Having free time is increasingly rare, Dr. Judy K. Sakaki explains, as she ticks off an increasingly demanding list of tasks as a higher education leader—a job that she embraces with pride and enthusiasm. Taking one of those infrequent breaks, she pauses to put her story in context.
In her hometown of Oakland, Calif., her school counselor “told me I would be good in retail sales,” Sakaki recalls, looking at her future if she followed the counselor’s advice and stayed at her job as a youth.
Today, Sakaki, 63, is president of Sonoma State University, a post she started this past July after a steady track of service and achievements in the California State University System. She is the first Japanese American woman to head a four-year institution of higher education in the United States.
Sakaki says those teachable moments she experienced as a child have since propelled her to achieve her pursuits and share the possibilities with the generations she now leads at Sonoma State, with more than 9,000 students, 500-plus full- and part-time teachers and a $110 million annual operating budget.
“It has been good, fun, exciting,” says Sakaki of her new responsibilities.
“I got my start because someone reached out to me,” says Sakaki, recalling encountering someone beyond her counselor who told her she had the potential to do better. She plans to use her job to extend a helping hand.
New class
