About Me:

As long as I can remember, I have loved novels, poems and language.I became a lawyer because I wanted to use words to help people. After practicing law for a decade, I studied theology and became a lay minister supporting youth, ministerial leaders and most recently, women transitioning from incarceration. In addition to my writing skills, I developed deep listening skills, and was privileged to hear many stories as I accompanied strong and courageous individuals in their healing journeys.

In 2022, I completed Stanford’s online Creative Writing Certificate. I was chosen to read an excerpt from my novel in progress HAWAII KINTSUGI at SF LitCrawl in October 2022. My novel tells the story of the Japanese internment in Hawaii and is based on our family’s history. I am currently seeking representation for this project.

I have a degree in English from Stanford (1984), a JD from UCLA (1987) and a joint Master’s in Theology and Multi-Cultural Ministry from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley. (2008). My essay Death into Life: A Spirituality of Lay Ecclesial Ministry was published in Emerging from the Vineyard in 2014. A short piece about the origin of my Japanese name appeared in Discover Nikkei and my flash fiction piece Cherie was published by The Bloomin’ Onion. I live in the SF Bay Area with my husband and our four rescue cats.