Where My Spark for Innovation Started

Stepping around endearing robots scooting over the floors at the SkyDeck accelerator, Leigh pauses to chat to the young entrepreneurs enthusiastically pursuing their ground-breaking ideas. As co-founder and advisor to SkyDeck, Leigh enjoys the steady stream of stories and new learnings that flow from these remarkable young minds.

Living in the Berkeley ecosystem of innovation has fueled Leigh’s interests for the last 30 years. Leigh’s close proximity to the innovative environment of UC Berkeley immerses her in a sea of constant change.  Nothing lasts for long; disruption is everywhere. Nobel laureates abound; innovation gurus and rocket scientists populate her community. Leigh has cultivated the adjacent possibilities of this ecosystem to feed her deepest passion: to use experiential learning to enable students, and life-long learners, to develop the skills of the often elusive “innovation”, to embrace change and to thrive in its midst. 

Change and it’s close cousin, uncertainty, are no strangers to Leigh. As the second oldest of young parents subsisting on the post-WW2 GI bill, Leigh started life sharing two apple crates with her twin brother and year-older sister. Blissfully living in peace after the ravages of the South Pacific, where her father fought in the Navy, Leigh’s dad and mom were happy just to be together in the knowledge that Hiroshima was behind them. Dad Carl (“Karl” before Germany became so unpopular) attended USC by day and studied by night. Wife Claire had her hands full with three babies. As Leigh toddled around in her third year, she was blessed with the birth of a younger sister, who changed her life. Claire soon learned that Leigh loved caring for baby sister Gail. Then when Peter, Marianne, Jennifer and CJ came along, Leigh became hooked on mentoring and mothering.

To innovation and flourishing,
Leigh