Kenji Hakuta, PhD

Emeritus Professor,
Stanford University

Kenji Hakuta is the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus at Stanford University. He served on the Stanford faculty from 1989 to 2017, except for three years (2003–2006) when he founded the University of California at Merced and served as its Dean of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. His research interests are in the areas of psycholinguistics, bilingualism, language development, and the education of English Language Learners. He is the author and editor of many articles and books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism (1986). He chaired the National Research Council report on English Language Learners that framed a research agenda for the field in 1997. Dr. Hakuta is co-founder of the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford, which addresses the challenges and opportunities of current education reform efforts with a particular focus on language. He is actively involved in supporting the work of school districts and states around the country, and he leads several professional learning communities, including school districts in rural central California and a learning community of state leaders organized by the Council of Chief State Schools Officers. Dr. Hakuta obtained his PhD in Experimental Psychology at Harvard in 1979.