Candidate for
Trustee; Capistrano Unified School District; Trustee Area 4

Martha McNicholas is recognized in the CUSD community as a tireless volunteer at her children's schools, as well as for having served on the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council, and several other District Committees. She has been extremely active in PTA leadership roles, and on an education advocacy legislative action committee. She has also been a director of the CUSD Foundation and the Dana Running Foundation at Dana Hills High School. Martha is a cancer survivor and Chairman for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Laguna Niguel.

Martha is an engineer by education, with a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Her technical and analytical skills and logical approach to problem solving have been mastered in her over 35 years of experience in real-world engineering as an engineering manager, project leader, quality assurance engineering manager, product designer and failure analyst. She is currently self-employed as an engineering consultant.

Martha is a native Californian and graduated as a valedictorian of Eureka High School in northern California.

Martha and her husband Tom (also an engineer) have lived in Laguna Niguel for over 26 years. They have raised 2 children in CUSD Schools. Their daughter Elizabeth is a 2008 graduate of Dana Hills High School and a 2012 graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder, with a BS Environmental Engineering. Their son Michael is a 2012 graduate of DHHS, and has just finished his second year at Oregon State University.

Martha has received the Golden Oak Service Award - California State PTA's highest honor for outstanding service to children and youth - and was recently nominated as Laguna Niguel Citizen of the Year.