Ken Yeager (born December 12, 1952) is an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He served on the

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors governing Santa Clara County, California. It is made of elected representatives from each of the county's five districts. Districts and current members District 1 includes ...

, representing District 4. First elected to the board in 2006, he represented the cities of

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

and Santa Clara, as well as west San Jose and the

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

and

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

neighborhoods. Previously, Yeager served on the

San Jose City Council The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature of the government of the City of San Jose, California. As the Mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo casts the 11th vote on matters before the council and acts as chair ...

from 2000 to 2006. Before that, he served two terms on the San Jose/Evergreen Community College Board. He was a candidate for the 23rd district seat in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...

in 1996, coming in second.

Early life and education

Ken Yeager was born December 12, 1952. His parents were Ernest Eugene "Gene" Yeager (1924–2010) and Carolyn French Yeager (d. 2003). Yeager attended San José State University, where he earned a B.A. in political science. He went on to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, earning an M.A. in sociology, and a Ph.D. in education from the

Stanford Graduate School of Education The Stanford Graduate School of Education (also known as Stanford GSE, or GSE) is one of the seven schools of Stanford University, and is one of the top education schools in the United States. It was founded in 1891 and offers master's and doc ...

. In 2004, Yeager completed Harvard University's

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a

David Bohnett David C. Bohnett (born April 2, 1956) is an American philanthropist and technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of the David Bohnett Foundation, a non-profit, grant-making organization devoted to improving society through social ...

LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow.

Career

Early career

Prior to his career in politics, he taught political science at San Jose State University for 12 years full time. In 1984, Yeager was a cofounder of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, described as a "four-county lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political action group." He came out publicly in a 1984 '' San Jose Mercury News'' opinion piece in response to the anti-gay rhetoric of a local state senator. In 1992 he became the first openly gay elected official in Santa Clara County, when he was named as trustee of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District. From 1992 until 2000, he served two terms in the role. He was a candidate for the 23rd district seat in the

in 1996, coming in second in the Democratic primary to then-Santa Clara County

Supervisor A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...

(later

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

) Mike Honda. Yeager served on

from his election in November 2000 until March 2004, when he was re-elected for a second term that lasted until 2006. In 2001, he flew the rainbow flag for the first time above San Jose City Hall. Yeager amended San Jose's harassment policy in 2003 to include gender identity. In 2004, he was named chair of the San Jose City Council's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Ethics.

Recent and current positions

He last served on the

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

Board of Supervisors A board of supervisors is a governmental body that oversees the operation of county government in the U.S. states of Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as 16 counties in New York. There are equivalent agenc ...

, representing District 4 and termed out at the end of 2018. First elected to the board in June 2006, he represented the cities of

, Santa Clara, west San Jose, and the

and

neighborhoods. He was re-elected in 2010 and 2014. In 2008, and then again in 2013, it was Yeager who presided over the first same-sex marriages in Santa Clara county, and he had overseen around 100 such marriages by 2014. Yeager is a former board member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), and in January 2009 the governor appointed him the BAAQMD representative on the California Air Resources Board for four years. Involved in public transportation in California, Yeager backs the

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of Caltrain, extending

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...

to San Jose, and building California High-Speed Rail. In late 2010 he joined the board of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. He is a member of the Caltrain Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors, having served as its chair in 2013. Yeager serves as chairman of the Supervisors' Health and Hospital Committee, and he is also chairman of the California State Association of Counties Health and Human Services Committee. He is furthermore a member of the First 5 Commission of Santa Clara County. By 2014, he had published ''Trailblazers: Profiles of America's Gay and Lesbian Elected Officials''. As of 2017, he continues to periodically teach at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

Personal

Yeager's long-time partner is Michael Haberecht. Yeager is a triathlete and cyclist and frequently commutes to work by bike.

References

External links

Supervisor Ken Yeager's site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeager, Ken 1952 births Living people California Democrats County supervisors in California American gay politicians San Jose State University alumni Stanford University alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni San Jose City Council members Stanford Graduate School of Education alumni American LGBT city council members LGBT people from California