Mark is currently President of NDS, an Orange County-based delivery company. He has worked extensively with non-profits, serving as Past President of the Yonsei Basketball Association and the South East Youth Organization (SEYO) and has been involved with many other non-profit organizations raising funds for their respective programs. Mark’s duties will be to work closely with the Board of Directors in fundraising, and to determine and implement the organization’s strategic direction.

Curtis has a 32 year career as Senior Finance Manager in Business/Finance Operations for Raytheon Company. He also served as Membership Chairman for Boy Scout Troop 378 on the Troop Executive Committee (TEC), which was responsible to ensure adequate funds for the troop’s operation each year. Curtis’ duties include fundraising, advising on budget strategy and financial matters, maintaining corporate accounts and providing financial reporting.

Helen is the Director of Donor Engagement & Special Events for the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center. She is active in the community, serving on the Board and past president of the Nisei Week Foundation, Advisory Council of Kizuna, and Artistic Advisory Board of the Asian Pacific American Friends of Theatre. Helen is also a performing member of the Grateful Crane Ensemble and is the Artistic Director Emeritus of COLD TOFU Improv. She has produced several theatrical performances including musicals, sketch and improv shows, as well as special events. Helen also co-founded Yes, And…Productions that produced the musicals, Songs for A New World and A New World and Ordinary Days (Los Angeles premiere). Helen’s duties include fundraising, creating and implementing the organization’s activities, advising on programs and coordinating with the board.

Stacey has been in the Human Resources field for the past 25 years, working at the Disneyland Resort, Washington Mutual, and currently with Healthcare Cost Solutions. She started her involvement with community service with the Orange Coast Optimist Club (OCO) and has served in various board positions within the OCO organization. She was involved with the inaugural Walk the Farm event where the funds raised have been donated to various farmers who were affected by the tsunami of 2011. Stacey is also a member of the Board of Directors for So-Phis, a philanthropic organization of Orange County women and past Board member of the Yonsei Basketball Association. With the Yonsei organization, she directed the efforts in creating a documentary capturing “An Experience of a Lifetime” from participants who shared their memories of living with a family in Japan for a week. Stacey’s duties with the Zentoku Foundation include overseeing the stories, fundraising, advising on marketing, as well as the design and improvement of the Zentoku website.

Ellen Endo’s professional experience has included key positions in journalism, television, and motion pictures. Within the Japanese American community, she is best known as a columnist and former English Section Editor and Managing Editor of The Rafu Shimpo, America’s oldest and largest Japanese American daily newspaper. Today, she owns and operates Hapa Consulting Services, specializing in strategic planning, media relations, and communications in the nonprofit, private industry, and government sectors. A fervent advocate of community volunteerism, Ellen serves as co-chairperson of the Little Tokyo Business Improvement District (LTBID) and sits on the Friends of Manzanar board of directors and Little Tokyo Community Council executive board.

Sandee, a retired journalist living in Seattle, holds a degree in Communications from the University of Washington. Throughout her professional career, she has held positions as a reporter and editor, including five years as the English language editor of the North American Post, Seattle’s Japanese community newspaper. Later, she worked in public relations for a labor union and also built web pages for small businesses and non-profits. She enjoys traveling with her husband and savoring exquisite sushi.

Soji is the Executive Director, playwright and co-founder of the Grateful Crane Ensemble, a non-profit theatre group based in Southern California. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Soji’s plays such as “Camp Dance: The Music & The Memories,” “Nihonmachi: The Place to Be,” and “Garage Door Opener” focus on different facets of Japanese American history, and pay tribute to the Issei and Nisei generations. He graduated with a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University, and as a freelance writer he has written for numerous Japanese American publications including the Rafu Shimpo, Hokubei Mainichi, Nikkei West and Nichibei News.

Aimee Kim (she/her) is an English teacher, originally from Orange County, currently working in San Diego. She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Literature and a minor in Education; and from University of San Diego, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and her teaching credential. Many of her personal and academic research interests are centered around diasporic Asian-American experiences and communities—including her own. Aimee is, in equal quarters, Japanese-, Okinawan-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-American. She grew up spending her weekends playing basketball with the VFW Youth Group, where she learned a lot about herself and her community. Aimee is excited to contribute her writing to the longevity of Japanese-American history.

Cole is a recent graduate of California State Channel Islands where he studied Business Marketing. Since then, he has worked as a freelance videographer covering various forms of media. His work ranges from creating specialized content for social media to capturing a happy couple’s wedding day. Cole grew up immersed in the Japanese American sports leagues, playing basketball and baseball. He is excited to help tell the stories of the Japanese American community he grew up in through the lens of the Zentoku Foundation.

Masa has spent his entire career in the creative industry directing awareness campaigns from start ups to large corporate companies. He’s held partnerships, been independent, and is currently in the automotive industry. Masa’s volunteer time includes being a board member at the Southeast Japanese Community Center. Here, you’ll find him committed to working with youth and families. His voice helps reinforce their mission to create meaningful family experiences. He has a strong passion for the future of our next generation. Masa’s duties include creating the brand and design for the Zentoku Foundation.

Karen Mizoguchi is a staff editor for People since September 2015 and has been covering entertainment news for the magazine and digital platforms. After graduating from UC Irvine in 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts History, she worked as a writer and reporter at publications such as The Hollywood Reporter and E! News and has published works for TIME and Entertainment Weekly. Karen is a native of Long Beach and spent her childhood in the JA community playing basketball on several teams including SEYO and Yonsei organizations. After college, she has been involved with the JACL, Kizuna and Nisei Week.

Gwen Muranaka is a fourth generation Japanese American and was the senior editor of The Rafu Shimpo, a bilingual Japanese newspaper based in Little Tokyo. She managed the staff of the newspaper, overseeing a team of reporters, graphic designers and outside contributors in the production of the newspaper, as well as special-themed publications. Prior to The Rafu, Muranaka worked as a staff editor of the Japan Times in Tokyo, where she also illustrated the weekly cartoon “Noodles.” She attended UCLA and received a BA in English Literature and also studied one year at Waseda University in Tokyo. She is active in Little Tokyo as a board member of the Little Tokyo Community Council. Muranaka started in community newspapers as assistant editor at the Pacific Citizen, the national publication of the Japanese American Citizens League.

Allyson is originally from Orange County, California and has spent almost two decades working in museum education. At the Japanese American National Museum and at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i, she has worked with teachers, students, and communities around the nation to explore the diversity of the Japanese American experience. A graduate of Claremont McKenna College, Allyson received a year-long scholarship for people of Okinawan descent to study at the Okinawan Prefectural University for the Arts. She serves on the advisory board of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. She now lives in Honolulu.

Michelle Ruzzi is the co-founder of Idea Enablers, a branding and marketing agency based in Orange County, California. She brings a thoughtful, strategic approach to everything from marketing campaigns to product launches—helping ideas find their voice and connect with the people they’re meant to reach. As a second-generation Japanese American, Michelle is actively exploring her Okinawan roots, with a deep commitment to preserving and sharing her family’s stories for future generations—including her two children. That personal journey fuels her passion for storytelling and her work with the Zentoku Foundation. When she’s not building brands or uncovering family history, you can usually find her on the basketball court.

Elise is a recent graduate of Boston University, where she studied journalism and Spanish. She has covered breaking news and features at the Seattle Times, Boston Globe, Pasadena Star News and Lowell Sun. She also served as the managing editor, board of directors vice chair, features edit and staff writer for Boston University’s independent student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Elise grew up playing basketball in the San Gabriel Valley – including on the Pasadena Bruins – and she couldn’t be more excited to help tell the stories of the Asian American community.

Kelly Uyemura, a So Cal native and Yonsei, earned a B.F.A. in Creative Writing with a minor in Japanese Studies at Chapman University. She earned the Literary Women’s Festival Harriet Williams Emerging Writer award and has previously published in Chapman’s Ouroboros Magazine and Cultural News. She is passionate about preserving Japanese culture and history, and when not writing or researching, she can be found cooking traditional Japanese dishes and watching anime.

Teresa Watanabe is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining the Times in 1989, she has covered education, immigration, ethnic communities, religion, Pacific Rim business and economics and served as Tokyo correspondent and bureau chief. She also covered Asia, national affairs and state government for the San Jose Mercury News and wrote editorials for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Her most personally meaningful story was a first-person account of her grandfather’s arrest and incarceration as an enemy alien during World War II for the Los Angeles Times Magazine. A Seattle native, Teresa studied for a year at Waseda University in Tokyo and graduated from USC in journalism and in East Asian Languages and Culture. She is a board member of the Asian American Journalists Association – Los Angeles.