2024 Emerging Leaders Program

Misaki serves as the External Relations Manager for the Dallas Mavericks, where she leads strategic initiatives to enhance brand visibility, strengthen community relations and maximize impact off the court. She manages the Mavs Foundation’s annual philanthropic efforts, contributing over $1 million to support local charities. Prior to working in sports, she was on the Advance team for the Kamala Harris For The People presidential campaign and worked for the Dallas Leadership Foundation where she focused on economic mobility. 

Being of mixed Okinawan heritage – the concept of ‘Moai’ is central to her career and personal life. She is passionate about fostering meaningful relationships and partnerships to drive positive social impact and business objectives. Beyond her professional commitment, she serves as a board member for the Japan America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth and Genesis Women’s Shelter Alliance. She enjoys traveling, reading and spending time with her fiancé and rescue dog, Kai. 

Emily Fukunaga has accumulated over 12 years of professional experience in management roles spanning the consumer products and sporting goods industries. With varied professional experiences in New York, Hong Kong and London, Emily has developed skills across corporate strategy, operations and management consulting. Emily’s contributions at Strategy& have provided her with invaluable insights into the inner workings of Fortune 500 companies. Her expertise extends to areas such as pricing strategies, supply chain optimization and human capital management. During her tenure in Hong Kong, Emily excelled as a wine and liquor buyer at Duty Free Shoppers (LVMH) and eventually transitioned to a sourcing manager role at adidas. Emily currently works at Servco Pacific, Inc., Hawaii’s largest private company, with mobility operations in Hawaii and Australia and notably owns Fender Musical Instruments Company. She is the Director of Supply Chain Management Transformation focused on logistics and customer experience improvement.

Mia has built her career in the ecommerce and consumer packaged goods space. She is currently the Chief of Staff at Hometown Food Company, a private equity owned consumer goods holding company, where she supports the CEO in driving operational efficiency and strategic projects. She spent a year building a digital grocery start-up and started her career at Accenture Interactive where she built large-scale ecommerce and digital marketing programs for Fortune 500 clients. Her long-term goal is to bring Japanese food products, flavors and food technology to the broader American market. She attended Wellesley College and received her MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business.  Having grown up in both the United States and Japan, her parents emphasized the importance of U.S.-Japan relations from a young age. She has been involved with USJC since 2013, where she was an intern at the TOMODACHI Initiative out of the U.S. Embassy in Japan.  She lives in Chicago with her husband and bernedoodle and loves to cook, ski and run. 

Dustin Ikeda is Co-Founder and President of Hashi Media, a Tokyo-based international marketing agency that bridges Japan and the world by helping overseas companies market to Japan, and Japanese companies market to the West. Over the past six years, Dustin has led a multicultural team in executing marketing campaigns for major American and Japanese institutions, including Uber, Subway, Kokuyo and Hitotsubashi University. Before moving to Japan, Dustin worked as a Product and Test Engineer for Texas Instruments, where he oversaw the production of semiconductor products in manufacturing facilities across Asia and completed a 6-month overseas assignment in Taipei, Taiwan. Dustin holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with honors. 

Nolan Jimbo is Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where he organizes exhibitions, performances and programs with a focus on artists of the Asian diaspora. His past projects include Wu Tsang’s MOBY DICK; or, the Whale, a feature-length film live scored by a fifteen-piece orchestra; the exhibitions Chicago Works: Gregory Bae, Endless, and Interiors; and performances by Kioto Aoki, Kikù Hibino, and Devin T. Mays. Currently, he is organizing the first solo museum exhibition and book dedicated to the work of Kenzi Shiokava. Previously, he held curatorial positions at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Dallas Museum of Art. He also recently contributed texts to the 2024 Whitney Biennial catalog. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he holds an MA from the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art and a BA in art history from Tufts University. 

Victor is a key figure in sports and youth development, currently serving as the L.A. City Manager for the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport (CHJS). He oversees coach development and strategy for programs including Nike LA’s Mamba League, Dodgers Foundation’s Dreamteam Coach Series and Jr. Clippers Coach Clinics. This year, CHJS projects have already trained over 3,000 coaches, emphasizing trauma-informed approaches in sports. As Chief Experience Officer at Fenix Basketball, Victor led the Basketball Equity Action Team (BEAT) in partnership with the King County Play Equity Coalition, organizing basketball equity festivals that engaged over 1,000 youth in Washington. He also manages Fenix Hoop Tours, which facilitates cross-cultural youth basketball experiences between the United States and Japan. His impactful contributions to community and sports earned him the 2024 Clippers Community Heroes accolade. Victor holds a B.A. in International Relations and minors in Communications and Japanese from the University of California, Davis. 

Leo Chris Kasuya is a forward-thinking strategic problem solver who has extensive leadership experience working with C-level executives and Board of Directors. He is recognized as a top performer and effective leader who consistently challenges the status quo. Leo is a Director of Strategy & New Ventures at Irresistible Foods Group (IFG), parent company to King’s Hawaiian, Grillo’s Pickles, Shaka Team and Killer Brownie. Reporting to both the Chairman and President, his role is to develop and execute strategic initiatives focused on the enterprise as well as operating companies’ long-term growth and success. Leo is currently leading King’s Hawaiian’s International Expansion with focus on Japan and the United Kingdom.  

Outside of work, Leo is an avid traveler and an adrenaline junkie – he has visited 50+ countries and is licensed as a skydiver. He was born and raised in Japan until the age of 10 and currently lives in Miami, Florida. He holds a BBA in International Business & Marketing from the University of Georgia. 

Travis Kaya is an attorney with Richards, Watson & Gershon, representing public agencies in transactional and regulatory matters. He is Assistant City Attorney for the cities of Beverly Hills and Agoura Hills. Travis specializes in land use and environmental matters, previously representing real estate investment funds and entertainment companies in purchase/sale and leasing transactions, and institutional lenders in affordable housing financing. Travis serves on the boards of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County and the Japanese American Bar Association Educational Foundation. He is a member of the Consulate-General of Japan in Los Angeles’s Next Generation Japanese American Leaders Initiative and past president of the Monterey Park Library Board of Trustees. 

Travis was born and raised on Maui. He holds a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from Pomona College, and a Master of International Studies from the University of Sydney. He earned his Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Before law school, Travis was an English teacher with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in Yurihama, Tottori Prefecture. 

Shohei Narron is an accomplished international startup leader and leadership coach with over a decade of experience in scaling early stage startups. He is currently Global Sales Engineering Manager at Monte Carlo Data where he built and leads a team of sales engineers covering North America, EMEA and APAC. He previously spearheaded Japan market entry and expansion at Looker, a data analytics startup, and established its first APAC office in Tokyo prior to its acquisition by Google. He began his career at PwC as a management consultant working with Fortune 500 companies on their technology and data strategy, and was a founding member of the firm’s then-DevOps practice supporting organization-wide software development change management. Shohei was born and raised in Miyazaki, Japan, and received his B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He is Shin-Issei, an avid Capoeirista and lives in the Santa Cruz mountains with his wife Karina. 

Kevin Ninomiya is a bilingual venture builder/ecosystem developer and U.S. lawyer at ShibuLA Ventures and Global Gateway Law, respectively. He advises foreign companies on United States market expansion and has experience with startups to large corporations. Starting as an electromagnetics engineer, he later led innovation projects at Daikin and Konica Minolta. Kevin founded an educational nonprofit and an AI-powered EdTech startup. He also advises startups at accelerators such as Berkeley SkyDeck and the Bronco Venture Accelerator in Silicon Valley. He holds BS/MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and a law degree from Santa Clara University, where he earned a High Tech Law Certificate, corporation specialization, with honors. Licensed to practice law in California, Minnesota, and the USPTO, Kevin now lives in New York City with his partner and their cat.

Risa Pieters is the Deputy Director of Global Programs, Asia-Pacific Lead at the Obama Foundation. Risa brings extensive experience in the Asia-Pacific, working closely with nonprofits, policymakers, companies and the region’s emerging leaders to advance social change and promote international cooperation and peace. Risa’s career has been shaped by her mixed Japanese-South African background, which inspired her early work in peacebuilding, reconciliation and social movements for change. She spent five years in Hong Kong focused on fostering cross-sector collaborations for social change across Asia. Now, Risa leads the Obama Foundation’s work in the Asia-Pacific region. Risa holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Global Health from Duke University and an MEd in Global and Comparative Studies in Education and Sustainable Development from The University of Hong Kong. She is currently based in Los Angeles, but also calls Japan home, spending a couple months there each year. 

Rhianna Taniguchi Chung is a senior account manager at iQ 360, a strategic business consultancy. She develops digital advertising strategies and secures earned media coverage for her clients. She also advises clients on content strategy, business strategy, crisis management, branding and public policy issues. Her career spans diverse sectors, including six years in the Hawaii and Oregon Army National Guard and time at the Denver Post, where she created advertising campaigns for recruitment and real estate clients. She has also worked in nonprofit organizations focused on advancing Asian American civil rights and fostering leadership opportunities for young girls. Rhianna is currently pursuing her MBA at Johns Hopkins University, where she represents the Carey Business School on the Johns Hopkins Cross-Institutional Student Advisory Committee and serves as a Fellow at the Center for Innovative Leadership. She is also on the executive committee of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation’s board of directors.