Quiet leader runs Boston's City Council

Harvard grad Michelle Wu is city's first Asian-American council president

When Michelle Wu walks into a room and meets people for the first time, they often ask her which elected official she works for.

Wu, 31, is the first Asian American, first woman of color and third woman to become president of Boston's City Council in its 106-year history.

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she is also the first Chinese American and first female Asian-American city councilor, as well as the youngest current member.

Wu was born and raised in Chicago, where her parents immigrated to from Taiwan. Both sides of her grandparents are from the Chinese mainland. Her father's side is from Beijing and mother's is from Sichuan and Guangdong. Wu has been learning Mandarin and about traditional Chinese culture since being a child, and she is fluent in Mandarin.

As she was growing up, Wu said she was a typical Asian-American girl - shy and obedient. She played piano and the violin, studied hard and got a scholarship to Harvard, where she started as a pre-med student because she knew her mother wanted one of her four children to be a doctor.

In her spare time, she volunteered in Boston's Chinatown to teach citizenship classes. Later, Wu switched to an economics major at Harvard and eventually took a job as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

Soon after graduation, Wu at the age of 22 found herself as the caretaker of her mother, who had begun struggling with mental illness, and two sisters. Her parents divorced, so she left her job and returned to Chicago.

To support the family, she opened a 25-seat tea house, but only dealing with the city council for months to get a permit. The tea house served loose leaf tea and Chinese dumplings and hosted poetry readings and open mic nights.

"When I saw what my mom went through, something that changed her life so quickly and permanently, it really made me understand how limited time is, and that if you want to make a difference, you should try to do it as soon as you can," said Wu in an interview.

Her experience in Chicago of trying to open the tea house involved a lengthy process of delays and bureaucracy, all of which made her decide to pursue a career in city politics.

Wu returned to Boston with her mother and two sisters in 2009 and started at Harvard Law School.

During the first two years of study, she interned at City Hall, where she created a Restaurant Roadmap guide to opening a restaurant in Boston, and spearheaded the "Boston Food Truck Challenge", which led to three food trucks opening on City Hall Plaza. She also worked at a medical center where she provided legal services to low-income patients.

It was during her last year of law school that Wu learned how to campaign.