Chancellor's Office

Dr. Whitney Yamamura became Chancellor of the Coast Community College District on September 1, 2022. Dr. Yamamura is the second Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Chancellor at CCCD since the District was formed in 1948. A fourth-generation Japanese-American and Californian, he is the grandson and great-grandson of farmers and farmworkers. His father's family was interned at Tule Lake and his mother's family was interned in Arkansas during WWII. Yamamura has deep roots in education, his father Sam taught in K-12 for over 30 years and has a library in the Elk Grove Unified School District named in his honor.

Dr. Yamamura’s life and career experience makes him a passionate advocate for DEIAA work.  He is determined to make a meaningful impact on closing the equity gap for the students of the Coast District.  To that end he has established an executive dean position at the district office with the directive of identifying and establishing pedagogical and policy initiatives appropriate for that work. 

In his first year he worked to strengthen existing and create new relationships in the local and state legislative community which resulted in the passage of AB1173 (Ta) College and Career Fairs.  The bill opened up new opportunities to expose high school students to the option of community colleges.   This year he and the trustees have been working towards the passage of AB1805 (Ta) Instructional material Mendez et al v. Westminster School District et al which will inform all CA K-12 students of the role that Orange County and California played in the groundbreaking desegregation case that was a precursor to Brown v Board of Education.

In the post-COVID era, Dr. Yamamura has revived and supported professional development activities to encourage a more effective and efficient working environment. Streamlining processes, development of onboarding materials, and providing managers supportive tools to enhance their work are all being done with the a guiding principle of striving for continuous improvement of our institution for the benefit of students.

Additionally, under Dr. Yamamura’s leadership, Coast CCD, became the fiscal agent and lead for the State’s Common Cloud Data Platform Demonstration Project. The purpose of the project is the development and implementation of a shared, multi-district data infrastructure that will serve the entire California community college system and students. The data will create efficiencies in students’ program completion, transfers to universities, attendance reporting, and enhanced data security.

Dr. Yamamura earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – finance concentration – and a Master of Arts in Economics from CSU Sacramento and earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from UC Davis. He completed the Harvard Seminar for Presidential Leadership at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and UC Davis' Wheelhouse Institute on Leadership for California community college chief executive officers.

Previously, he served as the third President of Folsom Lake College for over five years and as Interim President at two colleges, Sacramento City College and Cosumnes River College in the Los Rios CCD. During his time at Folsom, he was named Folsom Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year and was co-recipient of the national Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE) Annual Award. He is recipient of Sacramento State’s Distinguished Service Award for 2022, part of the Distinguished Alumni Awards program.

Currently he serves as the Vice Chair of the California Community College Asian American Pacific Islander Trustees and Administrators (AAPITA) Caucus, is on the Board of the National Asian Pacific Islander Council (NAPIC), the Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Committee (TTAC) of the State Chancellor’s Office, and the California Asian Chamber of Commerce (CalAsian).