Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Diego; District 6

Mitz Lee Biography

MITZ LEE is a Dynamic Community Leader and Passionate Advocate for Family-Friendly Neighborhoods - representing a history and distinguished record of service to the San Diego community. Her history of service excellence includes outreach, advocacy, and coalition building within the areas of:

• Education Leadership
• Economic & Business Development
• Cultural & Civic Relations * Environmental Awareness
• Family & Community Service

Mitz early public service started the same way many others have served. She was a military spouse, a Youth Soccer and Little League Team Mom, a Den Mother, a school classroom volunteer, and a School Parent Volunteer Coordinator.

Later, Mitz served on San Diego Unified School District's Board of Education and several nonprofit boards. Mitz currently serves on San Diego City Human Relations Commission. She also spearheaded the 2013 fundraising effort for the Scripps-Mesa neighborhood July 4th fireworks celebration.

Mitz has been recognized for her solid community leadership which includes, but is not limited to, a Special Recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives, California State Legislature and local City Officials; a nomination to receive the President's Service Award; recognition by the Military Spouse Business and Professional Network; Asian Business Association Community Service Award; Governor and First Lady's Service Award; and Kappan Citizen of the Year Award. Mitz has also been named one of the Top 50 People to Watch in San Diego by San Diego Magazine.

Mitz's decades of "Leadership Wisdom, Expertise and Experience" have impacted family lives and communities in diverse areas:

EDUCATION LEADERSHIP Mitz Lee has been honored for outstanding service in improving K-12 public education. Mitz has been a grassroots education reform advocate for over two decades. Mitz's trademark is building multi-ethnic community coalitions around the American value of opportunity through education. Mitz works with community and business organizations, civic-minded citizens and elected officials from all parties to build consensus on education reform issues and to restore excellence to our public schools.

Mitz advocated for excellence in K-12 education as a Trustee and Vice President of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education, one of the nation's largest school districts. Mitz was the first Asian Pacific American to be elected in a citywide campaign to the Board of Education in the city of San Diego. Mitz's commitment to helping students achieve began in 1996, when she co-founded the Alliance for Quality Education, a non-profit education reform organization dedicated to revitalizing public education so every child receives a quality education.

Elected to the Board of Education in 2004, Mitz won 94% of all precincts citywide and drew nearly 166,000 votes. Mitz came to the Board with a mandate to return common sense to academics, require fiscal restraint and district accountability, and increase parent involvement in the public education of children. She achieved all of these goals. Mitz also accomplished the following: ended extravagant use of ineffective and expensive consultants; strengthened the district's fraud investigation capability (including a fraud-reporting hotline); championed the effective use of charter schools as vehicles for parent choice, innovation and competition; and secured public school sites where Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts could meet. Additionally, Mitz's work to improve the school district's science program was recognized on a front page article in the Wall Street Journal (4/13/06).

Mitz also represented San Diego as a delegate to the Assembly of the California School Board Association, and has completed their Masters in Governance Program. Nationally, she has participated in conferences of the National School Boards Association and in legislative action for the Council of Great City Schools in Washington, D.C. Prior to campaigning for the Board of Education, Mitz served in numerous leadership and committee positions at public schools (including membership on a charter school governing board), at the school district level and in state level K-12 education organizations.

ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Mitz Lee is a strong advocate for the business community and economic development for underserved populations and diverse communities. She co-founded Mabuhay Alliance now known as National Asian American Coalition (NAAC), an organization dedicated to encouraging economic development, entrepreneurship and sustainable homeownership for underserved populations and diverse communities. Also Co-founder and former Chairperson of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC), Mitz has a strategic vision of furthering the goals of this large and diverse community by engaging Asian Pacific American citizens in the political process and to prepare the next generation for economic, business, and community leadership.

CULTURAL & CIVIC RELATIONS Mitz Lee serves on the Board of Directors for San Diego-based Pacific Rim Park, Incorporated whose mission is to foster understanding and goodwill among citizens and cultures of Pacific Rim countries by bringing people together in building a series of parks encircling the Pacific Ocean. Mitz has also served the community through memberships with various business, civic and community groups and organizations including the Asian Business Association, City Heights Community Development Corporation, Clairemont Town Council, Clairemont Woman's Club, Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, International Lions Club, Mira Mesa Town Council, Mira Mesa Women's Club and San Diego County Taxpayers Association. Mitz currently serves on the City of San Diego Human Relations Commission and Board of Management of Rancho Family YMCA.

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS Mitz Lee spearheaded an international travel organization that specialized in eco-tours to rugged and remote locations in the Philippines for European and American nature lovers. From that experience, Mitz was inspired to work to protect Philippine flora and fauna. From interacting with the diverse ethnic groups that live in the rain forests of her native country, she experienced firsthand the importance of strong families to the success and life-blood of the entire community.

She was an early member of the board of directors of the Haribon Society (now known as Haribon Foundation), the largest and most respected environmental conservation group in the Philippines. On the Haribon Board of Directors, Mitz worked with local, national and international conservation groups, to save the endangered Philippine Eagle. As a result, the national legislature declared the endangered Philippine Eagle the official bird of the Republic of the Philippines and thereby saved it from extinction.

FAMILY & COMMUNITY SERVICE Mitz Lee's record of family and community involvement spans almost three decades. Beginning as many mothers do, Mitz became a den leader for her sons' Cub Scouts and a team mom for Youth Soccer and Little League Baseball. As a military spouse she worked with the command ombudsman to address families' concerns when the crew was out to sea or away on long deployments; Mitz also did volunteered work at her local Navy Family Relief Center and hosted Halloween and Christmas for military families with children.

Identifying an unfilled need at her son's school, Mitz stepped in and organized parent classroom volunteers and established a parent center. During the many hours she spent working with parents and teachers at her children's school, Mitz came to understand how policy and politics + factors beyond the teacher's control + impact children in the classroom. Mitz believes a parent's care and concern cannot overcome a lack of good academic program at the school or overcome weak and incoherent school board policies. So, Mitz broadened her involvement in public education and worked to improve curriculum and establish standards-based reform, accountability and sound school policy. (Her concern and relentless passion to help fix these issues later gave rise to her successful election to the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education (as mentioned above).)