Santa Jeremy Ono was born in Vancouver and named after Santaro, a child samurai from a Japanese folk story.  He was raised in Philadelphia and Baltimore, where he attended Towson High School and became an accomplished cellist, studying at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.  Ono graduated with a B.A. in Biological Science from the University of Chicago, earned a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from McGill University in Montreal, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.  Dr. Ono went on to hold faculty positions in medicine and biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, University College London, and Emory University.  As a scholar and researcher, Dr. Ono has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Immunology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.  His principal and still active research interests focus on the immune system and eye disease.

In 2006, Dr. Ono served as Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives and Deputy to the Provost at Emory University, becoming Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Academic Affairs in 2008.  In 2010 the University of Cincinnati (UC) recruited Dr. Ono as its Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.  In 2012, he was named as the 28^th President of the University of Cincinnati, becoming its first Asian American president and the first Asian American university president in Ohio.  Under his leadership, UC achieved its largest enrollment in school history for three consecutive years and received accolades such as Public University of the Year by the Washington Center.  Dr. Ono also brought greater diversity to the President’s Cabinet, appointed the school’s first full-time Chief Diversity Officer, and increased investments and initiatives in diversity and inclusion.  Dr. Ono returns to Vancouver and the university which once employed his father as a professor, becoming the 15^th President and Vice Chancellor of the University of British Columbia, effective August 15, 2016.

Dr. Ono has received many honors and awards, including an election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an induction into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars, the American Jewish Committee National Human Relations Award, and the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award from the American Council on Education.  Inside Higher Education also named him America’s most notable university president in 2015, perhaps in part for turning down his raises and donating his bonus for a third year in a row to various scholarships and charities, which in 2015 included a campus LGBTQ center, a local science-technology-focused high school, a program for first-generation college students, and a donation to the family of a Cincinnati Police Officer, Sonny Kim, who was killed in the line of duty.

He has one of the most widely-followed Twitter and Instagram accounts among higher education leaders and has used his extensive social media presence to address various social issues and spread awareness about mental illness and depression.  Dr. Ono has been an inspiration and partner with NAAAP’s Cincinnati chapter and in 2015 provided a keynote when NAAAP’s National Academy was held in Cincinnati.  NAAAP congratulates Dr. Ono on his NAAAP 100 recognition and looks forward to his continued advancement of the Asian American and Canadian community.