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Joe Mizrahi

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Joe Mizrahi
Image of Joe Mizrahi

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4

Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4
Tenure

2024 - Present

Term ends

2025

Years in position

1

Elections and appointments
Next election

November 4, 2025

Appointed

April 3, 2024

Education

High school

Grossmont High School

Bachelor's

Brandeis University, 2004

Law

University of San Diego, 2007

Personal
Birthplace
San Diego, Calif.
Religion
Jewish
Profession
Executive Director
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Joe Mizrahi is a member of the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors in Washington, representing District 4. He assumed office on April 10, 2024. His current term ends in 2025.

Mizrahi is running for re-election to the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors to represent District 4 in Washington. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. He advanced from the primary on August 5, 2025.

Mizrahi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Joe Mizrahi was born in San Diego, California. He earned a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 2004 and a law degree from the University of San Diego in 2007. His career experience includes working as an executive director, secretary, and treasurer. He has been affiliated with King County Labor, Sound Health and Wellness, Sound Retirement Trust, and the Seattle Labor Standards Advisory Board.[1]

Elections

2025

See also: Seattle Public Schools, Washington, elections (2025)

General election

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

General election for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4

Incumbent Joe Mizrahi and Laura Marie Rivera are running in the general election for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4 on November 4, 2025.

Candidate
Image of Joe Mizrahi
Joe Mizrahi (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
Image of Laura Marie Rivera
Laura Marie Rivera (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

Candidate Connection = 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.

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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4

Incumbent Joe Mizrahi and Laura Marie Rivera defeated Bill Campbell, Gloria Suella Menchaca, and Harsimran Kaur in the primary for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4 on August 5, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Joe Mizrahi
Joe Mizrahi (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
68.9
 
8,412
✔
Image of Laura Marie Rivera
Laura Marie Rivera (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
17.9
 
2,188
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Bill Campbell (Nonpartisan)
 
6.5
 
798
Image of Gloria Suella Menchaca
Gloria Suella Menchaca (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
5.9
 
717
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Harsimran Kaur (Nonpartisan)
 
0.7
 
87

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source

Total votes: 12,202
Candidate Connection = 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.

Endorsements

Mizrahi received the following endorsements. To view a full list of Mizrahi's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

Pledges

Mizrahi signed the following pledges. To send us additional pledges, click here.

  • Everytown for Gun Safety

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Joe Mizrahi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mizrahi's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Joe Mizrahi is a longtime Seattle neighbor, labor leader, parent, and advocate for equity in public education. A first-generation American and person of color, Joe grew up in a public school system where he saw firsthand the impact of systemic inequities—and the power of dedicated educators. Both of his parents were special education teachers who championed inclusion, and his wife, Liz, is an elementary school principal focused on dual-language learning and equity-based leadership.

As a parent of three SPS kids, Joe brings professional experience and a personal investment in our district’s success. His background in law, nonprofit leadership, and coalition-building makes him a thoughtful, collaborative, and grounded leader for District 4.

Labor Leadership: Currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW 3000, Washington’s largest union, representing 60,000 members across grocery, healthcare, and retail sectors.

Organizational Management: Oversees a $32M annual budget, manages over $50M in assets, and serves as co-chair major pension and health trusts benefiting over 60,000 participants.

Bridging Connections: Worked for almost 20 years to advocate for low-wage workers—and all workers– access to living wages, good healthcare, stable housing, and a quality education for their children.

Policy & Advocacy Wins: Helped pass transformative legislation, including Marriage Equality (2012), Paid Sick Leave (2012), $15 Minimum Wage (2014), and Secure Scheduling (2016)
  • I Will Prioritize Building a Strong Fiscal Future: Setting a clear, sustainable vision for the district’s finances centered on addressing enrollment challenges and securing the state funding our schools deserve.
  • I Will Prioritize Building Defending Our Values Standing up against efforts, especially from the Trump administration, that threaten public education, inclusive curriculum, and the rights of our students and educators.
  • I Will Prioritize Building Putting Community Voices First Ensuring our decisions are shaped by the people most affected, especially working families who are too often left out of the conversation but deeply impacted by our choices.
Protecting Programs That Work: Continue to defend, strengthen, and fund programs like dual language instruction, special education inclusion, Highly Capable services, and option schools that give students diverse paths to thrive.

Funding with Integrity: Champion policies that secure progressive, long-term funding streams for public education. Joe believes we cannot cut our way to equity—we must invest in it.

Building Trust with Families: Double down on understanding and addressing enrollment loss. What’s pushing families away? What can bring them back? Joe is committed to rebuilding confidence in the district through transparency, accountability, and two-way communication.
Three Body Problem--- haha just kidding, but its a great book, you should read it.


1) Good Jobs Strategy
2) How the Word is Passed

3) Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation
We need people who are organizers at heart. People who center workers, marginalized communities, and those often left out of the process. People who listen more than they talk and know how to engage.
For School Board

1) Build trust and bridges between the system and the community-- How do we help people engage? How do we expand who engages?

2) Monitor budget and hold district accountable. You need deep experience for a governance board. Overseeing budgets, doing financial due diligence, and staying true to values while making hard budget decisions.

3) Accountability-- It is our job to hold district staff accountable to do their job, Serve community and build a system for kids and communities.
I worked at a library, resolving books in High School. I got fired for stopping to read the books too much!

Needless to say I'm still an avid reader.
The primary job of a school board member is governance and community engagement. That means setting a clear vision, holding the superintendent accountable, and ensuring that every decision we make reflects the values and needs of our community. But good governance doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires deep, ongoing engagement with the people most affected by our decisions: students, families, educators, and staff. I see my role as both a steward of the system and a bridge to the community, making sure we’re not just checking boxes but truly listening and responding. When we govern well and stay rooted in community voice, we can build a school system that delivers on its promise for every student.
Every student in Seattle public schools, their parents and families. Families who are yet to have kids enter our schools and lastly, the entire Seattle community who are deeply impacted by the state of our schools.
Supporting the diverse needs of students, faculty, staff, and our broader community starts with deep listening and shared decision-making. As a school board director, and in my decades of work as a labor organizer, I’ve learned that people closest to the problem usually hold the key to the solution. That’s why I’ve prioritized community engagementn, actively involving students, families, and educators in shaping district decisions. Whether it’s fighting school closures, advocating for dual language and project-based learning, or pushing for fair enrollment policies, I’ve worked to ensure that those furthest from educational justice are centered in our policies.

At the same time, I bring financial experience to the table. I help oversee multimillion-dollar budgets and sit on trusts with billions in assets. I know how to manage complex systems while making sure we don’t lose sight of equity. Supporting our diverse communities means backing that commitment with real resources, whether it’s expanding mental health supports for students, investing in culturally relevant curriculum, or improving working conditions for staff. Equity isn’t abstract; it shows up in our budgets, our policies, and how we treat people every day.
Building relationships with the broader community has been at the heart of my work; both as a school board director and as a lifelong labor organizer. I believe trust is built through consistency, transparency, and a willingness to show up, even in hard conversations. That means not waiting for people to come to us, but actively going to where they are, whether that’s community centers, union halls, cultural organizations, or school events.

Specifically, I prioritize connecting with families furthest from educational justice, including immigrant and refugee communities, communities of color, and low-wage working families. I’ve worked closely with parent and student advocacy groups, bilingual education coalitions, and unions representing educators, classified staff, and school workers. I also engage with youth-led organizations because I believe student voice should shape the future of our district. As someone who co-leads Washington’s largest private sector union, I know how to bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision; and I bring that same approach to the school board: listen first, stay grounded in values, and build power through relationships.
Good teaching is rooted in strong relationships, high expectations, and a commitment to meeting each student’s individual needs. It’s rigorous, culturally responsive, and grounded in real engagement, not just compliance. You know it’s happening when students feel challenged, supported, and seen.

As a board, our role isn’t to micromanage classrooms, it’s to set clear, measurable, and achievable goals for student success, and then hold the superintendent accountable for ensuring those goals are being met in buildings and classrooms across the district. That includes monitoring data beyond test scores, like student and family feedback, educator retention, and access to enriching curriculum.

To support advanced teaching approaches, we have to create the conditions for educators to thrive. That means investing in planning time, peer collaboration, and professional development, AND listening to the needs of our educators. Our job is to remove barriers, not add them.
Absolutely, we need to expand access to real pathways beyond college, especially through advanced technical training and apprenticeships. Not every student wants or needs a four-year degree, but every student deserves a future they can build toward. I’ve spent my career in labor helping create these kinds of opportunities, working with unions and employers to develop apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to family-wage jobs. Our schools should be directly connected to those pipelines.

I’d like to see stronger partnerships between our district and the skilled trades, healthcare, tech, and green energy sectors, especially programs that begin in high school and are designed with equity at the center, so students of color, low-income students, and young women have real access. We also need to think creatively: project-based learning, dual credit, mentorship models, and work-based experiences that make learning feel relevant and empowering.
To ensure our schools are properly funded, we need to tackle the issue from multiple angles. First, I’ve been a strong advocate for progressive revenue at the state level, because relying on local levies and regressive taxes leaves too many students behind. Washington is one of the wealthiest states in the country, and we can afford to invest in our kids if we have the political will.

Second, we need to stabilize and boost enrollment. That means rebuilding trust with families by offering strong, responsive programs, and ensuring our schools reflect the needs of their communities. I’ve fought to preserve option programs, dual language, and project-based learning because those are the kinds of offerings that keep families engaged and enrolled.

Finally, we can’t ignore the connection between housing and school funding. Families are leaving the city because they can’t afford to live here. I’ve spoken out in support of affordable housing, because keeping families in our communities means keeping students in our schools. If we want sustainable, long-term funding, we need to align our education policies with broader equity and economic strategies.
Safety means more than just locked doors. It includes mental, physical, and emotional well-being. My approach is to interrupt safety issues at their source, not just react after the fact. That means investing in trusted adults, mental health support, and strong school-based resources so every student feels safe, seen, and supported.
Supporting mental health starts with making it a visible and ongoing priority across the district. This means ensuring every school has access to counselors, social workers, and mental health professionals, not just for crisis response but for everyday care. It also involves creating work environments where staff feel supported and valued, and where students feel seen and heard. We need to normalize asking for help, reduce stigma, and build a culture of trust and connection throughout our schools.
I believe we need to focus on policies that rebuild trust and bring families back into our public schools. That starts with boosting enrollment by making sure every neighborhood school offers strong academics, inclusive practices, and the resources families need. We must raise academic expectations while expanding support, especially for students receiving special education services. Inclusion should not mean compromise, it should mean every student is challenged and supported in the least restrictive environment possible.

At the same time, families deserve both quality and choice. That means improving access to option programs and making it easier for families to move within the district when that’s what is best for their child. A strong district offers both a great neighborhood school and the flexibility to meet diverse needs. Our policies should reflect that vision.
Pramila Jayapal Representative, 7th ConDist

Bob Ferguson Governor, Washington State
Gina Topp, SPS Board President
Sarah Clark, SPS Board
Brandon Hersey SPS Board
Teresa Mosqueda King County Council
Rod Dembowski King County Council
Girmay Zahilay King County Council
Hamdi Mohamed Port of Seattle
Emily Alvarado State Senator, 34th
Noel Frame State Senator, 36th
Liz Berry State Rep, 36th
Julia Reed State Rep, 36th
Nicole Macri State Rep 43rd
Shaun Scott State Rep 43rd
Gerry Pollet State Rep 46th
Andrew Ashiofu Seattle LGBTQ+ Commission
Danni Askini Gender Justice League
Dustin Lambro Public Hospital District #1

UFCW 3000
SEIU 775
OPERATING ENGINERS 302
46th Dist Dems

36th Dist Dems
The ideal learning environment looks different for every kid—but at its core, it’s a place where students feel safe, seen for their whole selves, and supported in ways that meet their unique needs. It’s not one-size-fits-all. It’s responsive, culturally affirming, and built on strong relationships between students, educators, and families. When students feel like they belong, they can thrive.
Our district did the best it could under extremely difficult and uncertain circumstances. It was a time of low information and constantly shifting guidance, and I don’t believe in second-guessing decisions made in real time while people were still learning. I wasn’t on the board during the pandemic, but as a working parent with three kids at home, I understand firsthand how hard it was for families, students, and educators. Going forward, we need to do a better job of working with families and workers to assess needs early and often. Whether it’s academic recovery, mental health support, or emergency planning, the best solutions come when we listen to the people most affected
Parents love their schools, but many feel let down by the district—and I get that. One of the most important things we can do is harness that frustration and turn it into partnership. Anger is better than apathy, because it means families care. Even when they’re upset, we usually want the same thing: a more rigorous, responsive education that meets the unique needs of their child.

I work to build relationships with parents by showing up, listening without defensiveness, and being honest about what’s possible and what needs to change. I’ve seen firsthand how powerful it can be when families feel heard; whether it’s pushing back against school closures, expanding access to programs, or fixing broken systems like enrollment and waitlists. My job is to make sure parents know they have someone on the board who respects their voice, shares their urgency, and is willing to fight alongside them for better outcomes.
We’re living this right now with the superintendent search. My strategy is simple: engage the community early and often, cast a wide net for talent, and make sure we’re not just hiring for technical skills but for leadership rooted in equity, collaboration, and a deep understanding of our schools.
I believe public institutions must be transparent and accountable, especially when it comes to how we spend public dollars. As a school board director and union leader, I’ve been responsible for overseeing multimillion-dollar budgets and currently sit on trusts with assets in the billions. I understand how to manage complex finances while staying true to our values, and I know that trust is built when communities can see not just the numbers, but the priorities behind them. Financial transparency isn’t just about spreadsheets, it’s about whether families can understand where their tax dollars are going and whether those investments reflect what they care about. I’ve fought for clear, accessible reporting, pushed back on opaque budget decisions like rushed school closures, and consistently advocated for participatory budgeting processes that include educators, families, and students. If we want to rebuild public confidence in our institutions, we have to show our work and invite the public into the conversation.

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.

Other survey responses

Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Mizrahi completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.

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External links

Candidate

Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 16, 2025
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