Michela Alioto-Pier (born April 29, 1968) is an American politician and small business owner who served as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2004 to 2011. A Democrat, she represented District 2, encompassing the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods. She previously served as a member of the San Francisco Port Commission. She was appointed to the Board of Supervisors by Gavin Newsom after he was elected mayor, in 2003. Newsom himself was initially appointed to this seat by former mayor Willie Brown. Alioto-Pier's paternal grandfather was former San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto and her maternal grandfather was Michael J. Driscoll, Sr., a former San Francisco port commissioner and former San Francisco supervisor. She is the niece of Angela Alioto, former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She is the most recent member of the Alioto family to hold an elected political office in San Francisco. Early life In 1981, at age thirteen, Alioto-Pier was paralyzed from the waist down when she fell from a ski lift in the Lake Tahoe area. At age seventeen, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the advisory board of the President's National Council on Disability. Alioto-Pier later received a degree in anthropology from UCLA. Early political career After working as an aide to Vice President Al Gore, Alioto-Pier made her first run for public office at 28 in 1996 against Republican Congressman Frank Riggs in California's 1st congressional district, which included Napa, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties, stretching along the coast up to the Oregon border. She won the Democratic nomination, but lost the general election. She is credited with mounting a strong campaign despite the loss. At the time, she ran under the name Michela Alioto. Shortly after losing that election, Alioto-Pier announced that she would try again in 1998 but withdrew from the race in deference to fellow Democrat (and eventual winner) Mike Thompson. Instead, she ran for the office of California Secretary of State and won the Democratic nomination but ultimately lost against Republican incumbent Bill Jones. She again ran for Secretary of State in 2002, but lost the Democratic nomination to fellow San Franciscan Kevin Shelley, whose father preceded Alioto-Pier's grandfather as that city's mayor. San Francisco Board of Supervisors In January 2004, Alioto-Pier was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, to his old seat in District 2 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.