Heidi Cruz

Heidi Cruz
Cruz in February 2016
Born	Heidi Suzanne Nelson (1972-08-07) August 7, 1972 (age 44) San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Claremont McKenna College Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management Harvard Business School
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Ted Cruz (m. 2001)
Children	2

Heidi Suzanne Cruz (née Nelson; August 7, 1972) is an American investment manager at Goldman Sachs. She served in the Bush White House as the economic director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, as the director of the Latin America Office at the U.S. Treasury Department, as Special Assistant to U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, and as economic policy advisor to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. She is the wife of Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz.

Heidi Nelson was born on August 7, 1972, in San Luis Obispo, California, to parents Suzanne Jane (née Rouhe), a dental hygienist, and Peter Christian Nelson, a dentist. Heidi Nelson was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist. During a part of Nelson's childhood, she lived with her family in Kenya and Nigeria, and also Asia, where they served as missionaries, while both parents participated in dental health work.

Nelson attended Valley View Adventist Academy in Arroyo Grande, California, near her home town of San Luis Obispo. She completed her secondary education in 1990 at Monterey Bay Academy, an Adventist boarding school about 150 miles north in La Selva Beach, California.