Meet Mike

I’ve been closely connected to Spokane my whole life. I’m a big fan. Starting from the present and most relevant to this position, I’m a father of two SPS students, one who graduated last year and the other a junior in high school. Both have been in SPS since kindergarten. Starting from their pre-school, I was an actively involved parent stemming from a stint as a stay-at-home dad. Or as I jokingly told my consulting colleagues when I resigned to take on the new gig, Director of Human Development at a bio start-up. My wife and I were very fortunate to be able to have one of us at home, and it was a wonderful, and of course at times challenging, experience. It wasn’t so common to have at-home dads then, so you can read about one of my attempts to make that experience work for our family in the Spokesman’s achieves here https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/aug/10/support-for-dads/ (TLDR: I started a dad’s group).

Once my older daughter was in school, I started working part-time for Communities in Schools by supporting a Gates Foundation grant to establish a school-based health center in Spokane County. At the time, Eastern Washington had just one SBHC in Walla Walla. That work successfully led to a clinic at Sunset Elementary in Airway Heights. Unfortunately that clinic closed three years later for a variety of reasons, but largely because the small elementary school didn’t have quite enough demand to support it’s own clinic. Later on, while working for CHAS Health, I helped get grant funding for a clinic at Rogers High School which has been much more successful. I’m still a big believer in school-based health services.

During my girl’s elementary schooling at Franklin Elementary’s APPLE choice program, I stayed involved in our PTG-equivalent group and volunteered in a variety of ways. Making copies for teachers. Reading with kids. Helping with art projects. Joining the parent leadership committee. Working on auction projects. These experiences are great memories. Probably the best award I ever got was volunteer of the year. There were so many awesome parent volunteers and many who put it more time than I.

The time I spent supporting my kids through their education has provided me with a critical understanding of our school district. It does some things great, some good, and has some challenges. All need some continual improvement. Having kids in the district keeps it real as a school board member. I want the best for my kids and I know each parent wants something awesome for theirs. I’m on the school board and want to continue on it because I want to be part of helping SPS continue to do better for our students, parents, and our community.

For me, that’s the most critical information voters should have when considering their vote, but here is a summary of more typical qualifications:

Former engineer, management consultant, healthcare administrator, and chief strategy officer well versed in operations of large, complex organizations like SPS. Currently a consultant for community health centers.
Current school board member, Spokane Public Schools. President since 2021,Director since 2017
Broad perspective on public education based on experiences ranging from in-class volunteering & tutoring, to parent group leadership and in school-community partnership development
Extensive non-profit volunteering, employment, and board experience
Graduate of Spokane Public Schools (Lewis & Clark HS)
Bachelors in Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington
Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Engineering Management from Northwestern University
More info at LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wiser-7b498b/

And when I'm not working on work or school board, the outdoors are often a happy place. Hiking and camping with family are great pastimes, as are most racquet sports, volleyball, running and general tinkering on house projects.