GARDENA —?The Greater Los Angeles Chapter of JACL will hold its New Year’s luncheon and installation of Executive Board members on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 12:30 p.m. at Ladybug Café, 15926 S. Western Ave. in Gardena.

RSVP by Monday, Jan 15, to Louise Sakamoto at [email protected]. Each attendee will pay for his/her own meal.

Introducing new Executive Board members for 2024:

Mary Yamabeserves as on the Board of Directors of the Kinecta Federal Credit Union, which is headquartered in Manhattan Beach. She is a past chair of the Kinecta Federal Credit Union Board of Directors and of the Kinecta Financial Management Company, LLC Board of Directors, and has served as a Credit Union volunteer since 1994.

Yamabe was the founding president of the Hughes Asian Pacific Professional Association, which was sponsored by Hughes Aircraft Company and transferred to Boeing and Raytheon as an employee association. She was also the founding chair of the Hughes Diversity Council reporting to the CEO of Hughes Aircraft. 

In 2001, Yamabe received the LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics) award for outstanding Asian Pacific American leadership. 

A highlight of her financial career with Hughes Aircraft, which began in 1977, was a three-year special assignment in London to establish the business organization for a Hughes/GM subsidiary. Upon her return to the U.S., she was appointed as the chief financial officer for Hughes Research Laboratories, LLC, owned jointly by Boeing, General Motors and Raytheon from 1996 to 2006. HRL Laboratories is located in Malibu, where she also served on the Board of Directors of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce from 1998 to 2006.

After Yamabe retired from HRL Laboratories, she obtained a real estate broker license and established Mary Yamabe Realty. She has been a long-time member and supporter of GLA JACL.

Lisa Akiyama Robinsonis a long-time member of the Torrance/Gardena community. Her family owns Sunflower Farms, a nursery that has been serving the South Bay since 1962. Most recently she completed Leadership Torrance, a program offered through the Torrance Chamber of Commerce, and is currently co-directing Leadership Torrance 2024.

Robinson has been involved with OCA Orange County since 2009 and currently serves as a board member. OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1973, that has been dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She served as the education and multicultural affairs chair during her first year and as chapter president in 2010. During her time as president, she also served as the public affairs chair for the Orange County President’s Council.

Robinson graduated from UC Irvine with a major in political science and a minor in education. As a member of the legislative staff for State Sen. Tom Harman, she directed the district internship program, represented the senator at events, and organized all aspects of district advisory events. She is deeply honored for the opportunity to work with JACL.

Barbara Jean Tamurais a Sansei who was born in San Mateo in the 1960s. She moved to Foster City before relocating to Torrance in the late 1970s, when her father accepted an art director position at Mattel in Hawthorne (his birthplace in 1923). She was introduced to the JACL when her parents were active members of the San Mateo JACL in 1960-1977.

Her father, Robert Asaka Tamura, was a record-holding track athlete with friend Jackie Robinson when competing at the L.A. Coliseum before going to the Olympics. But in 1942, he and his family were sent to the Rohwer camp in Arkansas under Executive Order 9066. From camp, he served in the Army’s Military Inelligence Service, 110th Battalion. After that, the GI bill granted him attendance at L.A. Art Center, and he later became a Disney illustrator at Paramount Studios New York, and before retirement, was a freelance artist and the senior art director at Mattel.

Her mother, Mary (Izumi) Tamura, was incarcerated in 1942 at the Gila River camp in Arizona. She quickly got bored with camp life and left after seeing a poster calling for young women to become registered nurses for free at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. due to a shortage of nurses during World War II.

Her Uncle Kats realized that after camp, many Japanese Americans needed beds and appliances, so he opened the Tamura & Co. furniture store in Los Angeles.

Her parents’ experiences and her love for helping others less fortunate led Barbara Tamura to pursue a degree from CSU Long Beach in elementary education, with a minor in Asian American studies. After working as an editor for TRW/Northrup, she obtained her teaching credential and taught at an inner-city school in Watts for many years.

Later, her love for fast cars led to a career change to the automotive industry, where she was employed at the headquarters for Nissan and Mitsubishi. She currently works at Denso Sales, an affiliate of Toyota Motors.

In her free time, Tamura loves volleyball, enjoyed teaching Sunday school at her church, volunteering at Torrance Memorial Hospital, and holding free reading classes and giving away books to needy children and adults at the Hope for the Homeless organization in Downtown L.A.’s Skid Row. She is involved in the dog rescue community and loves her three formerly abused dogs.

Tamura recently joined JACL and is looking forward to being of service to the Los Angeles and South Bay communities.

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