Jeanette C. Takamura, M.S.W., Ph.D. is the first female and the 17th dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work. Dean Takamura served as Assistant Secretary for Aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1996-2001 during the second term of the Clinton Administration.

During her tenure as Assistant Secretary and as the head of the U.S. Administration on Aging, Jeanette Takamura led the development of a modernized Older Americans Act and initiated the design and proposal of a new national program – the National Family Caregiver Support Program. Both were signed into law in 2000. Dr.Takamura established the National Aging Performance Outcomes Measurement Program at the Administration on Aging.

Jeanette Takamura is an elected fellow of the National Academy on Social Insurance and also of the National Academy for Public Administration. She is an invited principal of the Council on Excellence in Government. She has served on numerous national and international advisory boards, commissions, and advisory and working groups and has received national recognition for her work in aging policy and program development. Dean Takamura is also the Chair of the Board of the American Society on Aging and is a Commissioner on the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care.

In 2000, Dr.Takamura held the Edward R. Roybal Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology and Public Service at California State University at Los Angeles. Before her federal service, she was the Deputy Director of Health (Chief Operating Officer) for the Hawaii State Department of Health and previous to this was the Director of the Executive Office on Aging in the Office of the Governor, State of Hawaii. Early in her career, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii School of Social Work, where she led several federally funded aging projects and developed a gerontological social work curriculum with funding from the U.S. Administration on Aging.