Ellen Junn, Ph.D. has over 39 years of experience in higher education having served as the president at California State University, Stanislaus from 2016-2023. She joined R.H. Perry & Associates in 2025. Prior to joining Stanislaus State, Dr. Junn held high-level appointments at five other CSU campuses including provost and vice president for academic affairs at two CSUs (San Jose State and CSU Dominguez Hills), associate provost (Fresno State), associate dean of the College of Health and Human Development (CSU Fullerton), and Chair of the International Student Services Advisory Committee (CSU San Bernardino), as well as professor of psychology at Indiana University.

While provost and using data analytics, Dr. Junn worked with her CSU Dominguez team to implement a wide range of innovative and transformative programs that championed student success, resulting in a $3 million California Innovation in Higher Education Award from Governor Jerry Brown in 2015. As the 11th president of Stanislaus State, located in the rural and agricultural Central Valley region of the state, this campus serves more than 65% first-generation, Pell-eligible undergraduates, women and diverse students. Under Dr. Junn’s leadership, Stanislaus State implemented many new, innovative programs supportive of all of the diverse students which yielded such strong student outcomes data, that the campus now consistently earns national recognition from U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Washington Monthly, Money Magazine, California Mobility Index, and others ranking it as one of the top-ranked universities in both California and nationally for social mobility, affordability and strong economic success for students after graduation.

Dr. Junn currently serves on several boards: WSCUC Commissioner for WASC Senior Commission for Universities and Colleges; Governor-appointed Commissioner of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE); California Education Learning Lab Advisory Board; Advisory Board of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). She was recognized as among the “Top 25 Leading Women in Higher Education” by Diverse Issues in Higher Ed (2017); recipient of the “Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien Education Leadership Award” from the Asian Pacific Fund (2013); “Outstanding Woman of 2020” by the Stanislaus County Commission for Women; and the “Distinguished Education Leadership Award” by the College of Education, California State University, Fullerton (2020).

Dr. Junn earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan, where she graduated cum laude and received high honors in psychology. She obtained her master’s and Ph.D. in cognitive and developmental psychology from Princeton University. In addition, she holds a Management Development Program Certificate from Harvard University. Her research and publications include early childhood education and advocacy, college teaching effectiveness, faculty development, and educational equity and diversity issues.

She was the first Korean American woman president appointed in the US to a four-year public institution. Her husband is a retired physicist, and her son, AJ Murphy is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University and his wife, Emilie Connolly is Assistant Professor of History at Yale University.

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