JANM Announces Four New Board Members

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) announces four new board members to JANM’s Board of Trustees and Board of Governors. Gene Ochi joined the Board of Trustees, and Devon Akmon, Darin Kita, and Leigh Sata joined the Board of Governors.

“Congratulations to our new board members. Their expertise in business, entrepreneurship, and arts and culture will strengthen JANM’s mission, reach, and vision. Their drive and commitment to social justice helps JANM expand the stories of the Japanese American community for the next generation,” said William T Fujioka, chair of the JANM Board of Trustees.

Board of Trustees

Gene Ochi is an entrepreneur who helped found and build a startup into a $5 billion publicly traded company with 22,000 employees and company owned operations in more than sixty countries. At UTi Worldwide Inc., he served as the corporate office responsible for global marketing and sales and as a strategist charting the direction of the company. Ochi serves on the Board for the Randall R. Kendrick Supply Chain School at the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California and has served as Chairman of the International Advisory Board for CEU, Spain’s largest private university, where he is currently an associate professor. He holds an MBA with Highest Honors from University of Southern California and a BS, Magna Cum Laude, from University of Utah.

Board of Governors

Devon Akmon serves as the Director of Michigan State University (MSU) Museum. Previously, he served as the director of the Arab American National Museum (AANM). The AANM achieved several milestones under his guidance, including becoming an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and receiving accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) within a decade of its opening. He currently serves as board chair of AAM. He is an alumnus of Eastern Michigan University, where he earned his MS, and Michigan State University, from which he holds a BA.

Darin Y. Kita has twenty-eight years of investment experience at Capital Group and currently serves as a Compliance Director of Client Services. Earlier in his career at Capital, he was a senior manager in investment operations working with institutional clients, administering portfolio construction, and negotiating investment guidelines. He has over fifteen years of experience in nonprofit leadership, including serving on the boards of City Scholars Foundation, The Way Counseling Ministry, and Pacific Crossroads Church. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Leigh T. Sata, AIA is the Chief Facilities Executive for the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). He oversees the facilities planning and development team for the largest community college in the nation, serving over 210,000 students at nine colleges across Los Angeles County. Before joining LACCD, he was the Vice President of Operations and Capital Projects at San Francisco’s California College of the Arts. With decades of experience as an architect, program manager, and facilities executive, he is well equipped to lead the LACCD team into a new era of sustainable development. He holds a Global Executive Doctor of Education from USC and a BA in Architecture from UC Berkeley.

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.