A parent and a product of San Francisco public schools, Emily has had a diverse career in business and government forming new collaborations and managing budgets as well as a professional staff.  As Executive Director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, she has weathered budget crises in her job, in part, by leveraging public and private partnerships.


COMMITTED.
She is committed to public education.  The granddaughter of immigrant sharecroppers from Japan, Emily's late father Kenji relied on public education to get him from the dusty fields of the Central Valley to a rewarding career at the San Francisco State University Graduate School of Social Work where he trained many of our community leaders.  Emily's late mother Seiko immigrated from Japan to attend US schools and trained to become a social worker for the City and County of San Francisco. 

Emily continues the legacy of her parents who were among the Founders of the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program (JBBP), a signature program of the San Francisco public school system since 1972.  A former co-chair of the JBBP Parent Teacher Community Council and chair of the SFUSD Parent Advisory Council, she was a member of the successful 2008 Proposition A Steering Committee of teachers, business leaders, parents, and community advocates, to bring local resources to our school.  The education she received from caring public school teachers and principals inspires in her a strong sense of stewardship about our public school system.
In her work, Emily has formed unique collaborations between community advocates and government agencies to address the complex problems of  domestic violence, family violence, human trafficking, and workplace discrimination.  For her work in the community, she has received the Asian Women's Resource Center's Woman of the Year, recognition from the Democratic Women's Forum, and was named woman of the Year by Senator Leland Yee.