Lena Tran

2020-21 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellow
Dr. Lena Tran serves as vice president of strategic partnerships and workforce innovation at San Jose City College in California. Dr. Tran’s professional background includes leadership positions with established technology firms in New York City and startup enterprises in Silicon Valley. She is the author of Compassionate Vietnamese-American CEOs.

Dr. Tran has held administrative positions at Seton Hall University; University of California, Santa Cruz; and Evergreen Valley College (where she led highly successful program development, community partnership, outreach, and student success initiatives). She served as director of student life at Seton Hall University; director of business, education, and allied health at UC Santa Cruz Extension; and dean of business and workforce development at Evergreen Valley College.

Dr. Tran has extensive experience creating partnerships to meet the needs of students traditionally underrepresented in higher education, including Southeast Asians, African Americans, and Latinos.

Dr. Tran received the Stanford Educational Leadership Initiative and California Forward awards in 2018, the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award in 2018, 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley in 2015, and Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s “Top 40 under 40” in 2012. She serves on the Eastside Union High School District Career Technical Education Advisory Board.