Arati Singh

Arati Singh (pronounced “Art-thee Sing”) was elected to the board in December 2018 and is the first Indian-American to serve on the Austin ISD school board. Arati started her career as a bilingual fourth-grade teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, and for 20 years has secured funding for, designed and evaluated college access and STEM programs at universities and school districts throughout the country.

In 2018, Arati received the PTA Honorary Life Award for her legislative advocacy work for school finance reform. As a member of the Texas PTA advocacy committee, she has testified several times at the state Capitol for more school funding, and mobilized hundreds of AISD parents for school finance reform as the Austin Council of PTAs advocacy chair. In 2015, under her presidency, Oak Hill Elementary School’s PTA won a National PTA School of Excellence award, one of only 11 in the state, for its grassroots outreach to Spanish-speaking families.

Arati has five technology-related patents to her name. As a mother with two children in AISD (including one who has started a social movement fighting online sexual harassment), Arati understands that kids should love learning and feel safe in schools.

Arati has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minor in Spanish from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an instructional technology focus from The University of Texas at Austin.

Arati, her husband, and daughters live in southwest Austin. She is honored to serve as a school board member and fight for educational excellence and equity for every child in Austin ISD.