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TH: I want to get to some of those special cases that you were discussing, but before we do, you were mentioning Bob in setting up this office. Who were some of the other kind of key people that were involved with the office and that you also worked with?

EK: Sure. So there were a couple of folks that were involved, like some of the earlier attorneys, one or two folks that were there before I was there, who I did not know. But as far as who I worked with, certainly Joanne Chiedi was there early on with Bob and helping set the office up. Lisa Johnson who came on as an intern, as well as Angela Hussein and Aaron Zajic, Pam, and  Anita who did a lot of the more public facing side of things in terms of answering the helpline. And then there were folks like Martha Watanabe who was still at the Department of Justice when I joined, but was, I believe, in the Voting Section. She wasn't in the Office of Redress Administration any longer. And of course, Tink (Cooper), who I worked probably most closely with as we decided a lot of the legal cases. And again, DeDe Greene was the ORA administrator for most of the time I was there.

TH: Before we, you know, before we move on, but I really also want, I think it was interesting, I wanted to hear your thoughts of many of these people who started as you did, started out this is their first job or that kind of stepping into working within an office, a federal office for the federal government. Many of these people continued to stay. Can you discuss a little bit about that and list that out?

EK: Sure. So... it's so funny, I always thought that perhaps I felt uniquely about this, in that I felt like this was the best job I've ever had. And in the course of these interviews, it became apparent that a lot of my colleagues felt the same way. Many of them have gone on and continued as career federal employees, some of whom have continued with the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division like Angela, some of whom have moved on to other leadership roles in the federal government like Joanne Chiedi. And it was just something... you know, Aaron is still around and he actually still works with Joanne with the Department of Health and Human Services. So it was just such a unique launching ground, I think, for people and especially under both Bob and Joanne, people were given the opportunity to really grow in their role, and I think that was just one of the important things that both Bob and Joanne brought to the program, was really giving people the opportunity and the authority to do some important things early on. And I think that really helped the trajectory of a lot of the, my colleagues in the office.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2020 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.