Sally Matsuishi - Executive Director

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.



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.

Karla Garcia

Karla Garcia returns to Next Generation Scholars as the Dean of Middle School. As a Next Generation Scholar herself, she has experienced first- hand the need and effectiveness of this organization which puts all its resources to achieve higher education for those who work for it. She is in pursuit of obtaining her Masters in Occupational Therapy, but in the mean time has dedicated herself in joining the fight for educational justice in Marin County. By coordinating the High School and Middle School program, she hopes to support the growth of NGS and the success of each scholar. She is the product of the San Rafael School District having attended Davidson Middle School and San Rafael High School. She recently graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in Psychology.

Vinney Le

Vinney was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Rafael, attending San Pedro Elementary, Venetia Valley K-8 School, and Terra Linda High School. He has been actively involved with Next Generation Scholars since 2005—first as a student and then later on staff as an Operations Intern and Lead Science Instructor. Vinney earned his bachelor's degree in Human Biology with a concentration in Human Development and Education from Stanford University in 2011. With an education enriched in the arts and sciences, Vinney hopes to fuse these passions into his new role as Dean of High School to foster creativity and curiosity in his students and their work. Like Elbert Hubbard, Vinney Le believes that "we awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them." Vinney firmly believes that every student deserves access to higher education and is dedicated to the holistic success of each student and of the NGS program.