Tay Anderson

Tay Anderson was born on July 5, 1998 to Mia Anderson, a single mother who was a teenager when he was born.[1][2] He grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and moved to Denver to attend high school.[3] He attended two other schools before settling on Manual High School, where he later became student body president. While at Manual, he decided to run to become a Director of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. At the time he was 19 years old, thus becoming the youngest person to date to run for a Denver school board.

Anderson lost that election, and instead enrolled at Metropolitan State University of Denver to study education and also began working in restorative justice within Denver Public Schools.[4] He decided to run for the Board of Education again in 2019, campaigning on supporting low-performance schools, putting a pause on approving new charter schools, and reforming how punishment was conducted at schools. Anderson decisively won this election, and doing so ushered in Denver's first anti-reform, pro-union school board in over a decade.[5] In a three-way race, he won about 51% of the total vote.[6] He is one of the youngest elected officials in Colorado history, being just 21 at the time of his inauguration.[7]

Anderson graduated from Manual High School in 2017.[8] His professional experience includes working as a restorative practice coordinator at Denver North High School.[4] He is affiliated with March for Our Lives - Colorado.[8]

Anderson was inaugurated into the Denver School Board on December 4, 2019.[2] The following January, Anderson helped pass a mandate requiring all Denver Public Schools to designate a gender-neutral bathroom, saying it would support the LGBT community.[9] Additionally, Anderson has led an effort to remove the Denver Police Department from public schools within the city.[10] Anderson was a de facto leader of Denver's George Floyd protests.[7][11]