Mai Thao is the Director of Asian American Initiatives for Communities for a New California. She directs and oversees strategic political and communications programming to increase political participation and civic engagement among Asian American voters. 

As part of CNC's integrated mass voter engagement strategy, which spans seventeen counties in the San Joaquin Valley, Coachella Valley, and Sierra Foothills, Mai’s work focuses on developing and executing culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate get-out-the-vote campaigns to engage Asian Americans from the San Joaquin Valley to Sacramento. Her work aims to raise the political voice and power of Asian American communities in the Central Valley. 

Before CNC, Mai was Interim Co-Executive Director for the civic engagement and power-building coalition Mobilize Organize Vote Empower (MOVE) the Valley. Mai has served in leadership positions in the labor movement, the California State government, and multiple community-based organizations. 

She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, with a dual major in Ethnic Studies and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. Mai was born and raised in Fresno, CA, to Hmong refugee parents who were forcibly displaced from Laos. She honors her mother, Ka Vue, as the most resilient Hmong womyn she knows; and a continuing example of how to be a better person each and every day.