Dr. Sami Al-Abdrabbuh was elected twice to the Corvallis School District Board and serves as its Chair for the third year. He is the President of the ‘Color Caucus’ of Oregon school board members. He was recently confirmed by Oregon State Senate to serve at the Fair Dismissal’s Appeals Board. His business and nonprofit leadership experiences include serving as the board president of the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center, and a member of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition’s Steering committee and the Corvallis Public Schools Foundation. His community service focused on education empowerment, economic and environmental resilience, and empowering vulnerable populations. Sami successfully advocated for national and statewide and local reforms and legislation that supported elections reform, human rights, and equal access for students.
He holds three degrees in engineering, worked for General Electric as a projects engineer for safety monitoring systems in the energy and water industries, and started Crispy Science, a startup focused on creating informal learning opportunities for children and youth. Sami teaches engineering design, problem-solving, engineering economics, engineering computation and programming, project management, and work systems design at Oregon State University. He holds a doctorate in Industrial Engineering with a focus on human systems and decision-making in emergency management. In his free time, Sami enjoys the outdoors, especially camping and hiking. He also enjoys playing soccer, chess, and salsa dancing.
SAMI’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Led a $200 million bond initiative to build and reinforce schools for earthquake readiness
- Fought to protect every person’s right to vote and protest
- Engaged young and diverse people in the legislative process
- Installed 638kW of solar power through public/private partnerships with Solarize Corvallis
- Created protections from discrimination based on gender identity for transgender and non-binary individuals
- Brought graduation rates to historical records of 90%, with higher rates for minority students
- Increased access to mental health therapists and skills trainers in schools
- Built a community health center in partnership with Benton County Health Department
- Invested in career and technical education
- Developed rental assistance programs for housing-insecure students
- Banned concealed weapons from Corvallis school campuses
- Brought together experts to protect people from wildfires
- Adjudicated appeals of dismissals and complaints
