Sophie Maxwell

Maxwell has lived in the Bayview district in San Francisco, California for the last twenty years.[3]

Prior to her election, Maxwell worked as an electrician for Amtrak.[4]

Maxwell elected to the Board in 2000, when, as a result of the shift from at-large to district elections, she served a transitional two-year term. Maxwell defeated San Francisco Planning Commissioner Linda Fadeke Richardson, who was supported by mayor Willie Brown, in the 2000 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election.[4]

She was re-elected for four-year terms in November 2002 and November 2006. Some themes of her work cover issues such as:

• environmental justice
• clean energy
• equitable distribution of public resources[2]

She termed out in January 2011. Prior to the end of her tenure, there were local efforts to stage a recall election against her.[5] However, half of the 6000 signatures were deemed invalid and the petition was later thrown out.[6]

In the 2010 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, Maxwell endorsed Bay Area Rapid Transit board member Lynette Sweet in a race that consisted of 21 candidates.[7]

Maxwell's mother, Enola D. Maxwell, was a neighborhood activist and former executive director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. Potrero Hill Middle School at 655 De Haro Street was renamed Enola D. Maxwell Middle School of the Arts in 2001.[1] The building was then converted to International Studies Academy, which closed in 2016, and is now the site of San Francisco International High School.[8] Maxwell's son Rama died of Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 30.[2]