Karla Jurvetson

Karla Jurvetson (born 1966) is an American physician,[3] philanthropist, and political organizer.[4]

Karla Jurvetson
Jurvetson in 2018
Born
Karla Tinklenberg

1966
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPhysician, psychiatrist philanthropist, political organizer
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1990; div. 2018)​
[1]
Children2
Parent(s)

Career

Jurvetson works as a private practice physician in Los Altos, California.[5]

Philanthropy

Jurvetson served on the board of directors of Peninsula Open Space Trust from 2003 to 2006 and was a founding donor to Wildlife Conservation Network (2002 to present).[6][7] After touring deforestation on the slopes of Mauna Kea in 2016, she sponsored the planting of 1,000 indigenous trees through the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative.[8]

She served as a school board for The Nueva School, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and was previously a kindergarten through 8th grade school. She co-chaired the school's $50 million capital campaign, which resulted in the construction of the San Mateo campus and the addition of a high school to Nueva (2011–2018).[9][10][8]

Jurvetson has been a trustee on several other non-profit boards, including the San Francisco Ballet (2000-2003).[11] She was named by Gentry Magazine as one of the top 50 philanthropists in the San Francisco Bay Area.[10]

As of 2020, Jurvetson is a supporter of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum[12] and she serves on the Advisory Board of Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society, which focuses on "the way we use private resources for public benefit."[13][14]

Amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jurvetson donated to Stanford University's interferon-lambda clinical trials dedicated to serving disproportionately impacted African American and Hispanic communities.

Political activism

Karla Jurvetson has volunteered as a political organizer and a fundraiser for many progressive candidates over the past thirty years, focusing primarily on groups who historically have been under-represented in political power, predominantly women and people of color.

As a Stanford undergraduate in 1988, Jurvetson went door-to-door for Anna Eshoo during her first campaign for Congress, handing out VCR tapes of Eshoo discussing her candidacy.[1] In 2008 Jurvetson volunteered in the swing state of Nevada for then-candidate Barack Obama, as well as making 46 contributions to Democrats totaling $128,700.[15]

In 2016, she canvassed door-to-door in Nevada for Hillary Clinton and for Catherine Cortez Masto, who became the first Latina U.S. Senator.[15] After the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, her donations to Democratic candidates markedly increased to $6.9 million in advance of the 2018 midterms, making her one of the nation's top political donors.[15]

In an interview about the 2018 elections, Jurvetson said, "Women disproportionately were the activists, the volunteers, the people who drove change ... Women have gained enough economic power and political power so we can translate our frustration into action ... I feel like it’s our moral duty, if we’re not going to run ourselves, to support the women who are brave enough to put their names on the ballot."[15]

The candidates whom she supported include Lauren Underwood, the youngest African-American woman to serve in Congress,[16] and Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, the first two Native American Congresswomen in the history of the United States.[17][18][19]

In 2018, Jurvetson also helped with voter registration drives,[15] co-hosted local fundraisers,[20] and contributed to each of the 41 candidates who flipped a Congressional district from red to blue in the midterms, when Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives.[19]

Controversy arose with her large donation of $5.4m to Women Vote!, the political action committee run by EMILY's List. Her donation was in the form of Baidu shares, a Chinese internet company traded on the US stock exchange and was unusual outside of Silicon Valley since it was in the form of stock shares. The controversy arose because only American citizens can donate to U.S. elections.[21] An EMILY's List spokesperson said, "We cleared the donation through our lawyers". In November 2018, Jurvetson was listed as one of five "surprising million dollar donors" to the US midterm elections.[21]

Jurvetson also was an early supporter of the only two U.S. Senate candidates who were successful in changing their seats from Republican to Democratic control in 2018, Jacky Rosen in Nevada and Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona.[19][15] By a margin of 56,000 votes, Sinema became the first Democrat that Arizona elected to the Senate in 30 years.[22][23]

In a November 2018 interview, Jurvetson stated that she was hoping for a competitive Democratic primary for the 2020 presidential election and did not yet have a preferred candidate.[15]

Jurvetson was one of the first major donors to support Stacey Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial bid in Georgia, which she lost by less than 55,000 votes amid widespread reports of voter suppression by Brian Kemp. Kemp was both Abrams' opponent and also the Secretary of State at the time, overseeing his own race. The election was marred by Kemp having cancelled the voter registrations of 1.4 million Georgians, disproportionately from the Black community.[24][25][26] [27] In 2019 Jurvetson also contributed over $2 million to Fair Fight, which Abrams started in Georgia and then expanded to voter protection programs across the battleground states [28][29][19]

In November 2019, Jurvetson hosted a Democratic National Committee (DNC) reception at her home with President Barack Obama.[30][31] At that time, the DNC had just $8.7 million cash on hand and $7 million in debts, compared to the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, which had over $158 million cash on hand.[32][33] Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry, were co-hosts for the event, which raised over $3.5 million for the DNC Unity Fund that was formed to support the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.[34][35]

In January 2020 she donated $14.6 million to Persist PAC, which supported Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign.[36] In June 2020, when Joe Biden secured the Democratic nomination, she contributed $1,000,000 to his PAC, Unite the Country.[37] As of July 2020, she had made over 500 individual donations to Democratic candidates, ranging from local to federal office.[38][19]

She currently is on the Board of Advisors for The Collective, which has the mission of increasing Black representation in the political process.[39]

Jurvetson also serves on the Board of Directors of EMILY's List, the nation's largest organization for women in politics, which has over five million members.[40]

Personal life

In 1990, she married Steve Jurvetson, who become a Silicon Valley early-stage investor in companies including SpaceX in 2000 and Tesla in 2006.[41][42][43][44] They were married for 25 years and have two children. They separated in 2015, she filed for divorce in 2016, and as of 2018 divorce proceedings were underway.[1] In 2017, to honor her father, Jared Tinklenberg, and his 50-year career as a medical school professor, Jurvetson helped fund the construction of the new Stanford Medical Center and endowed a professorship in her parents’ names.[45][46]

References
  1. "Meet Karla Jurvetson, the Bay Area megadonor who helped make 2018 the 'year of the woman'". The Mercury News. November 25, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
  2. "Seven Stanford Medicine faculty members appointed to endowed professorships". News Center. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  3. Jones, Natalie (2 November 2018). "Midterm big spenders: the top 20 political donors this election". The Guardian.
  4. "Dr. Karla Jurvetson". Sharecare. ShareCare. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  5. Jurvetson, Karla. "Dr. Karla Jurvetson, MD". AmWell. AmWell. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  6. "Wildlife Conservation Network - Be a Wildlife Hero". Wildlife Conservation Network. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  7. "People (August 13, 2003)". www.almanacnews.com. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  8. "A FAMILY FOREST – Green Magazine Hawaii". Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  9. "Upper School | The Nueva School". www.nuevaschool.org. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  10. "Karla Jurvetson". Stanford PACS. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  11. Ross, Janice (2007-11-12). San Francisco Ballet at Seventy-Five. Google Books Preview. Chronicle Books. ISBN 9780811856980. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  12. "Transformed Asian Art Museum Unveils New Pavilion with teamLab: Continuity". About. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  13. "Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2019". Stanford PACS. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  14. "Advisory Board". Stanford PACS. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  15. "Meet Karla Jurvetson, the Bay Area megadonor who helped make 2018 the 'year of the woman'". The Mercury News. 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  16. Tribune, Patrick M. O'Connell Chicago. "Democrat Lauren Underwood today becomes the youngest black woman ever in Congress as new class sworn in". Herald-Review.com. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  17. Eli Watkins. "First Native American women elected to Congress: Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland". CNN. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  18. "Deb Haaland: "Why not me? Why not now?"". Culture. 2018-11-07. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  19. "Browse Individual contributions". FEC.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  20. "Take The House: Atherton, August 26". WomenCount. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  21. Kramer, Melanie (2018-11-06). "5 Surprising Million-Dollar Donors to the US Midterms". Money Makers. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  22. Scott, Dylan (2018-04-19). "New poll shows Democrat leading in every Arizona Senate matchup". Vox. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  23. Zhou, Li (2018-11-12). "Kyrsten Sinema is the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat in 30 years". Vox. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  24. II, Vann R. Newkirk (2018-11-06). "The Georgia Governor's Race Has Brought Voter Suppression Into Full View". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  25. "Probe of missing Georgia votes finds "extreme" irregularities in black districts". Salon. 2019-08-30. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  26. "Georgia Governor Election Results". The New York Times. 2019-01-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  27. Shah, Khushbu (2018-11-10). "'Textbook voter suppression': Georgia's bitter election a battle years in the making". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  28. Salzer, James; Journal-Constitution, The Atlanta. "Abrams group draws tons of small donations, and a few biggies, to raise $26 million quickly". ajc. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  29. Cobb, Jelani. "Stacey Abrams's Fight for a Fair Vote". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  30. "Barack Obama urges anxious Democrats to 'chill out' over 2020 candidates at California fundraiser". ABC News. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  31. Tracy, Abigail. "Obama Deals With the Democrats' Daddy Issues". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  32. "'It's too much': Democrats shudder at Trump's money machine". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  33. "Party committee fundraising, 2019-2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  34. "Tickets for Obama fundraiser in Silicon Valley going for up to $355,000". The Mercury News. 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  35. Writer/[email protected], Megan V. Winslow-Staff. "Barack Obama to fundraise in Los Altos Hills next week". Los Altos Town Crier. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
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  37. "Biden says four Black women are on VP list, won't commit to choosing one". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  38. Blumenfeld, Andrew (2019-05-18). "Meet the People Donating to Democratic Congressional Candidates". Medium. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  39. "Board of Advisors". The Collective PAC. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  40. "Board of Directors". www.emilyslist.org. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  41. Bronson, Po (1999-06-20). "Surfing On the Slippery Skin Of a Bubble". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  42. "Tesla Motors Secures $40 Million Investment Round Led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and Elon Musk". www.businesswire.com. 2006-05-31. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  43. Crunchbase. "Space X Tesla Board". Crunchbase.
  44. Investor's Business Daily (2015-03-19). "Venture Capitalist Steve Jurvetson Eyes Space Boom | Investor's Business Daily". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
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  46. "Stanford University Medical Center Renewal Project". Stanford Medicine. Stanford Medicine. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
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