Candidate for
Member, County Board of Education; County of San Francisco

Shamann Walton--a native of San Francisco--moved to Vallejo with his mother (Catherine Cartwright) at the young age of eleven, where he attended elementary, middle and high school. After graduating from Vallejo Senior High School in 1993, he immediately attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. While at Morris Brown College, he was involved with the Model United Nations and Organization of African Unity Debate teams, selected as Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities and elected Student Government Association Internal Vice President for the 96-97 school year.

Upon graduating from Morris Brown College (Cum Laude) with a BA in Political Science, he came back to his roots and began teaching and working at the Boys and Girls Club. While balancing his job at the boys and girls club and substitute teaching, he began to develop a rapport with various school districts and eventually started teaching for the Solano County Office of Education as part of an Internship Certificated Program. He then entered into the family support field and became the Director of the Economic Opportunity Council of San Francisco's Potrero Hill Family Resource Center (PHFRC), where he managed and developed programs for families with children from 0-14. Due to his service and work with families in the Potrero Hill Community, in 2006 he was honored by Support for Families of Children with Disabilities (a community based organization designed to provide support for all families in San Francisco with children that have disabilities) at their Annual Gala Fundraiser. After serving as the director for the PHFRC he became a program officer for the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) where he worked with funded agencies to ensure compliance with the usage of San Francisco City and County dollars.

While with DCYF Shamann completed his Masters of Public Administration (with an emphasis in public management) at San Francisco State University. He is now currently the Executive Director of Young Community Developers, Inc. (a workforce development agency located in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point Community), where he manages, develops and implements job readiness training, job placement, barrier mitigation and case management services for participants.

Shamann enjoys working with children and their families and he inherited his love for the community from his mother and from his mentor and surrogate father Philmore Graham. Being able to be a positive influence in the lives of others, children in particular, are what keep him motivated. Aside from the work he does with agencies and families in San Francisco, he is heavily involved with his San Francisco community as well. He serves on the Board of Directors for Parents for Public Schools-San Francisco; he is very active with the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Pi Chi Chapter in San Francisco, which allows him to work as part of a team that is a reservoir of help to the community. In addition, Shamann is a member of the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club, the San Francisco African American Democratic Club, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the American Society of Public Administrators, a LeaderSpring Fellow (Class of 2013) and the Bayview Rotary Club. Most of all he is a proud father of two (Daughter-Monique and Son-Malcolm).