Jenny Kao is Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President of the University of California system of 10 UC campuses, 6 academic medical centers, and 3 affiliated national laboratories. She serves as UC President Michael V. Drake’s senior-most executive advisor on a wide range of issues, helps develop and execute the University’s policy and strategy agenda, manages crises and issues, mediates disputes and resolves problems, and advances the President’s vision for UC’s role as an engine of social mobility and opportunity in California. She has served as Chief of Staff for two UC Presidents, including through the pandemic, and has worked directly for five UC Presidents.
An immigrant and a product of California public education, Jenny has worked in the public sector and in public higher education for nearly 30 years. Before becoming Vice President and Chief of Staff for the UC System, she served as UC’s Chief Policy Advisor where she worked to eliminate standardized testing in UC admissions and managed UC’s efforts for its undocumented and DACA students. She was also Deputy for External Relations & Communications and co-led the University’s state governmental relations office in Sacramento, advocating for UC’s priorities with the Governor and the Legislature. Jenny also served as former Governor Gray Davis’s higher education analyst for legislation and budget issues.
Jenny earned her B.A. degree (with honors) in American History from UC Berkeley, with a minor degree in French literature. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University and completed three years of a Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley.
Jenny serves on the Strategic Advisory Council for UC Berkeley’s Asian American and Diaspora Studies. A non-native English speaker, she also speaks Mandarin and French. A hopeless extrovert, she loves her family and friends, food, wine, fitness, hiking, snorkeling and travel.