Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Research
California State University
Office of the Chancellor

Dr. Marsha Hirano-Nakanishi serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Research at the California State University Office of the Chancellor, which she joined in 1989 as the Director of Analytic Studies. Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi previously worked in institutional research and on the faculties at CSU Northridge and CSU Los Angeles from 1984 until 1989. With the increasing calls for greater accountability in higher education, Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi has been tapped to serve on the Joint Commission on Accountability Reporting—a joint undertaking of the American public college and university associations at 1 Dupont Circle, also at the State Higher Education Executive Officers' (SHEEO's) project to define higher education information database needs for the 21st century, as well as the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES') pilot project on reporting graduation rates, and the California Postsecondary Education Performance Report advisory group.

Before entering higher education administration, Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi was co-editor-in-chief of the Harvard Educational Review and a policy consultant and analyst on issues regarding educational finance reform, desegregation, language policy; and K-12 attrition on projects financed by the National Institute of Education, NCES, and the Carnegie Foundation. For the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi served as chair of the 1992 Postsecondary Education Division Annual Program, as a member of the AERA Standing Committee on Special Interest Groups (1990-92), and as chair of the AERA Ad Hoc Committee on Minority Fellowships.

She has also been affiliated with the Association of Institutional Research (AIR), participating in the AIR Publications Advisory Committee and serving as Chair of the Committee on Institutional Effectiveness and Student Outcomes Track. Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi holds a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Stanford University and a doctorate in social policy analysis from Harvard University.

Dr. Hirano-Nakanishi's community activities include: State Bar of California Committee of Bar Examiners (author of the special committee's report on minorities and the California Bar Examination), State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation, the City of Los Angeles' Commission on the Status of Women, the Los Angeles YWCA Board of Directors, the Long Beach American Cancer Society, the United Way of Los Angeles Strategic Planning Committee, the Far West Regional Laboratory Board, the Southwest Regional Laboratory Board, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni Council, Chair of the Central Los Angeles Committee of the Southern California Harvard-Radcliffe Alumni Schools Committee, and the Los Angeles Unified School District's Commission on Sex Equity and Asian American Education Commission.