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AF: And I guess I'm just shifting away from JACL in particular, do you want to talk a little bit about the activities you did outside JACL? I know you're involved with a lot of organizations.

JD: So what was the question? What have I done outside?

AF: Yeah, outside of JACL, the orgs you were involved with, yeah.

JD: Well, one of the organizations that I'm involved in now is the Asian Pacific Directors Coalition. And that organization has been around for probably thirty years. And it was started by Alan Sugiyama when he was director of Center for Career Alternatives. And it has evolved over the years, from being sort of like all Asian, like nonprofit directors, to being more inclusive of just any leaders or emerging leaders, and nonprofit, for-profit, philanthropy, government, what have you. And so I've been the chair for three years, and tried to really expand our mission and being really clear about our mission. So it's kind of like an affinity group for Asian leaders across the sector. So we have... our goal is networking, so supporting each other, educating ourselves about issues and advocacy on things like appointments. So one of the things that we've been pushing Superintendent Denise Juneau on is, look, you know, like thirty percent, or I don't know, fifty percent of the population of students of Seattle Public Schools are Asian or Pacific Islander. So where is your API leaders in your cabinet? And we've called her to task on that a couple of times, I don't think she's really made any progress on it, unfortunately.

Another thing that we did was after the murder of George Floyd, we joined with the King County Equity Now and Decriminalize Seattle to write a letter in support of their demands. And so we had over three hundred individuals, businesses and organizations sign on for our letter to meet with those two groups. And then, you know, we were trying to, like, build bridges, too, so we've invited... we had a reception for, like, some of the Asian director level people. So we had Leo [inaudible] Mami Hara, Marie Kurose, I can't remember who else. But anyways, you know, just like, hi, we want to we want to have relationship with you. We're so happy to see APIs in leadership positions in government and policymaking and so we want to be a bridge to you. And we want to have your back and we want to help, we want to hold you accountable but let's reach out to each other. So that's probably the most relevant, and the other non JACL thing that I do.

AF: Yeah, got it. And what else has, I guess, kept you motivated to keep in touch with the community? Or what even started your interest in working with the community?

AF: Well, because I didn't really know what that was. What is the community? And so I think, you know, when I got out of college, I just wanted to do something that would have an impact, and I really didn't know what. And so I just, you know, I joined JACL, because I wasn't really doing anything else. And I was invited by, you know, somebody that was my age, and I didn't really even know who Kip Tokuda was, or I really didn't even know who these people, even though they were like icons, found out later, of course, but yeah, I just, I didn't really know. But once I started doing it and started, you know, feeling like I was growing, and really, you know, JACL, I was in JACL for ten years, and that's where I got to meet people, like, you know, Al and Kip and Naomi Sanchez, and people like that, that inspired me to become, like, well, I want to do what they're doing, I want to be executive director of a nonprofit or something like that, something where it matters, you know, that I can have an impact. And so JACL was really kind of a training ground for that for me. Because like I said, when I started, I didn't know how to run a meeting. I didn't know Robert's Rules, I didn't know... I mean, I'd never done public art before. Like who was gonna let some twenty-something-year-old manage a whole public art project? Nobody, nobody. So I really had the permission of JACL to do what I wanted to do, or what, you know, I mean, I had the blessing and the support of JACL. But it was a way to gain experience, like real life, hands on experience, for high level work that no one else would necessarily entrust you to do. And because it's volunteer, you just get to do it. So, and it's just, there's so many different opportunities. Like, well, there's the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund there's I-200, there's always something, you know, kids in cages, I mean, JACL needs to be doing something about that stuff. And so, you know, it's just a great vehicle of, you know, there's resources, there's mentorship, there's a structure, there's credibility. I mean, JACL has name recognition and credibility to be able to say, "Yeah, I'm the president of JACL," or, I'm the chair of some research committee, Seattle JACL. And you don't get blown off because you're actually part of something, a bonafide organization.

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