Community Leader Spotlight: Reggie Lee

Reggie Lee, Board Member and Parent at Yu Ming Charter School, Commissioner for Measure G Citizen oversight commission

1. What gives you excitement?

• Watching school systems and students succeed.  

2. What keeps you up at night?

• Poor/ineffective governance

3. What gives you hope?

• As a kid, my father and I moved several times to different states around the country.  I was fortunate to end up in an incredible school district that believed in academic rigor, hard work, but balanced it with an incredible amount of student joy.  Having lived through this, and seen what is possible for students; I know personally how education can change lives. Every family and every kid deserves that opportunity.

4. If you could wave your magic wand, what is the first thing you would change or add?

• I would make sure that all school boards were capable of working together.

5. More about Reggie’s  journey 

• I joined the board at Yu Ming Charter School after my son started there, with the idea that I would learn about education and how the system works.  The shocking part for me was how little the system seemed to be operating for the kids.  Along with my role at Yu Ming, I began to look for other ways to help the community and push for high quality schools for everyone.    During that time, I was introduced to GO and became a member of the Leadership Council