the people. Everyone here is so passionate, thoughtful, hardworking, and intelligent.

2. What was your favorite subject growing up? 
It was always so teacher dependent. I particularly loved my American Lit teacher and my biology teacher, who both were so passionate about their subjects and challenged me every day

3. What is your favorite memory associated with music? 
I love musicals, and my first Broadway show was Wicked -- a musical I had been obsessed with for years. It was such an amazing experience!

4. What is your dream vacation + what would you do there? 
Antarctica! I went glacier hiking a few years ago and loved it, and think Antarctica would be stunning. Plus, it would be my last continent.

5. What is your favorite thing about the Bay Area?
What's not to love? Great weather, proximity to amazing nature, amazing food.

6. What's a fun fact that most people might not know about you?! 
​English is actually my second language! I was born in China and moved to the US when I was six with zero English skills. Funnily enough, my forward-thinking elementary school actually had a Spanish class-- but I actually didn't realize it was a third language I was learning. I distinctly remember my Spanish teacher holding up a red circle and saying "rojo," and I knew the word "red" at this point, but I thought maybe something that was red and circular was rojo. So I would point at apples or red balls and say "rojo" and my teachers just thought I was really excited about my expanding Spanish vocabulary.

Rui, Caliber is so lucky to have you!