School Board Elects Officers for 2015

Emily Murase is New Board President, Haney is Vice President

January 15, 2015 (San Francisco) – The San Francisco Board of Education elected Emily Murase to serve as president and Matt Haney to serve as vice president.

“I want to thank my colleagues and the school community for their support. I have very big shoes to fill, following President Hydra Mendoza, President Rachel Norton, and Immediate Past President Sandra Fewer. The school board has enjoyed a number of strong presidents! I am very proud to serve as the first school board president of Japanese ancestry in the 160+ year history of this school board. I look forward to working with Vice President Haney, my colleagues on the board, Superintendent Carranza and the SFUSD community, including families, teachers, principals and all school and central office staff, community and city partners to advance the work of Vision 2025, our strategic plan for the future of public education in San Francisco,” said President Emily Murase.

About President Emily Murase

As school board vice president in 2014 Commissioner Murase focused her efforts on responding to the concerns of families on an individual basis, at the same time collaborating with her fellow school board members on such initiatives as the Vision 2025 strategic plan, anti-bullying, and strengthening world languages.

In her professional capacity, Murase serves as Executive Director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, where she oversees a $5.5 million budget and a professional staff of 5 to promote the human rights of the women and girls of San Francisco. Previously, she served in the first Clinton White House as Director for International Economic Affairs (1993-1994), after working for AT&T Japan in Tokyo, and later worked in the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.

Murase received the Alumni of the Year award from her alma mater, the UC San Diego Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies, as well as the Outstanding Advocate for Women's Rights from the National Council of Jewish Women San Francisco Chapter. Murase holds an AB in modern Japanese history from Bryn Mawr College, a master's from the Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies at UC San Diego, and a PhD in communication from Stanford.

A graduate of San Francisco public schools herself, Murase has two daughters who attend Presidio Middle School and Lowell High School and are graduates of the district's signature Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program (JBBP) at Rosa Parks Elementary School.

About Vice President Matt Haney

Matt Haney, now serving in his third year on the SF Board of Education, has focused heavily on restoratives practices and alternatives to suspensions, technology in schools, college and career skills and readiness, and student voice. 

Matt is also the Director of Policy at Rebuild the Dream, where he leads policy advocacy for #cut50, a bipartisan initiative to cut the prison population in half in ten years, and #YesWeCode, an initiative to create a pipeline for 100,000 low opportunity youth to become the best coders, computer engineers and designers in the world.

Matt is also an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Stanford d.school, where he uses design thinking and human centered design to incubate new ideas in public education and government.  As the former Executive Director of the University of California Student Association, Matt worked directly for the over 200,000 students in the UC system, managing a budget of over half a million dollars and a team of professional staff, to ensure public education is protected for current and future generations. Matt is the co-founder and chair of Citizen Hope, a Bay Area organization which encourages civic engagement and community service.

Matt has a BA from UC Berkeley, an MA from Stanford University School of Education, a JD from Stanford Law School with a focus on education law, and an LLM in Human Rights from National University of Ireland where he was a Senator George Mitchell Scholar.

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Page updated on 01/16/15