Mai Vang

Mai Yang Vang is the daughter of Hmong refugees from Laos, the eldest of 16 children, and a proud native of Sacramento. She was elected to the Sacramento City School Board in 2016, and is currently running for Sacramento City Council to represent District 8. In addition to her work as the Executive Director for the Buck Scholars Association, a nonprofit that provides college scholarships, she is also a fierce social justice advocate and an Ethnic Studies lecturer at both Sacramento State and U.C. Davis. She is running to represent her community on the Sacramento City Council because of her deep commitment to serving others and fighting for racial and economic justice.

Growing up in poverty, Mai saw first-hand how access to wealth determined a person’s quality of life and the resilience of families striving just to get by. As a result of this experience, Mai co-founded Hmong Innovating Politics, an organization whose mission is to strengthen the political power of disenfranchised communities via innovative civic engagement and strategic grassroots mobilization. Throughout her career as a community organizer and activist, Mai has worked directly on local and national issues involving education, labor, and racial/ethnic health disparities. In her free time, Mai enjoys hiking with her dog, Coffee, and spending time with her 15 siblings.