Chanda Lockhart ’08 moved frequently with her military family. When her mother retired, she was stationed at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, so the family settled in Maryland.

Lockhart, a first-generation student, transferred to TU from College of Southern Maryland and credits her TU adviser, Les Potter, with helping her narrow her focus to the nonprofit sector and find an internship with the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore. That internship led to her first full-time job and a career helping others. 

She moved to Los Angeles, where Lockhart had a job lined up at the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation as a development manager.

“My boss was amazing,” she says. “Working there I discovered my calling, fundraising and advocating on behalf of children.”

map of San Francisco

She moved to San Francisco in 2012 and took on a role in the development office of the Gateway Public Schools in 2017.

Lockhart works in the Fillmore neighborhood, which is directly connected to Japantown, the longest sustained Japanese enclave in the country. Another favorite neighborhood is the Mission District.

“It’s a really vibrant neighborhood grounded in community,” she says. “It has everything you could need or want: shops, clubs, restaurants, really good food.”

Among Lockhart’s favorite places to grab a bite to eat is The Progress, for small, dim-sum-style plates including their caviar potato cloud: potato foam and potato chips with caviar. She and her spouse head to House of Pancakes for their Chinese pancake rolls and homemade dipping sauce and to Pho Ga, who Lockhart says has amazing five-spice bone broth. 

It has everything you could need or want: shops, clubs, restaurants, really good food.

Chanda Lockhart

San Francisco has the largest amount of protected outdoor space in a city in the U.S., and Lockhart loves the Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, a former military base turned national park.

“You can stop by Arizmendi Bakery for coffee and pastries before heading into Golden Gate Park,” Lockhart says. “The incredible botanical gardens there are free before 9 a.m.”

Another kid-friendly spot is the California Academy of Sciences, which is designed for kids under 10 but has plenty for adults as well.

“My 3 ½-year-old loves it,” she says. “But I like to go with my spouse to NightLife on Thursday nights. It’s a 21-plus event with bars, an internal rain forest with exotic butterflies and an aquarium on the ground floor.”

There is something to do or see for everyone in the city by the bay, and Lockhart urges people to keep an open mind before visiting.

“The city is at an interesting point in time,” she says. “Depending on your news source, you can get a wildly different view. But we’ve found it to be a vibrant, beautiful city, and we’re never leaving. This is our home.”