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Posted on Mar 20th, 2023
News release: USJLP Class of 2023 Announcement (PDF)
The United States-Japan Foundation is proud to announce the Class of 2023 Delegates to the US-Japan Leadership Program (USJLP), a next-gen network of both rising and established thought-leaders, innovators and boundary-breakers in the U.S. and Japan now nearing 500 members since the Program’s inception in 2000.
The Program’s mission is to foster lifelong friendship, continuous dialogue, and greater shared understanding among leaders from a variety of backgrounds and professions in each country. It starts this process by selecting and bringing together approximately 40 Japanese and Americans, ages 28-42, to participate as Delegates to two intensive weeklong conferences (one in the U.S. and one in Japan) over two years. At theses annual conferences, Delegates engage in interactive discussions around current and historical topics of critical importance to understand and cross-examine in the U.S. and Japan, and experience cultural and recreational activities designed to cultivate a deeper appreciation and understanding of the individuals in each cohort and the host country. Towards the end of the conference week, Delegates are joined by Fellows (alumni who have successfully completed two conferences as Delegates) for a two-day reunion that serves to create new and strengthen existing inter-class connections.
In addition to leadership criteria, selections for each USJLP cohort aim to shape the unique delegation of first and second-year participants with a diverse representation of professions, geographic areas, and perspectives. This year USJLP welcomed 23 incoming first-year Delegates (11 Americans and 12 Japanese) who joined 22 returning second-year Delegates (11 Americans and 11 Japanese) to comprise the Class of 2023 at the Program’s 22nd Annual Conference in Kyoto and Tokyo over July 23-30, 2023. Members selected for the USJLP Class of 2023-2024 will convene again for their second conference in the summer of 2024 in the USA.
USJLP Class of 2023 Delegate Introductions
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Jean Accius |
Dr. Jean Accius is a leading authority in elevating bold solutions that foster greater health security, advance equity, and build financial resilience so everyone has the means to match their life aspirations. He is an internationally recognized gerontologist and thought leader on health and longevity, health systems transformation and building equitable systems so that no community suffer the burdens of inequities. As President & CEO of Creating Healthier Communities, Jean leads a high-performing team at the intersections of business, nonprofit and government in addressing the barriers to health and ensuring that every community thrives. With tri-sector experience and deep knowledge, he has a strong track record of transforming organizations for maximized impact, building high-performing teams, and developing innovative and actionable solutions, policies, and programs to close the opportunity gap so that everyone can live longer, healthier and more productive lives.
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Rye Barcott First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Co-Founder & CEO, With Honor; Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Double Time Capital (Charlotte, NC) |
Rye Barcott is co-founder and CEO of With Honor, a cross-partisan political nonprofit that fights polarization in the U.S. Congress with principled veteran leadership. He co-founded the youth leadership and public health NGO CFK Africa in Kenya while serving in the U.S. Marines. Dartmouth awarded him an honorary doctorate in humane letters after publication of his memoir, It Happened on the Way to War. He earned his MBA and MPA from Harvard, then co-founded the clean energy investment firm Double Time Capital. Rye serves on the boards of the CFK Africa, NDI, and the U.S. Institute for Peace.
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Chad Cannon Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Composer / Producer, Invisible Sea Productions; Founder / Director, Asia America New Music Institute (AANMI) (Pasadena, CA) |
Chad Cannon is a composer & multi-instrumentalist originally from Salt Lake City, Utah. Recent credits include the Oscar-winning Netflix documentary American Factory, the Oscar-shortlisted Hidden Letters (co-composed with Leona Lewis), Sony PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima (Iki Island Expansion), and the HBO docuseries, Mind Over Murder. Upcoming projects include Join or Die (SXSW 2023 premiere), Hulu’s Algiers, America (April 2023 release), and his first feature drama/comedy, Tokyo Cowboy, starring Arata Iura and Jun Kunimura. Fluent in Japanese and conversational in Mandarin, Chad works frequently on Asia-connected projects, most notably as an arranger for Joe Hisaishi. He is an alumnus of Harvard and Juilliard.
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Brian Churchill Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Lieutenant Los Angeles Police Department (Los Angeles, CA) |
Brian Churchill is a Lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department, currently assigned as a Watch Commander of Wilshire Division. He is also an elected Commissioner for the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, a $29bn fund. He concurrently serves as a Lieutenant Commander in the Coast Guard Reserve, in the Port Security field. From 2018-19 he was a White House Fellow, working as the Senior Advisor for the Indo-Pacific at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Brian earned a master’s degree from the University of London, and a bachelor’s from Boston University.
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Danielle Costa Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Vice President, Visual Effects and Animation Marvel Studios (Venice, CA) |
Danielle Costa is the VP of Visual Effects and Animation at Marvel Studios, and has been with Marvel Studios since 2009 working on all but two of their films. She has over 20 years of experience in visual effects and animation, production and post-production. Besides spending long hours on set and in creative reviews, Danielle has spearheaded the creation of multiple studio-side pipelines for streamlining visual effects, animation, stereo, post production and the digital intermediate process at Marvel. She is also involved in new technologies, including virtual reality.
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Brandon Dues First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Lieutenant Colonel U.S. Air Force (Clovis, NM) |
Brandon Dues is a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force and the Commander of a special operations aviation squadron where he trains 97 personnel for worldwide combat missions. He previously executed counterterrorism missions with various units to support multiple operations in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. Brandon is a distinguished graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, earning the most outstanding graduate award of all Air Force commissioning programs, and completed his Ph.D. at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His previous staff assignments include NATO Headquarters, the White House, and Headquarters Air Force.
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遠藤 雅人 Masato Endo Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Group Manager, Driver Monitoring Group, Value Chain Service and Technology Development, Technical Project Field of Advanced R&D and Engineering Company, Toyota Motor Corporation; Automotive Chair, The Linux Foundation OpenChain Project (Nagoya, Aichi) |
Masato Endo is the manager of the project to develop services and technologies related to Value Chain of TOYOTA. Recently, his group provided “Connected Drive Trainer” to KINTO. He focuses also on promotion the Open-Source governance and developing relationships with the Open-Source community, through projects such as Automotive Grade Linux and Open Invention Network. From 2017, he began to work with The Linux Foundation OpenChain Project as a board member and set up OpenChain Japan WG with Hitachi and Sony. In 2019, he launched OpenChain Automotive WG to promote Open-Source Supply Chain Management and standardization in Automotive industry.
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McNair Evans First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Artist & Photographer (San Francisco, CA / Richmond, VA) |
McNair Evans is a nationally exhibited artist, an active guest lecturer, and represented by galleries in San Francisco, CA and Asheville, NC. His projects explore themes of shared experiences and identity, and are recognized for their literary character and metaphoric use of light. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the Innovation in Documentary Arts Award from Duke University, and the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship. His books and prints are held in public and private collections including the SFMOMA, UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.
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John Paul Farmer Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) President of WeLink Cities and Chief Innovation Officer, WeLink; Advisor, Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web; Advisor, Esper Regulatory Technologies; Fellow, Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania (New York, NY) |
John Paul Farmer is the President of WeLink Cities, a next-generation broadband technology company. Previously, he served as Chief Technology Officer of the City of New York and adjunct professor at Columbia University. John was Director of Microsoft Cities, leading a team to build partnerships and design technology products that make urban communities more livable, more productive, and more sustainable. He served as Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Obama White House, where he co-founded and led the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. He holds degrees with honors from Harvard University and the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.
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Mónica Feliú Mójer |
Dr. Mónica Feliú Mójer is a bilingual scientist-turned-communicator who taps into her PhD training, personal background, and culture (a woman from a rural working class community in Puerto Rico) to engage historically underserved and overlooked audiences, especially Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speakers, with science. She has more than 17 years of experience in multimedia science communication, filmmaking, community engagement, media relations, science advocacy, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
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藤岡 聡子 Satoko N Fujioka First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Representative Director, ReDo K.K.; Executive Vice President, Orange Medical Group (Karuizawa, Nagano) |
Satoko Fujioka is a designer of community environment and community engagement in home healthcare. She is the founder/designer of the cozy home care clinic and community hub “Hotch no Lodge” (Lodge at Hotch), established in 2019 in Karuizawa, which brings people together to "do what they love to do." Seeing Japan as a simulation model for Asia and the rest of the world faced with aging societies, she is challenging the value system where the elderly are regarded as “weak” or “helpless.” Satoko's work has been recognized with the "Innovation of the Year - Social Engagement Program in Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Award 2022", and the "Good Design Award 2022" in the Community Engagement Program in Japan category.
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古田 大輔 Daisuke Furuta Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Editor-in-Chief Japan Fact-check Center (Tokyo) |
Daisuke Furuta is the editor-in-chief of Japan Fact-check Center (JFC). He started his career at The Asahi Shimbun and then moved to BuzzFeed as a founder and editor-in-chief of its Japan edition. In 2019 he left BuzzFeed and set up his own company “media-collab" to support the digital transformation of Japanese media. He worked for Google News Lab from 2020-2022 as a teaching fellow. He is a board member of Digital Journalist Education Institute (D-JEDI) and Fact-check Initiative Japan (FIJ).
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Amber Goodwin First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Founder, Community Justice; Assistant District Attorney, Travis County (Austin, TX) |
Amber Goodwin is founder of the Community Justice Action Fund and also serves as a Travis County Assistant District Attorney. Community Justice works with communities of color to end gun violence through policy change. Amber's work includes testifying in front of the House Judiciary at the first ever Congressional hearing on gun violence in communities of color, and helping to lead efforts to pass federal, state and local laws that have funded 14.1 billion dollars in support of local community violence intervention programs. Amber has spent over twenty years working on social policy and human rights issues across the globe.
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Kristi Govella First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Director, Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs and Assistant Professor, Asian Studies University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (Honolulu, HI) |
Kristi Govella is Director of the Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs and Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research examines topics such as economic-security linkages, trade, investment, regional institutional architecture, Japanese foreign policy, and the global commons. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center and Pacific Forum and Editor of the journal Asia Policy. She previously held positions at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Harvard University, and the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Jessica N. Grounds First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) CEO, Corporate Directors Forum; Co-Founder, Mine The Gap & Running Start (San Diego, CA) |
Jessica N. Grounds is an internationally recognized leadership and diversity expert. Over her two-decade career, she has advised Fortune 500 executives, trained political candidates and governments worldwide, and conducted original research on leadership, all through the lens of gender diversity as a proven strategy for innovation and impact. Jessica is currently the CEO of Corporate Directors Forum, which educates company board members and executives on the latest trends in business, governance, and leadership. She co-founded Mine The Gap, a diversity consulting company, and Running Start, a nonprofit organization that encourages young women to enter politics.
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原口 正彦 Masahiko Haraguchi Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Research Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Harvard University (Boston, MA) |
Masahiko Haraguchi is a Research Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University. He has focused on building resilience and enhancing sustainability throughout his career while collaborating with the private and public sectors. He earned a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University, where he worked on projects in the Columbia Water Center at the Earth Institute. Previously, he worked for the urban climate change and disaster risk divisions of the World Bank.
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長谷川 耕平 Kohei Hasegawa Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Professor, Harvard Medical School; Director of Translational Research Program, Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA) |
Kohei Hasegawa, MD, MPH, PhD is an emergency physician and the Director of the Translational Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also a Professor at Harvard Medical School. His lab applies computational biology approaches to large genomic data to help treat millions of children with lung infection worldwide. As a physician-scientist, he also chairs an NIH research consortium and serves on the Steering Committees of international research teams. His work has attracted tens of millions in funding from NIH, foundations, and industry, and he has published 250+ research papers. Kohei is also a team physician of the Boston Bruins.
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林 英恵 Hana Hayashi First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Founder and CEO, Down to Earth, Inc.; Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Global Research Institute, Keio University (Katori, Chiba) |
Hana’s mission is to create a healthier society, so that people can better enjoy and maximize their lives. Hana is a public health strategist, author and CEO at Down to Earth, Inc., a company which specializes in research and consulting that maximizes the use of public health and environmental evidence in the real world to create a healthier and more environmentally friendly lifestyle and society. She is also a Specially-Appointed Associate Professor at Keio University. Currently, the company is preparing for launching lifestyle brand. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Waseda University, a Masters of Education from Boston University, and a Masters and Doctor of Science from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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廣瀬 裕子 Yuko Hirose Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Economic and Enterprise Recovery Policy Specialist United Nations Development Programme (New York, NY) |
Yuko Hirose is a Policy Specialist in the United Nations Development Programme’s Crisis Bureau, where she works on economic recovery. Her focus is on harnessing crisis as an opportunity to rebuild economies and enterprises to be more inclusive and sustainable. Prior to UNDP, she spent a decade in the private sector and philanthropy developing inclusive business models across Sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia.
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稲葉 基高 Mototaka Inaba First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Project Leader, Airborne Rescue & Relief Operations with Search (“ARROWS”) Peace Winds Japan (Jinseki Kogen, Hiroshima) |
Mototaka Inaba is an accomplished emergency surgeon and disaster relief team leader with a deep passion for helping others in need. As the Project Leader for the ARROWS project at Peace Winds Japan, Mototaka manages a team of medical professionals and oversees medical activities at disaster sites while also leading fundraising and new business development efforts. With over a decade of experience as the chief physician of the Emergency Department at Okayama Saiseikai General Hospital, Mototaka has developed expertise in providing life-saving care to patients in critical situations and mentoring young physicians. Mototaka is committed to positively impacting the world through its work in the medical field and as a member of a civil society organization.
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北原 広太郎 Kotaro Kitahara First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Lieutenant Commander, Maritime Staff Office Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (Tokyo) |
A native of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Lieutenant Commander Kotaro Kitahara graduated from the National Defense Academy and received his Master of Arts from King’s College London. He completed the UK Joint-Services Command and Staff Course in 2022. Afloat, Lieutenant Commander Kitahara completed his surface officer tours aboard various destroyers and headquarters. During his sea tours, he made two deployments; first to the Combined Task Force 151 in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia for counter-piracy, and then to the Indo-Pacific Sea to enhance the mutual relationship with partner countries. Ashore, Lieutenant Commander Kitahara currently works at the Maritime Staff Office.
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小沼 大地 Daichi Konuma First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Co-Founder and CEO CROSS FIELDS (Tokyo) |
Daichi founded Cross Fields in 2011 after two years of field experience as a JICA volunteer in Syrian Arab Republic and working at McKinsey & Company. Concurrently, he is an executive board member of the Japan Association of New Public (JANP) and the Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC). He was selected as a Global Shaper (Tokyo HUB) by the World Economic Forum in 2011 and published How to Discover the Purpose of Work (Diamond, Inc.) in 2016. Daichi holds an MA in Sociology from Hitotsubashi University and an MBA in Design & Leadership for Societal Innovation from Shizenkan University.
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小山 佐知子 Sachiko Koyama Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Director, Aoyagi; Board Member, Global Unit for Study and Transcription of Japanese Cuisine, The University of Tokyo (Tokyo) |
Sachiko Koyama is the Director of Aoyagi Inc., a ryotei restaurant established in 1910. She has served as Director of the Nihon Ryori Culture Committee, an NPO focusing on Japanese cuisine, since 2011 and is a member of the board of the University of Tokyo’s Global Unit for Study and Transcription of Japanese Cuisine. She is currently a master's student in the Economic History course at the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Economics, where she is researching the history of the restaurant industry in Japan.
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Tom Le Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Associate Professor of Politics, Pomona College; Research Associate, PRIME Institute, Meiji Gakuin University; (Claremont, CA) |
Tom Le is an associate professor of politics at Pomona College. Le is the author of Japan’s Aging Peace: Pacifism and Militarism in the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press). His work has been published in the Journal of Asian Studies and Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, and in popular outlets such as Foreign Affairs and The Washington Post. Tom is a Mansfield Foundation Network for the Future fellow and Mansfield-Luce scholar. He received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine, and BAs in history and political science from the University of California, Davis.
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町澤 さやか Sayaka Machizawa Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Associate Director, Science and Medicine – Digital Health Sciences Signant Health (Chicago, IL) |
Sayaka Machizawa is a clinical psychologist/clinical scientist who works for Signant Health, the evidence-generation company that helps modernize clinical trials. As the Associate Director of Science and Medicine at Signant, she supports pharmaceutical across the globe to conduct culturally sensitive CNS trials. She is a co-editor/co-author of the book Transnational Psychology of Women (American Psychological Association, 2019) and a co-author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on a range of topics, from the neuropsychological assessment with Japanese American patients to the internationalization of psychology education.
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W. David Marx Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Author of Ametora and Status and Culture; Outside Director, Otsumo Co., Ltd. (Tokyo) |
W. David Marx is the author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style (Basic Books, 2015) and Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change (Viking Books, 2022). He is also an Outside Director on the Board of Directors for the Japanese streetwear company Otsumo Co., Ltd.
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水島 淳 Atsushi Mizushima First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Partner Nishimura & Asahi (Tokyo) |
Atsushi Mizushima is a partner of Nishimura & Asahi, Japan’s largest law firm. He supports the management of large corporations and startups in their strategic actions including M&A, new business creation, business alliance, and IP strategy. Earlier, he served as a founding member of WHILL, Inc., a U.S. startup, where he achieved the initial product launch and two rounds of VC fundraising. He also holds concurrent positions as a member of several committees of the Japanese government, a law school lecturer, and the Chair of the Space Law Committee of the First Tokyo Bar Association. He holds an LL.B. (University of Tokyo, 2004) and an MBA (Stanford University, 2013).
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向山 由依 Yui Mukoyama First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Representative for the Americas, Chief Representative Office for the Americas Bank of Japan (New York, NY) |
Yui Mukoyama has worked for the Bank of Japan for 10 years after she acquired a MA in Economics from University of Edinburgh. Yui also holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School. Yui is the author of “The Investment Patterns of Japanese Retail Investors in Foreign Exchange (FX) Margin Trade” with Kazuaki Washimi et al. and “China’s Long-Term Growth Potential: Can Productivity Convergence Be Sustained?” with Koichi Yoshino et al. Currently, Yui is a Representative for the Americas at the Bank of Japan New York Representative Office. Yui was elected to the NEXUS Japan committee and selected as a sole central bank participant for the Under 30 G-1 Summit.
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村越 壽代 Hisayo Murakoshi Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Professor of Civil Law Shizuoka University (Shizuoka City, Shizuoka) |
Hisayo Murakoshi is a Professor at the Department of Law in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Interfaculty Graduate School of Mountain Watershed at Shizuoka University in Japan. Her current primary research interest is the theoretical and proven remedies for problems of environmental law that can apply to Japan as well as the United States. She holds a BA, MA, and SJD from Doshisha University.
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永井 雄宇 Yu Nagai First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Research Scientist Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (Tokyo) |
Yu Nagai is a research scientist at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), specializing in transition to low-carbon society through renewable energy policy analysis and energy systems modelling. In his previous position at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), he focused on policy analysis to improve access to clean cooking technologies in developing countries. He is currently serving as a Japanese delegate to OECD/NEA’s Nuclear Development Committee and a committee member to the Advance Reactor Working Group of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Vienna University of Technology.
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中川 智皓 Chihiro Nakagawa First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Osaka Metropolitan University; Founder & Director, (General Incorporated Association) Parliamentary Debate Personnel Development Association (PDA) (Sakai, Osaka) |
Chihiro Nakagawa is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Osaka Metropolitan University. One of her main research themes is the dynamics of personal mobility vehicles and humans, including automated driving. In addition to her research, she promotes parliamentary debate in public education as an educational activity. She founded Parliamentary Debate Personnel Development Association (PDA) and has worked with MEXT and Boards of Education.
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Christina Qi Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Founder and CEO, Databento; Member, MIT Board of Trustees (Sandy, UT) |
Christina Qi is CEO of Databento, a market data API platform. She formerly founded Domeyard LP, a quant hedge fund trading up to $7.1B daily. She started Domeyard 10 years ago with $1000 in savings. Christina is among the youngest elected members of MIT's Board of Trustees, a visiting lecturer at MIT and Harvard Business School, and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Christina serves on the Boards of Invest in Girls, Forbes 30 Under 30, the Financial Executives Alliance, and is a 100 Women in Finance Senior Practitioner. She graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor's degree from MIT.
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佐久間 美帆 Miho Sakuma Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Engagement Manager McKinsey & Company (Washington, DC) |
Miho Sakuma’s work has centered around supporting organizations and individuals to achieve their growth aspirations. She is an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company and serves healthcare companies in the US, Europe, and Japan on their R&D innovation strategy. She is also the founder of Japanese Women Roundtable, an inter-sector community of ~300 Japanese female professionals. Miho holds MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College.
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澤目 梢 Kozue Sawame First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) President, JWLI Ecosystem Fish Family Foundation (Boston, MA) |
Kozue Sawame is a specialist in gender issues and women’s leadership with 20+ years of experience with expertise in philanthropy, nonprofits, and women’s entrepreneurship in the U.S. and Japan. Currently at the Fish Family Foundation, Kozue is the President of the JWLI Ecosystem which encompasses four executive leadership programs for women in Japan. Previously, she oversaw nonprofit fundraising and has raised $750,000 from a single fundraiser, which she was invited to write about in numerous articles on Japanese publications. Kozue received her master’s degree from Georgetown University. She lives in Boston and was born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan.
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Donald Sherman First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Senior Vice President & Chief Counsel Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) (Washington, DC) |
Donald K. Sherman serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel at the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW). Prior to joining CREW, Donald served in various roles in the House, Senate, and Executive Branch including as Special Assistant to the President for Racial and Economic Justice in the Biden-Harris White House. Donald also led oversight and ethics investigations on the House Oversight Committee, Senate Homeland Security Committee, and the House Ethics Committee. Donald earned his bachelor’s degree and law degree from Georgetown University. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two kids.
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Sarah Sieloff Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Client Leader Haley and Aldrich (Seattle, WA) |
Sarah Sieloff is an urban planning practitioner, researcher, writer and public policy expert advancing economic and ecological resilience in the US Pacific Northwest and internationally. As a client leader at Haley and Aldrich, she works with public and private sector entities to facilitate the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated land. Sarah is a 2020 Council on Foreign Relations-Hitachi Fellow, and continues researching demographic transition in Japan. She publishes regularly on planning topics, and is always on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate. Sarah holds a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and speaks Spanish, French, and slowly improving Japanese.
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スメサ―スト 紺谷 文子 Ayako Kontani Smethurst Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Co-founder & Executive Director Kizuna Across Cultures (Brussels, Belgium) |
Ayako Smethurst is Executive Director and Co-founder of the Washington DC-based nonprofit, Kizuna Across Cultures (KAC), which promotes meaningful international experience to youth of all backgrounds through innovative educational design. Since its founding in 2011, KAC has grown into the largest U.S.-Japan high school virtual exchange provider serving over 2,000 students across both countries annually. Ayako’s studies include an undergraduate degree in international relations and a master’s degree in educational science. Her past career includes work in Human Resources, including at Proctor & Gamble Japan and administrating international exchange at the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in the Embassy of Japan.
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Janelle Roxann Stafford First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Managing & Creative Director, Blueprint FTC (Brooklyn, NY) |
Roxann Stafford brings together the worlds of social impact, entrepreneurship, storytelling and design thinking. Her background in mechanical engineering, business, and psychology combines the analytical rigor and empathy necessary for sustainable systems design. Roxann is the Managing & Creative Director of Blueprint FTC, an initiative and investment fund backed by experienced founders and funders, creative leaders and change makers who harness the power of ventures and the stewardship of resources to create a more just world. She has extensive international experience identifying and co-creating sustainable and soulful solutions to big system problems in regions from the Pacific Islands to East Africa to the Caribbean. Roxann works with individuals, organizations, companies, governments and communities on how to thrive in a state of reinvention and reimagination.
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杉山 俊輔 Shunsuke Sugiyama Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) CEO Ninbari Corporation (Fukuchiyama, Kyoto) |
Shunsuke D. Sugiyama has served as the CEO of the Fukuchiyama, Kyoto-based automation business Ninbari Corporation since 2012. Shunsuke was born in Tokyo in 1983 and, raised in a diplomat family, spent his childhood in Washington, DC. He received his master's degree in Economics from Keio University in 2008, where he specialized in econometrics and statistics and learned that to drive the Japanese economy, Japan must overcome labor shortages and vitalize local economies. He believes that a strong economy is the best national security.
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Danny Taing First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Founder & CEO Bokksu (New York, NY) |
Danny Taing is the Founder & CEO of Bokksu, the world’s leading direct-to-consumer Japanese snack subscription and online grocer delivering authentic Japanese food and home goods worldwide. Based in New York and Tokyo, Bokksu provides Japan’s traditional makers with a platform to share their craft while making it easier for the world to discover and love authentic Japanese goods. Danny earned a dual Bachelor's in Psychology and Communication and a Master's in Sociology from Stanford University before working at Google in California and Rakuten in Japan. In his spare time, Danny loves rock climbing, board games, and modern anime.
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谷本 綾香 Ayaka Tanimoto First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Opera Singer / Mezzo Soprano (Kyoto City, Kyoto) |
Ayaka Tanimoto is a Mezzo Soprano (Opera Singer). Ayaka relocated to London in 2005 and subsequently graduated from Royal College of Music with a Bachelor of Music (BMus Hons) and a Masters in Vocal Performance (MPerf). Later on, she graduated as a Scholar from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Alexander Gibson Opera School where she sang many roles as a Mezzo Soprano. Ayaka has won numerous awards in Japan and UK and has taken to the stage as a recitalist in a number of highly regarded venues such as the Purcell Room, National Gallery, King’s Place, St. Martin in the Fields, St. James’ Piccadilly, Portsmouth Cathedral, and Bristol Cathedral to name but a few. Ayaka currently live between Kyoto and London, singing and teaching young talents as a Representative Director of the British Music Association Japan.
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田上 佑輔 Yusuke Tanoue First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) CEO and Chairman Yamato Medical Group (Tome, Miyagi) |
Yusuke is an experienced owner/President and medical doctor with 17 years of practice experience in Japan, including 8 years as a general surgeon. He has successfully built and managed 11 clinics and one hospital, providing medical services to underserved urban and rural areas, including after the 311 earthquake in Tohoku. He also serves as a government advisor and creates community networks through medical care in Tome city. He established a virtual doctors group that delivers healthcare to remote areas through online task shifting and task sharing. He aims to expand the doctors group through its own media platform, coffeedoctors.jp. He and his activities are widely covered in the media. Yusuke graduated from the University of Tokyo’s medical school.
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Trevor Thompson Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) President TerraClear (Seattle, WA) |
Trevor is the President of TerraClear, a technology company using cutting-edge AI and robotics to automate repetitive, labor-intensive tasks in agriculture. Prior to joining TerraClear, Trevor served 14 years in the US Navy as a SEAL Officer. He graduated with a BS from the Naval Academy and an MPhil from Oxford University, where he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. At home, he spends as much time as possible outdoors with his wife and 3 children.
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Bina Venkataraman First Year Delegate (2023, 2024) Columnist The Washington Post (Washington, DC) |
Bina Venkataraman is an American journalist, author, and science policy expert. She is currently a Columnist at The Washington Post and a Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She previously served as Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe, overseeing its opinion section and editorial board, and as Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation in the Obama White House. Bina is the author of The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age, named a top book by The Financial Times and a best book of 2019 by National Public Radio. She teaches at MIT and the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Tricia Wang Second Year Delegate (2022, 2023) Co-founder and Director, Crypto Research and Design Lab (CRADL); Advisor, ReSeed.Farm; Co-founder and Principal, Sudden Compass (Oakland, CA / New York, NY) |
Tricia believes that technology must serve humanity. She is known for her incisive ability to uncover powerful insights that fuel business growth, organizational change, and social impact. With her influential TED talk on "Thick Data," Tricia elevated the urgency of integrating the human perspective into data science. She is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, and non-profits alike. She is currently advising SKU, Dangerous Ventures, ReSeed.Farm, and the Blockchain Law Center for Social Good. Tricia's thought leadership extends to her forthcoming book, where she explores the future of personal data in an AI-driven world. Her current work is shaping the space of "consumer-facing climate solutions." She is a frequent conference keynoter on AI, data, and Web3. She was a fellow at the Geo-Tech Atlantic Council and Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. http://www.triciawang.com
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