Yiaway Yeh Explained

Yiaway Yeh
葉亞威
Birth Date:February 17, 1978
Birth Place:San Francisco, California, United States
Spouse:Cecilia Hyun-Jung Mo
Education:American University (BA)
Harvard University (MPP)

Yiaway Yeh (Chinese: 葉亞威; Yè Yàwēi) is former city councilmember and mayor of Palo Alto, California. He was elected to office in 2007[1] and was elected to mayor by the city council of Palo Alto on January 3, 2012.[2] Yeh is the second youngest mayor in Palo Alto history and the first Taiwanese American to hold the office.[3] He was born in San Francisco, and attended JLS Middle School and Gunn High School in Palo Alto.[4]

Yeh received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the American University School of Public Affairs and his graduate degree in Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Yeh volunteered for the Peace Corps in Burkino Faso developing local NGO's.[5]

Before being elected Yeh was working for the City of Oakland as an auditor.[3]

Yiaway Yeh moved to Nashville, Tennessee following his wife joining the faculty of the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University.[6]

Yiaway Yeh was appointed by Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville to head up the new Mayor's Office of Innovation announced on April 26, 2013.[7] He later took a job with Google and returned to the San Francisco Bay area.[8]

Yeh's parents are both first generation immigrants from Taiwan that came to the U.S. for graduate school.[9]

Of Hakka descent, Yeh's grandfather was born in Mei County, Guangdong, China in 1909 and moved to Taiwan in 1949 following the Chinese Civil War.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Trout. Becky. Espinosa, Burt, Yeh, Schmid win City Council seats. 29 January 2015.
  2. Web site: Green. Jason. Yiaway Yeh tapped as Palo Alto's next mayor. San Jose Mercury News. April 5, 2014. January 4, 2012.
  3. Web site: Sheyner. Gennady. Yeh, Scharff to lead Palo Alto council in 2012. Palo Alto Weekly. April 5, 2014. January 3, 2012.
  4. Web site: About Yiaway Yeh. City of Palo Alto. April 5, 2014.
  5. Web site: Speaker Biographies. Stanford University. April 5, 2014.
  6. Web site: Patterson. Jim. New faculty: Cecilia Hyunjung Mo shares her late father's passion for politics. Vanderbilt Research News.
  7. News: Garrison. Joey. Dean's new Innovation Office aims at government efficiency, constituent needs. 29 April 2013. The Tennessean. April 26, 2013.
  8. News: Kennedy . Eleanor . Former Metro official joins Google Fiber team . May 9, 2020 . Nashville Business Journal . September 22, 2015.
  9. Web site: Leung. Kwokshu. Palo Alto's first Chinese American Mayor. KTSF. April 5, 2014. January 4, 2012.