Staff Biographies
Sally Matsuishi - President / CEO
As President / CEO, Ms. Matsuishi is the driving force behind Next Generation Scholars. Ms. Matsuishi's passion for higher education for the underserved began at Vassar College where she was selected to serve on a student advisory committee to the Admissions Department for the recruitment of under-represented students. As she ventured into underserved neighborhoods, Ms. Matsuishi found extraordinary students yearning for a chance at an education. She had not only found students for Vassar, but she had found her life's work.
After graduation, Ms. Matsuishi teamed with activist alumni from several Ivy League colleges who wanted to go beyond college-access for the underserved. The new goal was to develop future activists and community leaders who, upon graduation from college, would have both the academic and the experiential knowledge to spearhead meaningful change within their own communities. While working in Koreatown, South Central and East Los Angeles, Ms. Matsuishi developed an ethnic studies-based program which encouraged students to assume roles in the struggle for social justice. Upon returning home to Marin County, Ms. Matsuishi added student-run community uplift projects to teach students leadership and organizational skills and to show them they could already effect change within their communities. Ms. Matsuishi also began providing wrap-around social services to ensure that downturns in the economy or family emergencies did not prevent students from succeeding in school.
In addition to sharing her expertise in college preparation and admissions with current scholars, Ms. Matsuishi conducts workshops and speaks at local schools, colleges and universities. She is also a frequent speaker at the Western Association of College Admission Counseling.
As an independent educational consultant, Ms. Matsuishi has helped countless students navigate the higher education admissions process. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Marin Education Fund, the Asian American Alliance of Marin and the Action Coalition of People of Color. She also holds membership in the Higher Education Consultants Association, Western Association for College Admission Counseling, The American College Counseling Association, and The Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development.
In 2006, Ms. Matsuishi was honored as the "Volunteer of the Year" by the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin. She holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies and Art History from Vassar College and a Master's of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California, School of Television and Cinema.
Kenji Treanor - Vice President / CFO
As Vice President/CFO, Mr. Treanor oversees Next Generation Scholars' fiscal management and organizational administration. He provides leadership in the areas of strategic planning, board relations and governance. His professional experience includes service at several nonprofit and educational institutions, in both administrative and program focused roles.
He is currently the Grants Manager at the James Irvine Foundation where he designs internal processes and procedures for the foundation's distribution of more than 500 grants annually to nonprofit organizations in California. He is the main point of contact for all new grant-seekers, and serves on the foundation's team for diversity related special projects. Before assuming the Grants Manager position, Mr. Treanor served as the Program Associate in the foundation's Youth Program and took a lead role in directing more than 1.5 million dollars in grants to college-access programs across the state.
Prior to his service at the foundation, Mr. Treanor coordinated special projects for the Office of University Advancement at San Francisco State University. He was also a consultant to the San Rafael City School and directed his own youth leadership and social justice training program for the Youth Leadership Institute. Early in his career, he enjoyed teaching in the Ross Valley School District and in a rural village in Japan.
Having been born and raised in Marin County in a multiracial family, Mr. Treanor is deeply engaged in helping scholars plan and implement social justice and community service projects in Marin. Once scholars have arrived at college, he guides them to campus organizations and leadership programs, encouraging them to proactively shape their college communities.
Mr. Treanor received his Master's in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco and holds a B.A. in American Studies, with emphasis in Ethnic Studies and Socio-Political Analysis from U.C. Santa Cruz where he graduated with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Beverly Matsuishi, Ph.D. (PSY # 16203) - Clinical Director
As Clinical Director, Dr. Matsuishi, a psychologist, oversees the provision of social and clinical support services to scholars and their families. Dr. Matsuishi is dedicated to fostering and preserving the vibrancy of communities of color so they can nurture and sustain future generations of scholars. As a practitioner/activist, throughout her career along the continuum of psychiatric services, Dr. Matsuishi has vigorously advocated for the creation of a compassionate circle of support for families, encouraging governmental agencies, non-profits, and communities to work together to help families maintain their integrity and vitality.
A believer in the power of grassroots movements,
her kitchen table was one of the places where the fight for redress for
the Japanese American internment began. Fourteen years prior to the
ultimate congressional passage of redress, she produced one of the
first multi-media presentations revealing the injustices of the
internment. The presentation was installed at the Marin County Civic Center. She believes scholars can benefit psychologically from leading similar community-based social justice projects.
In fact, it is her belief that psychology, in general, is a
powerful tool for empowering students. At Next Generation Scholars, psychology is not be limited to
clinical services, but pervades everything Next Generation
Scholars does, from its interactions with scholars and the community to the curriculum of its ethnic studies and enrichment programs. Her goal is for scholars to develop strong personal voices to articulate their stories and lead social justice projects. As scholars participate in the program, she helps them develop a "toolbox of skills" enabling them to overcome adversity, push away self-doubt and persevere towards their goals as powerful representative of a new movement in their communities and beyond.
Dr. Matsuishi holds a B.A. in Latin American Anthropology from U. C. Berkeley, a M.S. in Education from Dominican University, and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute, where her dissertation on Japanese American women and the internment won the Richard Allen Smith Award for excellence. She is a past recipient of a National Institute
for Mental Health/American Psychology Association grant for specialized
training in Asian American Psychology. She also received a grant from the People's Republic of China/World Health Organization to serve as a visiting scholar at the Hunan University Medical Center in Changsha, China.
Dr. Matsuishi did her post-doctorate training in college psychological counseling at San Francisco and Sonoma State Universities (SSU). She added an additional year of training specializing in Latino students under the supervision of Dr. Joaquin Sanchez, the Director of Psychological Services at SSU. She also joined the American Multi-cultural Studies Department where she taught The Psychology of the Ethnic Experience in America. She was very active in students activities and was proud to have received a certificate of appreciation from the Ethnic Students Association when she left SSU.
Summer Interns
Gaby Andrade, a Next Generation Scholar at Claremont McKenna College returned to intern in community organizing. She has established a bi-lingual support network of mothers, bringing in speakers on parenting, neurology, micro-financing and housing.
Jordan Kenna, a Wesleyan University undergraduate majoring in photography, served as our intern gallery curator.
Cat Lum, a Next Generation Scholar at Wesleyan University majoring in sociology and theater returned as our program intern, co-creating a gallery installation and publishing our book.
Sandy Phan, a Next Generation Scholar at Santa Clara University, returned as our marketing intern, organizing our fundraiser and enhancing our donor and corporate relationships.
Viet Phan, a Next Generation Scholar at University of the Pacific in Computer Sciences, returned as our technology intern and webmaster.
