I grew up in Los Angeles, the youngest of six children. My mother, a public school teacher and later a registered nurse, and my father, an engineer, started their own print shop when I was just three years old. Our weekends and summers were spent working in the shop. I attended public schools, and my parents instilled in all of us a passion for learning. 

After high school, I went to community college and later transferred to San Francisco State University where I earned my Bachelors of Arts. 

While studying in San Francisco, I met my future husband, Khoi. Born in Vietnam, during the war, he fled Vietnam on the boats and spent six-months in a refugee camp before  immigrating to the United States in 1980.  

We moved to Orange County in 2001.  Germaine started her career in heavy civil construction the same year, and got her MBA Masters of Business Administration from Chapman University, while working full time.    

In 2006 we welcomed our son, Vincent and bought our home in Anaheim the next year. As a product of public education, we believe wholeheartedly that every child deserves the highest quality education. When our son reached school age I decided instead of spending my time working to make money to send him to a private school, I would spend my time making our schools better for all our children. 

In 2010, Khoi’s son, Dan came to live with us. Dan grew up in Mexico with his mother, so our family became a beautiful blend of three cultures, German-Irish American, Vietnamese and Mexican. Our table is always filled with eclectic meals and wonderful discussions. 

I supported Dan’s passion for learning as he went to Fullerton College and later CSU Fullerton, where he graduated with a Bachelors of Art in Accounting. 

We enrolled Vincent in the Spanish Dual Language (DLI)  at Juarez Elementary, where I joined the PTA, the School Site Council and the Spanish Dual Language parents group. Over the years at Juarez I supported the book fairs, literature day, movie nights, often juggling my work hours to be on campus. After Juarez, my son stayed in the Spanish Dual Language program at Sycamore Jr High and Anaheim High. Where I continued to support our schools by joining the PTA and several booster clubs. My son graduated from Anaheim in 2024 and is now studying at UC Santa Cruz. 

I started attending School Board meetings in March 2024 when AUHSD sent Reduction In Force (RIF) notices to 255 classroom teachers, sending our schools into chaos with the ‘"skips" process. That process kept 18% of AUHSD teachers out of the classrooms for 6 full days. It cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars for substitute teachers, attorneys fees and the administrative judge.  Not to mention costs to the union and the site administration. It negatively affected the morale of every school site in the district. The district stated that there were no other areas in the budget to make cuts. And the current Area 1 Trustees and Board President, Jessica Guerrero voted three times to override the union contract with the “skips.” terminate our teachers. After 2 months of chaos, the district finally found other areas to make cuts and cancelled the RIFs. 

Since then, I have been attending the AUHSD School Board meeting monthly. With the RIFs in my mind, I organized a group of parents, students & teachers to review the board agendas before each board meeting. To this day we still meet every month to educate ourselves on board policies, funding sources and the district’s special interests. Using my MBA, my knowledge of finance and accounting, I’ve analyzed the budget and reviewed all new and existing contracts. I even took up writing about our local school districts with a local newsroom focused on K-12 education in Orange County called SpotlightSchools.com.. I’m constantly talking to Dr. Jaron Fried, Amy Kwon and Nancy Nien, along with teachers, admins and staff regarding the agenda items as well as other issues. Having an MBA allows me to quickly analyze data from a perspective outside the education echo chamber. 

I am a Heavy Civil Construction Estimator, working on Multi-Million dollar infrastructure projects throughout Southern California. My knowledge of public contract laws, finance and accounting give me a unique perspective to help out one of the largest school districts in Orange County. 

I decided to run for the board this year, because the community, including many parents & teachers, asked me to. As my husband and I are empty nesters; I already spend a lot of my time focused on our schools. My focus is ensuring that our district prioritizes our students and classrooms. According to Nancy Nien, declining enrollments will require major financial cuts over the next 4 years. While the district’s current budget forecast shows many staffing cuts, none are at the District Office. Our current school board continues to rubber stamp every agenda item. The board’s role is to provide oversight, which it is grossly lacking. 

I am running to make change, to support our Anaheim families by ensuring all children get access to the best education possible. Every student, every classroom, every day.