Grace H. Mah has served on the Santa Clara County Board of Education since 2007. Her previous committee work includes the Head Start Policy Council, Joint Legislative Advisory Committee (JLAC), Budget Study Committee, and Policy Development Subcommittee. Grace is co-founder of the Strong Start Coalition of Santa Clara County, dedicated to increasing access to early learning opportunities for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in Santa Clara County.
Grace has been a board member of the Palo Alto Family YMCA, a parent volunteer at Palo Alto public schools, and the initiator for a Mandarin immersion program in the Palo Alto Unified School District. In her work with the YMCA, she was on committees addressing international relationships and diversity, as well as participating in fundraising activities. Volunteering for Palo Alto schools, Grace served on school site councils, was the Partners in Education (PiE) Foundation school site Co-Chair for fundraising, and led the Career Speaker Series for Gunn High School for three years. For the Mandarin program in PAUSD, she contributed to the application and winning of a Foreign Language Assistance Program federal grant.
Grace has 18 years of experience in the high-tech industry, including project management and sales experience. She has a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from the California Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. She is currently pursuing a Public Leadership Credential from the Harvard Kennedy School. Grace and her husband and their two sons live in Palo Alto.