Kenji Hakuta is the Vida Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on language development, bilingual education, and research methods. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University in 1979. 

Hakuta's research is in the areas of psycholinguistics, bilingualism, language shift, and the acquisition of English in immigrant students. He is the author and editor of several books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism (1986) and In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second Language Acquisition (1994). He recently chaired a committee of the National Research Council which issued a report, Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children: A Research Agenda, published by the National Academy Press.

Besides research, Hakuta is professionally active in the areas of language policy, education of language minority students, affirmative action in higher education, and improvement of quality in educational research.

Hakuta is a member of the National Academy of Education. He serves on the boards of the Spencer Foundation and the Educational Testing Service, and is Chair of the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board of the U. S. Department of Education.