My main efforts the past few years have been aimed at bringing the 'Sport for Peace and Development' movement to assist with reconciliation in East Asia, starting with a groundbreaking project @ the Beijing 2008 Olympics which connected Japanese & Chinese youth through common interests in the game of street basketball. At the same time, I've gradually been branching out to develop some other "game-changing" pilot projects. And with that, I've discovered something equally as powerful as sport...Japan's creative design community. Now I'm working to bridge sport and design for a better world from Tokyo, Japan.
I enjoy finding my niche as a cultural intermediary or 'ear to the ground' to support grassroots civil society and top level institutions, working to build partnerships across various channels and networks, innovating for positive social change. With the experiences I've had over the past few years of research and pilot projects, growing a nonprofit from the ground up, I've been able to facilitate some very inspiring new dialogue and exchange between some very unlikely groups. And with those new relationships, I find a great deal of promise and hope.
Empowerment at the individual and community level, and sustainable peace globally, through sport and design.
Volunteer for Refugee Outreach Program (Long Beach City College); LBUSD School teacher; Language Instructor for 6 years in Japan; Rotary World Peace Fellowship @ ICU, Japan (2007-2009); MA in Peace Studies, Thesis on "Sport for Social Change in East Asia"; Founder of 一般社団法人 What Sport Creative, a nonprofit public interest group (2010)