Dr. Leroy Morishita is a higher education leader with over forty years of experience, serving multiple universities in various staff and administrator roles over his career. Currently, he is president emeritus of California State University, East Bay, which he led for nearly a decade. He started his career in higher education as a counselor in the Educational Opportunity Program at San Francisco State University. In his nearly thirty years there, he assumed progressively more expansive leadership roles, with his last role as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He most recently served as interim president at California State University, Los Angeles.
Dr. Morishita is the chair of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, chair of the JA Health Benefits Trust/JA Community Foundation, and a board member of the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education. He has served on multiple boards, including as a founding member of the Oakland Promise Governing Board, Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities, Bay Area Council, National Campus Compact, California Campus Compact, East Bay Leadership Council, and Asian Community Health Services.
He received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, his M.S. in Counseling from San Francisco State University, and his Ed.D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
