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The California State University awards honorary degrees to individuals who have demonstrated excellence in areas that benefit humanity, CSU campuses, the state, nation and/or world. Recipients are recognized and honored for their exemplary contributions. The degrees are given by the CSU Board of Trustees in the name of the California State University and in the name of the campus. The CSU awarded its first honorary degree to then-President John F. Kennedy in June 1963 at San Diego State University.

For more information, view the California State University Board of Trustees policy for awarding honorary degrees.

Emeritus Professor of Art, Sacramento State and Founding Member, Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF)
2022 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts

Esteban Villa was born in 1930 in Tulare, California. He began his career as a high school teacher, but soon became a professor of art at Sacramento State, where he taught for over two decades. Professor Villa is best known for his work founding the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCFA), an iconic art collective focused on social justice during the civil rights era.

The RCAF was described in the Sacramento Bee as “a collection of artists-turned activists who used their words, music, and images to fight for justice and equality for farmworkers and other marginalized Americans.” The group was founded in 1969 to express the goals of the Chicano civil rights and labor organization movement of the United Farmworkers. The group’s early work and activism was in support of the United Farmworkers Union, and their art and talent inspired UFW leadership...

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Founding Director, Asian Resources, Inc.
2022 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters

May O. Lee has been a pillar in the community since moving to Sacramento from Seattle in 1975. She is the founding director of Asian Resources, Inc. (ARI) and she has dedicated her personal and professional life to community service.

While a graduate student at Sacramento State, Ms. Lee recognized that the burgeoning Asian immigrant and refugee communities had critical needs for job assistance, English classes, youth and senior programs, and health education. She helped evolve the Asian Resource Center Senior Services into a nonprofit that could meet all of these needs, and became its founding director in 1981, where she served until 2006. Ms. Lee was instrumental in starting My Sister’s House (MSH) in 2000, which serves Asian and Pacific Islander and other underserved women and children impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. MSH has expanded to includes My Sister’s Café, a social enterprise to support MSH job training programs, as well as the MSH Housing First program...

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Owner, House Real Estate and Tim Collom Gallery
2022 President’s Medal for Distinguished Service

Tim Collom’s life is a blend of both the business and philanthropic values taught at Sacramento State, and his career is truly a reflection of the ideals of the California State University.

After leaving college, Mr. Collom began his real estate career, eventually founding House Real Estate. Starting with just four agents, House has grown to include 17 agents, listing 141 houses and selling $170 million in real estate this year alone, and was recently ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the Number One Small Real Estate Team in Sacramento. Mr. Collom is also an accomplished artist, and he has parlayed his success in art and business into helping others in California.

During the fires that devastated much of Northern California in 2020 and 2021, he designed a special California print which he sold throughout the state, donating more than $200,000 to the California Fire Foundation. These funds helped the residents of Paradise begin to rebuild their lives and their community. In 2019, he won the Hero Award from the California Fire Foundation, which is only given to three people every year in California.

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Winnie Leung, MS '97 (Accountancy)
Doctor of Humane Letters 2007

Roger Valine '73 (Sociology)
Doctor of Humane Letters 2007

Robert T. Matsui
Doctor of Laws 2006

Hans J.A. Van Ginkel
Doctor of Letters 2003

Ingrid Moses
Doctor of Letters 2003

Phillip L. Isenberg '61 (Social Science)
Doctor of Letters 2002

Richard W. Riley
Doctor of Humane Letters 2001

Grantland Johnson '74 (Government)
Doctor of Humane Letters 2001

Dorothy Stevens Enomoto
Doctor of Humane Letters 2001

Steven Lee Yamshon '77 (Envrionmental Resources)
Doctor of Humane Letters 1999

Angelo K. Tsakopoulos '60 (History)
Doctor of Humane Letters 1998

Wayne Thiebaud '51, MA '53 (Art)
Doctor of Fine Arts 1998

Heitor Gurgulino de Souza
Doctor of Laws 1996

Sisbusiso M.E. Bengu
Doctor of Laws 1996

Federico Mayor
Doctor of Laws 1996

Anna Deavere Smith
Doctor of Fine Arts 1996

George Perle
Doctor of Fine Arts 1996

Lou Harrison
Doctor of Fine Arts 1993

Nathaniel S. Colley, Sr.
Doctor of Laws 1988

Albert S. Rodda
Doctor of Laws 1987