Dr. Sonia BasSheva Mañjon is director of the Center for Art and Public Life, chairs the Community Arts Program and Diversity Studies, and is vice chair of a campus diversity initiative at California College of the Arts. She also holds the endowed position of Barclay Simpson professor of Community Arts. Through her various roles, she emphasizes policies and programs that fuse art education and service learning. She developed the Community Arts Program at CCA, the country's first bachelor of fine arts program in community arts, which stresses student civic engagement and diversity issues.

Dr. Mañjon's professional background in arts administration and arts education spans 18 years. She has taught and lectured at various Bay Area colleges and universities, including New College of California and San Francisco State University. Prior to joining CCA, she held numerous executive roles in arts administration in Northern California, including executive director of the City of Oakland's Craft and Cultural Arts Department and chief executive officer of Mañjon International Services. She also directed the Community Arts and Education Program for the San Francisco Art Commission and was the executive director of the San Francisco National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

She has completed numerous projects and video documentaries. She has presented her research on marginalized and invisible immigrant communities and the work of the Center for Art and Public Life at national and international conferences, including the First Annual Women of Color, Mixed Heritage, Ethnicity, and Race Conference. She also produced a video documentary on Tongan tapa making and community collaboration. Her second documentary, "The Experience of Immigration and Acculturation of Four Generations of Dominican Women in California," is based on one of her written works and is currently in post-production.

Dr. Mañjon is a sought-after public speaker on a wide variety of topics, including community collaborations in arts education and multicultural arts. She has spoken across America at events like the Asian American Art Initiative in Philadelphia and Cultural Diversity Based on Cultural Grounding in New York. She has danced with and choreographed group and individual performances and has participated in various multicultural events, and she has been recognized for her work supporting community art organizations and her many other talents. She received the California Arts Council Administrative Fellowship award and the Women in Industry Leadership Award from the Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women.

She is commissioner of the Alameda County Arts Commission and is a member of the Alameda County Arts Education Leadership Alliance. She is also a member of various professional associations, including the Association of American Anthropologists, the International Association of African and Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars, Women's Global Connection, and the Oral History Association.

Dr. Mañjon earned a PhD in humanities, transformative learning, and change in human systems and a master of arts in cultural anthropology and social transformation from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She received a bachelor of arts in world arts and cultures with a dance emphasis from the University of California, Los Angeles.

She lives in Oakland with her sons, Zyan and Ezra.