Dr. Bruce Matsui is fluent in Spanish owing to his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Aguilares, El Salvador
Bruce Matsui
Bruce Matsui
Bruce Matsui received his Ed. D. from the University of Southern California, School of Education. His concentrations were in the areas of Organizational Development, Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Matsui has spent twenty-five years in K - 12 public schools. He was most recently the Deputy Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District. Prior to that assignment, he was the Director of the Los Angeles County School Leadership Center. In addition, Matsui served as a principal for fourteen years in the Montebello Unified School District.
His interests in public schooling were shaped by his experiences over the last twenty-five years. He is especially concerned with the task of breaking cycles of predictable failure attributed to poverty, gender and race. He is currently interesting in taking the theoretical ideas associated with systems-thinking, social constructivism (Vygotsky), semiotics (meaning making), glocal thinking (global thinking coupled with local action), and voluntary simplicity; and making them usable, authentic and routine. Dr. Matsui is fluent in Spanish owing to his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Aguilares, El Salvador, Central America. He also served a year as a VISTA volunteer in Brooklyn, New York.
Dr. Matsui is currently working with several districts including the Hawaii School District, concentrating on leadership training and School Leadership Teams. He also serves as a member of the Programs Committee for the Japanese American National Museum. His works have concentrated on the introduction of change in public schools. He has developed a process he calls action mapping, that can serve as an alternative to traditional processes associated with strategic planning. PREL has recently published an article that describes the action mapping process. He has also published an article critical of current Special Education practices, and will soon publish an article outlining findings associated with California’s Demonstration Schools Reform (SB 1274).
He is currently the P. I. on a study that examines the effects of training for Principals and lead teachers of LEARN schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In addition to his work here in the U. S., Dr. Matsui is currently working with school leaders of island entities in the Pacific Region under the auspices of the Pacific Resources for Educational Learning (PREL).
He is in the early stages of developing a Ph. D. program targeting school leaders in urban communities. The new program, which features a weekend modularized approach, will begin during the fall of 1998.
Dr. Matsui recently completed an in depth study of the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas. The Ysleta Story provides and in depth look at the remarkable transformations that occurred in the district.
He developed the Urban Education Leadership Program at CGU targeting school leaders in urban communities. This new program, which features a weekend modularized approach, began in the fall of 1998.
Dr. Matsui is the father of five children, and lives with his wife Barbara, a sixth grade teacher, in Hacienda Heights, California.
Ed.D., University of Southern California
