Photo by Wesley Kirk of Vision & Verve
Meet Ambika
The Texas Constitution says taxation should be “equal and uniform.”
That principle is why I started asking questions about TAD, and why I’m running for it.
Fort Worth is home.
I came to Fort Worth from India as a high school student.
I graduated from Fort Worth ISD and TCU and became a U.S. citizen here. My career later took me to six countries and six states.
But during COVID, I came back to Fort Worth to be close to family.
Photo by Wesley Kirk of Vision & Verve
Showing Up for Fort Worth
In 2026, I advocated for a moratorium on AI data centers while Fort Worth considered how to reasonably regulate this rapidly growing industry.
We organized. Residents showed up. And after nearly four hours of public comment on August 11, 2026, City Council voted unanimously to initiate the moratorium process.
Public input matters.
On September 3, 2026 the City of Fort Worth announced an 11-person Data Center & Infrastructure Commission (DCIC) to help devise sound regulations on data centers. I was selected to be part of this commission as a community representative.
Giving Back: Federal Tax Advocacy
For four years, I’ve volunteered helping seniors and low-income families prepare their taxes and resolve IRS problems.
I’ve seen how overwhelming government systems can be when you don’t have money to hire professional help.
Taxpayers shouldn’t need an expert to understand the system.
Career Background: Finance → Technology
My career has been about understanding complex systems and rebuilding them around people, not process.
Graduated from TCU with Bachelors in International Economics, Political Science and Mathematics.
Started as an analyst at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.
Earned my master's in Switzerland, then worked abroad at the Central Bank of Chile, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and Barclays in England.
Returned to the U.S. and joined Goldman Sachs.
Then pivoted to the tech industry, helping build SoFi's first Student Refinance product, tackling the student debt crisis shaping my generation.
Built predictive health technology to help hospitals better triangulate patients at Clarify Health Solutions.
Returned to fintech at U.S. Bank, where I helped revamp consumer and merchant payment technologies. Most recently, as Head of Product Strategy for Elavon's North American enterprise clients, I helped manage a $122 million portfolio and led the development and launch of new merchant payment solutions.
Why TAD?
Personal Experience
My involvement with TAD started personally in 2022, when I was helping my parents navigate property-tax exemptions and appraisal protests.
My parents had lived in the same home for more than 20 years. It was their homestead. TAD had that information, and TAD had their ages on record. And yet, my parents didn’t know they were eligible for the Over-65 property-tax exemption.
Why didn’t TAD inform them?
I helped my parents successfully apply for the exemption retroactively.
But the experience left me with bigger questions about how TAD serves taxpayers, especially people who may not know what exemptions or protections are available to them, especially immigrants with language barriers who are afraid of doing something wrong.
Understanding the Big Picture
In August 2026, I read TAD’s Chief Appraiser’s Report. The numbers raised an even bigger concern: Lower-value homes were appraised at 106% of market value, while million-dollar homes were appraised at just 71%.
That’s not equal. That’s not uniform.
TAD also plays an important role in determining the property values that local taxing entities use to build their tax base.
TAD does not set those tax rates. But when the underlying property values change, the effects can ripple through local government and ultimately reach taxpayers.
I’m asking for your vote to change that.