In 2012, as City College of San Francisco was descending into an accreditation crisis that continues to threaten the survival of one of San Francisco’s most vital institutions, Rafael Mandelman ran for the College District’s Board of Trustees and won. Since that time he has worked tirelessly to save our City College. 

Growing up here as a kid living with foster families, lots of people stepped up to help Rafael make his way.  With their help and generous financial aid, he was able to attend and graduate from Lick-Wilmerding High School and go on to earn degrees from Yale, Harvard and UC Berkeley. 

Today he works as a lawyer in private practice helping local governments around the Bay Area make life better for their communities. In his free time, he tries to give back to the City that gave him so much.  In 2010, he ran to represent District 8 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and although he did not win that race, it was a great honor to earn the votes of nearly 15,000 voters who shared his vision of San Francisco as a city that leaves no one behind, a place where every child has the same opportunities to survive and thrive that he did.