Frances Yang

This page was current at the end of the official's last term in office covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Frances Yang

Nonpartisan

Prior offices

North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education

Successor: Daniel Wartick

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

April 4, 2023

Education

Bachelor's

University of Southern California, 1999

Ph.D

University of Southern California, 2004

Other

Harvard Medical School, 2006

Personal

Profession

Research associate professor in nursing

Contact

Campaign website

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Frances Yang was an at-large member of the North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education. She assumed office on October 12, 2021. She left office on April 12, 2022.

Yang ran for election for an at-large seat of the North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education. She did not appear on the ballot for the general election on April 4, 2023.

Biography

Frances Yang earned a bachelor's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1999 and 2004, respectively, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2006. Yang's career experience includes working as a research associate professor in nursing.

Elections

2023

See also: North Kansas City Schools, Missouri, elections (2023)

General election

General election for North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education (2 seats)

Laura Wagner and incumbent Karee Gleason-Miller defeated Brian Mercer, Josiah Bechthold, and Maren Stoflet in the general election for North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education on April 4, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Laura Wagner (Nonpartisan)	35.3	5,853
✔		Karee Gleason-Miller (Nonpartisan)	24.0	3,987
		Brian Mercer (Nonpartisan)	21.2	3,517
		Josiah Bechthold (Nonpartisan)	14.1	2,348
	Submit photo	Maren Stoflet (Nonpartisan)	5.4	898

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 16,603
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Frances Yang (Nonpartisan)

2022

See also: North Kansas City Schools, Missouri, elections (2022)

General election

General election for North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education (2 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education on April 5, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Daniel Wartick (Nonpartisan)	22.2	4,256
✔		Terry Ward (Nonpartisan)	22.0	4,219
		Laura Wagner (Nonpartisan)	13.5	2,576
		Duane Bartsch (Nonpartisan)	11.9	2,280
		Josiah Bechthold (Nonpartisan)	11.1	2,115
		Frances Yang (Nonpartisan)	10.9	2,090
		Susan Hines (Nonpartisan)	6.7	1,280
		Andrew Corrao (Nonpartisan)	1.7	322

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 19,138
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Frances Yang did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Frances Yang completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Yang's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Frances M. Yang, PhD, and I am the proud parent of two children in the North Kansas City School District (NKCSD). I am the first incumbent female Pacific Islander in 109 years of the NKCSD history to be in this election. I am currently a Research Associate Professor at the University of Kansas School of Nursing. I was trained in epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and was on faculty for ten years. I have a PhD in gerontology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. I was a National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging Resource for Minority Aging Research Scholar at Columbia University. I am running for the North Kansas City School Board because I believe in ACTion: Accountability, Communication, and Transparency.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Accountability is about ensuring we have fair allocation of resources for successful student achievement defined collaboratively by teachers, students, and parents.
• Communication is about including and interacting with diverse perspectives from everyone in our school district. It is making communication accessible and understandable to everyone.
• Transparency through data-driven decisions is my expertise as an epidemiologist to not only translate the results, but also assess the validity of the results through the methodology used to analyze the data.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about literacy, innovation, and empathy for all children. It is vital that our school district provides students with the resources to read at or above their grade levels. It is also vital that we provide access to innovative technology and strategies within our ever-advancing world. Empathy received and given is important as we move through this pandemic and hopefully out of it soon with emerging wellness support that is needed to prevent teacher burnout and improve student performance.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to Katherine Johnson, a female Black African American NASA mathematician breaking down barriers to solve important scientific problems and advance the United States to the global forefront of space exploration.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

Student achievement. School board members need to focus on improving student achievement through a committed vision shared by teachers, students, parents, staff, and administrators. The role of school board members is to provide accountability to the community that schools are focusing on student achievement. In addition, the school board members need to have a healthy relationship with the community through communication, provide leadership, and advocate for sound policy on all government levels for student achievement.

Who are your constituents?

Everyone in the community.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

We need to examine both qualitative (focused group interviews, observations, and open-ended feedback) and quantitative data (objective survey data) to best understand the diverse needs of the district's students, teachers, staff, and community. From there, we can compare to surrounding comparable school districts based on sociodemographic characteristics to identify resources and solutions that have been successful based on measurable outcomes.

How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?

I would build relationships with members of the broader community by attending meetings in-person. In addition, through a survey that allows for constant feedback and respects privacy. Then addressing the concerns or celebrations. I want to work more closely with PTA, student organizations, local businesses, especially if they are owned by parents in the school district, labor unions, and other local elected officials.

Do you believe it is important to intentionally recruit with the aim of diversifying the district’s faculty, staff, and administration? If so, what would be your policy to achieve this?

I believe that diversifying the district's faculty, staff, and administration begins with having a functional and diverse school board. We need to model behavior that is open and accepting of diverse perspectives and brave space for dialog, in order to attract a diverse workforce that reflects our student population that is made of 43% non-white students.

What issues get in the way of quality education? How would you address these obstacles?

Issues that are unrelated to student achievement will get in the way of quality education. It is important to revisit and remind everyone about the shared vision for student achievement and the goals that are established for success.

What will you do to build a relationship with parents in the district? What plans do you have to be inclusive of parental involvement?

It is important that school board members listen to parents in the school district by asking for feedback. There needs to be a more visible parent center that is a physical space that offers resources and a brave space for parents from diverse backgrounds to meet with the school district to know how best to support their children for student achievement.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Candidate

North Kansas City Public Schools Board of Education

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