After growing up in Washington, D.C., Kaufman was educated at Washington University (St. Louis) with a B.A. in History, University of Chicago with an M.A. in American History; and University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs with a M. Public Affairs. He had a 40 year career in public policy: assistant to the Foreign Affairs Advisor to US Senate Majority leader Robert Bird, appointee of Governor Jerry Brown, senior policy advisor to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs for Genentech, the first biotechnology company in the world.
