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Christopher M. Livaccari is an educator, author, former US diplomat who held posts in Tokyo and Shanghai, and currently the Head of Presidio Knolls School (PKS) in San Francisco. PKS offers a Reggio Emilia inspired Mandarin immersion preschool program and a progressive Chinese-English bilingual education for students in elementary and middle school (grades K-6).
Chris was previously Principal and Chinese Program Director at International School of the Peninsula (ISTP) in Palo Alto and the Senior Advisor for China Learning Initiatives in Asia Society's Center for Global Education. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco.
Chris is the author of New Ways of Seeing: How Multilingualism Opens Our Eyes and Trains Our Minds for a Complex World (Asia Society, 2017), and co-author of Structures of Mandarin Chinese for Speakers of English I & II (Peking University Press, 2012-2013), Chinese Language Learning in the Early Grades (Asia Society, 2012), and the Chinese for Tomorrow series (Cheng & Tsui, 2007- 2009). Chris has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, has spoken on Chinese language education at the British Museum in London, and was the recipient of the US State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award, citing outstanding speeches written for two US ambassadors to Japan.
Tenured as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in 2003, Chris served as a press officer for multiple visits to Asia by two US presidents and two secretaries of state. He was the founding director of the High School for Language and Diplomacy and a founding member of the faculty at the College of Staten Island High School for International Studies.
A graduate of Columbia University, Chris holds advanced degrees in East Asian literature from the University of Chicago and in applied linguistics from New York University. His writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, Agni, the Aspen Institute, and Asia Society.