President’s Message
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Antoinette Phelps as JAVA’s new Executive Director. She will take on this responsibility in addition to her work for a large governmental consulting firm as a financial management analyst and contract support. She has an MBA in Business Administration and a BA in Business Analytics. During her undergraduate years, Antoinette studied for a semester at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Japan where she honed her Japanese reading, writing, and speaking skills. While in graduate school, she interned at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for the Department of Defense.
Over the next month, we will be having a transition of responsibilities from our former Director Neet Ford to Antoinette as our new Executive Director. Neet has graciously agreed to continue to help with our activities until a new Executive Director is in place. This is crucially helpful because In September JAVA is co-sponsoring with the Japanese Embassy’s Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) an exhibit of photographs of Nisei soldiers while they were serving in World War II. The over 200 photo exhibit was assembled by Eric Saul has been shown in California and Hawaii. Neet has shouldered JAVA’s responsibilities in helping to open this exhibit in DC with JICC and Eric Saul. I deeply appreciate Neet’s commitment to JAVA. Thank you, Neet!!!
In October, we will look to Antoinette to take over the reins as JAVA’s Executive Director. Please welcome her to JAVA’s leadership team.
Gerald Yamada
JAVA President
