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I am a public historian and writer based in Minnesota. My research interests include multi-racial, disability, and women’s history. In addition, I have experience in editing, teaching, and cataloging. I have been researching Japanese American mixed race history and military history for fifteen years and Japanese American disability history for five years. My research encompasses the entirety, but I am currently focusing on the disabled and mixed race Japanese Americans and their families in the incarceration camps. I have presented my research at the National Council on Public History (NCPH), Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS), Organization of American Historians (OAH), and other organizations and written for the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Disability History Association (DHA), and other organizations. My presentations can be seen on my Writing and Presentations page.

I am working on picture, middle grade, and adult books about the topics. I am a member of the Disabled Academic Collective.

From 2017 to 2022, I was the fact-checker and a writer for the Minnesota Women’s Press, the “oldest continuously-published feminist monthly print magazine in the United States.” My fact-checking connected me with politicians, radio personalities and other members of the media, authors, activists, educators and others, who are bringing knowledge, change, and accountability through their art, writing, shows, and educational opportunities.

In 2019, I was awarded the Loft Literary Center’s “Mirrors and Windows” fellowship, “dedicated to mentoring indigenous writers and writers of color to write picture books, middle grade, and young adult literature.” I will be working on a middle grade book about Japanese-American children with disabilities in the incarceration camps during World War II.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, I joined un(der)-employed museum workers, artists, and others to form the Free-Thinking Abolitionists Interpreting Racism (FAIR) Collective to create a (traveling) exhibit about U.S. racism, called BUSTING Racism which I named. As a member of the Exhibit Development and Research Teams, I research similar exhibits and accessibility guidelines, create content, and exhibit materials. I also created and managed the original website.

Over the last few months in 2022, I have been writing book chapters about accessibility at historic sites and archives, which will hopefully be published in 2023. I will also be writing about my first journal article about my research on Japanese American disability history.

In my spare time, I enjoy reading, researching genealogy, and collecting coins and stamps.