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Jeanette Ishii appointed
executive director of Maddy Institute

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President Welty has appointed Jeanette Ishii as executive director of the Kenneth L. Maddy Institute for Public Affairs.

Ishii, director of Development for the College of Social Sciences for the last two years, managed the successful "Evening Honoring Senator Jim Costa" last August, which netted more than $280,000 for the Maddy Institute. She will continue to be responsible for development activities while taking on the new role.

The mission of the four-year-old Maddy Institute is to elevate citizen participation and government performance at all levels through leadership education for public service. Among Ishii's goals are to expand the institute's geographic representation within Central California to address public policy issues of a regional nature.

Ishii succeeds Daniel K. Whitehurst, who served as the director and also was the Kenneth L. Maddy Professor. A search for a new Maddy Professor is under way.

Ishii is the former president and owner of San Joaquin Valley Farms Inc. and also had a 10-year career as a legislative advocate.

She serves on the Northern California District Export Council as an appointee of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the Community Medical Center's Corporate Affairs Committee, and is a board member of the new Children's Mental Health Foundation. Ishii previously was a member of the board of directors of the Western Pistachio Association and has served as a board member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, the Fresno Metropolitan Museum and the Foundation for Clovis Schools, and was chair of the Juvenile Justice Center Task Force. For six years she also hosted Consumer Line, a live television talk show that aired on Valley Public Television.

Before joining the Fresno State staff she served as a member of the University Advisory Board and the reaccreditation committee and was chair of the College of Arts and Humanities Advisory Board.

Ishii is a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara and has participated in graduate studies in public administration at Sacramento State.

"Jeanette has experience in business, government, education and legislative advocacy making her ideally qualified to serve as executive director of the Maddy Institute," said Welty.

The Maddy Institute was established in 1999 and named to honor Senator Ken Maddy, a Fresno State graduate and respected public servant who represented the Valley in the state Senate for nearly three decades.

The institute operates within the College of Social Sciences.

Back to University Journal, 4/03 Issue