Tom Ikeda, Executive Director
Tom is the founding Executive Director of Densho. He is a sansei (third generation Japanese American) who was born and raised in Seattle. Tom’s parents and grandparents were incarcerated during World War II at Minidoka, Idaho. In addition to leading the organization over the last 20 years, Tom has conducted over 200 video-recorded, oral history interviews with Japanese Americans. Prior to working at Densho, Tom was a General Manager at Microsoft Corporation in the Multimedia Publishing Group. Tom also worked as a research engineer developing hemodializers (artificial kidneys) with Cordis Dow Corporation and as a financial analyst at the Weyerhaeuser Company. Tom graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Chemical Engineering, BA in Chemistry and an MBA. He has received numerous awards for his historical contributions, including the Humanities Washington Award for outstanding achievement in the public humanities, the National JACL Japanese American of the Biennium award for Education, and the Microsoft Alumni Fellows Award.

Sara Beckman, Assistant Digital Archivist
Sara graduated from Indiana State University with a BS in History and from University of Washington with a Masters in Library and Information Science. She moved to the Seattle area in 2010 and loves her adopted home. Sara knew almost nothing about Japanese American incarceration upon joining Densho as an intern in 2015. Now she hopes to help spread awareness to the wider public with her work on the Densho Digital Repository.  Before joining the staff at Densho, she interned with several other digital archives, including Wabash Valley Visions and Voices, The Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library, The South Asian American Digital Archive, and The Early Seattle Theatre History Project.

Caitlin Oiye Coon, Digital Archivist
Caitlin is a yonsei who was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. Her interest in the incarceration stems from her paternal family’s experiences at Tule Lake incarceration camp. She graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in History and from Western Washington University with an MA in History/Archives and Records Management. Caitlin also earned her Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. Before joining Densho she worked at Windermere, Lane Powell, and, most recently, King County where she focused much of her time on electronic records management systems.

Geoff Froh, Deputy Director
Though trained as a social scientist, Geoff has over 15 years of experience developing technology and information management strategies for a variety of for-profit and non-profit ventures, ranging from small think-tanks and startups to the Department of State, the Adobe Corporation and his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Most recently, Geoff served as the Chief Information Officer of Health Alliance International, an NGO engaged in global health work. Born and raised in the Washington, DC metro area, Geoff has a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Virginia and an MS in Information Management from the University of Washington. His interests range from information science to political thought in 19th century Japan, and—when he is not chained to a computer —Geoff enjoys engaging in ill-conceived mountain-biking expeditions.

Jen Fukutaki, Fund Development Director
Growing up in Texas, Jen had no exposure to information about the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. After moving to CA and meeting her husband, she received first-hand accounts of the camps from her father-in-law and some of his 12 siblings. The Fukutaki family lived in Pasadena when WWII began and were subsequently sent to Gila River. Jen deeply appreciates the access to history that Densho preserves and shares, as well as Densho’s voice in preventing discriminatory practices in today’s society. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from TCU and an MLIS from the University of Washington. Jen is utilizing her background in advertising, marketing research, education, libraries, and fundraising to help build Densho’s resources for a sustainable future.

Danielle Higa, Fund Development Manager
Born and raised in Seattle, Danielle is fourth generation Japanese American (Yonsei). During her freshman year at University of Washington, she interviewed her grandmother, Hatsumi (Hats) Higa, about her war and camp experience. This was the first time Hats spoke about living in Minidoka as a teen. The experience inspired Danielle to attend the Minidoka Pilgrimage in 2005 and to major in American Ethnic Studies. Danielle spent the past five years working at the University of Washington with the Regional Advancement and College of Arts & Sciences Advancement teams. Danielle feels very fortunate to come back to working within the Japanese American community and is especially excited and thankful to join the Densho team.  She enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling and most recently snowboarded in the French Alps this past winter. Danielle is planning to snowboard on her next trip in the mountains of Hokkaido, Japan.

Dana Hoshide, Operations Director
Dana is a Yonsei who was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, but grew up in Seattle. She first learned about the incarceration in part from her maternal and paternal grandparents who were incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka camps during World War II. She graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in American Ethnic Studies and has worked for Densho ever since. Her work with the project includes videography, digitizing visual history interviews, and processing interview transcripts and historic photographs and documents.

Janet Hayakawa, Contract Education Specialist and Workshop Facilitator
Janet is an education specialist who has helped Densho develop teacher workshops since 2010. Janet is Japanese American, born and raised in Seattle. Her parents and grandparents were incarcerated during World War II at Minidoka, Idaho, and Tule Lake, California. Prior to working with Densho, Janet prepared a study on the achievement gap for the Washington State Legislature, facilitated school reform efforts with schools in Washington and Oregon, and was involved in the production of over 400 educational television programs—including hosting a series, New Tools: Teaching with Technology—which was distributed nationally. She has taught students and teachers across the country through her work at the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Education Development Center, public television’s Thirteen/WNET, and the Creative Arts Team at New York University. Janet started her career as a classroom teacher in the Seattle Public Schools.

Geoffrey Jost, Senior Software Developer
Geoffrey graduated from California State University Fresno with a BA in Linguistics and minors in Music and Japanese, and a year’s study at Waseda University in Tokyo. He then joined the JET Program and taught English in Kawai-cho, Nara Prefecture, following that with a Masters in Library & Information Studies from the University of California Los Angeles. Because working in a library would be too obvious, he then became a web developer, cutting his teeth in the computer games industry before moving to the Japanese American National Museum, where he was the primary software developer for all the Museum’s web sites including DiscoverNikkei.org. His first computer was a TRS-80 Model I.

Philip Kikawa, Digitization Technician/​IT Support Specialist
Philip graduated from Roger Williams University with a BA in History and minors in East Asian Studies and Philosophy, and was working for the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle before coming to Densho. He has a passion for both historical preservation and technology and is happiest when either conducting historical research or when tinkering with computer hardware. Philip’s grandparents were incarcerated during World War II at Manzanar and Tule Lake, and he is thrilled and humbled to be a part of Densho.

Micah Merryman, Digitization Intern
Micah is currently a graduate student at the University of Washington pursuing a Master’s degree in Museology (Museum Studies). She graduated from Willamette University with a B.A. in History. Her studies at Willamette focused on Japanese American history, culminating in a thesis on the Nikkei community around Salem, Oregon. Before moving to Seattle to attend UW, Micah worked at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland, Oregon as a Digitization Specialist funded by an Oregon Heritage Grant. Her work there was digitizing part of ONLC’s collection for Densho’s Digital Repository. The stories and histories of Japanese Americans are what drew Micah to a History degree, and she wants to share that same inspiration with others.

Brian Niiya, Content Director
Brian is a Sansei born and raised in Southern California to Nisei parents who were born and raised in Hawai’i. His maternal grandfather was one of the small number of Japanese Americans from Hawai’i who were interned, and his mother’s family went to Japan on an exchange ship during the war. Brian is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College (a hard core science and engineering school, Mudd has somehow produced two well known Japanese Americanists, both of whom once worked for Densho) and holds an M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA. His professional life has been dedicated to Japanese American public history and information management, having held various positions with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i that have involved managing collections, curating exhibitions, developing public programs, and producing videos, books, and websites. He has also written widely read newspaper columns for the Rafu Shimpo, Nikkei West, and the Pacific Citizen and edited the Encyclopedia of Japanese American History, published in 1993 with a second edition in 2000. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Naoko Tanabe, Office Manager/Event Coordinator
Naoko was born in Kobe, Seattle’s sister city, and raised in Kyoto, Japan. She graduated from Kobe College with a BA in English and worked in Osaka before she came to the U.S. in 1987. She manages Densho’s fundraising events, processes financial transactions and reports, and translates materials.

Natasha Varner, Communications and Public Engagement Director
Natasha is a historian and writer with a PhD in history from the University of Arizona. She edits and contributes to the Densho blog, manages Densho’s print and digital communications, media relations, community collaborations, public events, and contributes to strategic planning and fundraising efforts. She also oversees and co-facilitates teacher workshops for Densho’s new curriculum initiative, “Examining Racism and Discrimination Through Oral History.” At Densho and beyond, she is most interested in researching and writing about the historical intersections of race, gender, representation, and labor struggle.

Nina Wallace, Communications Coordinator
Nina is a yonsei who grew up in Phoenix but has lived in Seattle long enough to call it home. Her maternal grandmother, one of six children to the only Japanese American family in her small Eastern Washington town, was not incarcerated during WWII but still remembers the day her father was arrested by the FBI. Nina graduated from Seattle University with a stereotypically millennial degree in English and Philosophy—and is grateful to Densho for hiring her in spite of this. She helps to manage Densho’s social media presence, publicity, and community outreach, in addition to frequent contributions to the Densho blog and fundraising assistance.

Virginia Yamada, Visual History Program Manager/Grants Manager
Virginia’s first meaningful exposure to the incarceration came from the firsthand accounts and poems of her mother-in-law: a human rights activist and gifted storyteller, who was incarcerated as a teenager at Minidoka with her mother and three brothers, while her father was held at Crystal City. In college, Virginia turned her interest in numerous social science subjects into a BA in Cultural Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara. Presently, she likes to think that this background is put to good use as she manages Densho’s grants and coordinates the visual history interviews.