Member, Board of Directors
Born in Taiwan and raised in California, Yvonne Wu Craig first understood the power of education when she was 16 by doing community service at a center for children with special needs. Seeing students become more empowered, self-sufficient and confident inspired her to pursue a career in education.
She attended UC Berkeley where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and a Minor in Education. She spent her junior year studying abroad in Madrid, Spain where she firmed up her Spanish skills. After graduating, she travelled to Taipei, Taiwan to teach English to preschool children, teens and adults. She returned a year later to complete her Master’s degree and obtain a teaching credential in Elementary Education from UC Berkeley’s Developmental Teacher Education Program. Her thesis was on the Acculturation of Asian Immigrant Students through the School Lunch Program.
After teaching in the classroom, she left the teaching profession and started working at a small consulting company doing grant writing and program evaluation for K-12 school districts. In that position, she wrote and evaluated several grants supporting early childhood education and afterschool programs. She now applies those skills as the Director of Grants at Chabot College, while also overseeing the college’s Foundation. She started working at Chabot in 2006 where she began as a classified professional developing and writing grants, garnering over $11 million in federal, state and private grant funds to support college programs. As part of the President’s Office, she has worked with faculty and staff in every division across the college to develop and submit grant proposals. She was also the co-chair of the college-wide strategic planning committee for four years and was the Chabot Classified Senate President for three years and Senator for two years, leading Classified Professionals through the great recession and two rounds of layoffs.
She has earned the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Chancellor’s Award, the Striving Black Brothers Coalition Mentor of the Year Award and is a graduate of the LEAP Leadership Development in Higher Education Program. She has also served on the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education Conference Planning Committee for four years.
Now that she has made the transition to administration, she tries to fit in time for her husband, Michael Craig who is an artist and former high school teacher, their 3-year old son, Miles, and their beautiful cat, Riley. She enjoys spending time with them, going to the movies, attending music and sporting events (Go Dubs!) and trying to squeeze in time to go dancing.