My career includes over forty years in the California’s higher education systems. I spent the first 30+ years in the community colleges and retired as Chancellor of Coast Colleges overseeing three wonderful community colleges in Orange County, California. Having had presidential and chancellor level roles, I was immediately invited to join the Ed.D. in higher education leadership program at California State University Fullerton as Distinguished Faculty and have stayed on ever since 2011. Having the Bahá’í Faith as my anchor and guiding force absolutely served me well in my leadership journey. Leadership Development has been my passion and life’s work, so I leaned into my spiritual faith again to develop and direct the Leadership Institute for Tomorrow (LIFT) at CSU Fullerton. LIFT aims to cultivate and develop leaders who will make social impact in justice, equity, and inclusion from the ground up. We target the entry-level BIPOC participants to develop a new generation of social justice leaders. The Institute is most unique to incorporate the arts in our programming. We also highlight the diverse cultural strengths to develop leaders who have ownership of an agency in making changes toward eradicating racism and build unity in diversity.

International collaboration is also important to me. As president of Lingnan Foundation, a small private philanthropy that promotes the positive relationships of China and the USA, I continue to serve as a bridge to bring about global peaceful collaborations using the higher education platform.