The Japan ICU Foundation is happy to announce that we have hired a new Director of Communications. Starting this month, Ms. Aki Takada will join the staff and continue her active role with JICUF. She had previously served as a part-time English-Japanese translator, and was instrumental in helping move our Foundation’s website to a bilingual format.

We asked Aki to share her background with our readers:

“I was born in Tokyo, but spent a large portion of my childhood in New York, Los Angeles and London before entering ICU high school. I went on to ICU and ICU graduate school, and pursued further graduate studies at the University of Oxford. I have worked for the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) among others, and have also been a small business owner. Since my youth, however, I had hoped that at some point in my life I would be involved in non-profit work focusing on human rights and/or education. When the opportunity arose to serve the JICUF, I could not think of a better way to give back to my alma mater and the next generation. As an alumna and a mother of two teenage children, I am deeply committed to the betterment of education in general, as well as supporting ICU further develop as a leading university in Japan. ”

Over the next few weeks, Aki will be taking over a variety of management roles in both internal and external communication for the Foundation. She is excited to be starting and looks forward to implementing some new changes to our e-newsletter, website, and other forms of outreach. Youkoso, Aki-san!