JWLI Hawaii Summit 2023 - Global Session (with the original audio)

Aloha!

Welcome to the JWLI Women's Leadership Global Summit, Transforming Crisis into Opportunity. The Japanese Women's Leadership Initiative is honored to host this summit here in Hawaii with the East-West Center. We gather here as we face global crisis, COVID, natural disasters, economic and political unrest, or racial tension. This global summit, however, is on an uplifting, hopeful note, with our speakers highlighting crises that were turned into opportunity by women's leadership. We're excited to be joined by you today in person and virtually as we build and strengthen our global network of women leaders who support each other and lead positive social change in the world. Has anyone counted how many times I said women already? Anyone? 4 times. So this summit is all about women, but women's leadership cannot be achieved without our allies. We are very pleased to see men in the audience. Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Kozue Sawame. I'm the Director of Japan Program at the Fish Family Foundation, and I'm in charge of JWLI, and I will serve as your emcee today. The JWLI— thank you— the Japanese Women's Leadership Initiative is an executive women's leadership program started by Atsuko Fish in 2006 and grew to now include 150 alumni for Women Leaders. And thank you. And 37 of them have flown all the way from Japan to be here with you today. And can those 37 women stand up so we know who you are? Please make sure to get to know them at the reception. They're very excited to meet you and get to know you. And I would like also to recognize our distinguished guests joining us today. Former U.S. Representative and State Senator Colleen Hanabusa. Leslie— Leslie Kobayashi, United States District Judge, District of Hawaii, and former First Lady Dawn Amano Ige. And Governor Josh Green will be joining us later this evening. Also, I would like to thank our partners. Asia Gender Network AVPN, Child and Family Service, Ito-en, The Japan Times, and the U.S.-Japan Council. Thank you for your support and partnership. Before we get started, I would like to go over some housekeeping items first, so please bear with me. For those of us here in person, for everyone's safety, face masks are required. Except while you're eating and drinking, which comes later in the reception. And restrooms are located on the first and third floors. And please also enjoy some complimentary tea and water from our sponsor, Itoen. And online, we have 300 people joining us, connecting globally. And I'm gonna listen— I'm going to list all the countries from Australia, East Timor, England, China, India, Indonesia, Italy, Micronesia, New Zealand, Norway, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the continental US. We're going global in a true sense today. And we very much welcome your participation online. During Q&A sessions, please enter your questions through the Q&A feature on Zoom. So I know you all must be excited. I am to get started and hear from our amazing lineup of speakers and panels today. So without further ado, please allow me to introduce Atsuko Fish, the founder of JWLI Ecosystem. Atsuko Fish is a woman of creation in action. She started JWLI in 2006 and has expanded it with 3 other programs. JWLI is now an ecosystem that includes women nonprofit executives and social entrepreneurs in Japan. And not only do these women leaders follow in her steps, awards follow her too. She's a recipient of the Champion of Change Award from the White House. And the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese Emperor. Please welcome Atsuko Fish.

Aloha everyone, thank you for coming, and Kozo did a very good job, so I may have to repeat a little bit. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean I will do it again. Aloha, everybody! Thank you for coming. I am very excited. Kozo just said 200 people here, 37 Japanese social entrepreneur leaders here, and 300 online. Virtual participants. It is my great honor and happiness, and thank you all for your work. But we decided to do this 4 years ago, and COVID prevented to host it. But finally, we are here. Together with partner East-West Center. However, this could not be happen today without our great Japan team. So let me recognize from Boston, Kozo and Ayaka, And from Tokyo, Yuki, Yuki, and Junko. One more from Tokyo, Junko. And two young women from East-West Center, Anna, Anna, and Raya. Maya, thank you very much. Without your hard work, it never happened today, so I'm very, very grateful. Thank you. Well, the purpose of the summit today is we are listening global leaders their experience, their story, and their— how they done— oh, wait a minute— how they have handled the transforming crisis into opportunity. We will learn from them, and we will seek solutions through rigorous dialogue today. And after that, we would like to build Asian network, women's network, through participants today. Here is 200 and online, 300, um, US mainland, Hawaii, Japan, and Asia. We are going to build a network. Um, I believe the summit will provide you wisdom, courage, and hopes for all of us. After that, the power of collective women's voice and action will make a difference. This is just the beginning of global network women's leading social change in the world. And it is all up to you today to make a decision. How are you going to do? So think about it and good luck, and please enjoy the summit. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Atsuko. Next, Larry Fish is the co-founder and trustee of the Fish Family Foundation. Larry is a true leader in the business world with the career spanning several decades, and most notably, he's the former chairman and CEO of Citizens Financial Group. He's also been a leading philanthropist in the Boston area, working closely with nonprofit organizations for immigrants, at-risk youth, and those with mental health challenges. Please welcome Larry Fish.

A big aloha to Many of Atsuko and my friends in the audience today, colleagues of mine from the U.S.-Japan Foundation, um, on behalf of my son Edward, my daughters Emily and Leah, and our daughter-in-law Nina, I bring you greetings. We're so proud to be doing this program in our adopted home of Hawaii. Susie, thank you to you and your staff for making this beautiful center a part of the program. And thank you all who are coming today to listen and to learn. And most of all, thank you to the 37 social entrepreneurs from Japan. Who are making a difference every day in areas like immigration, food security, homelessness, abuse, mental health. I could go on and on. You'll have a chance to meet these wonderful ladies. They're making a tremendous difference in Japan, and we are playing a small role in empowering them and the work that they do. So welcome, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you, Larry. Now let us start the keynote session, and allow me to introduce 3 speakers. Former First Lady Dawn Amano Ige is of course well known to the locals in the audience, but for those of us not from these islands, Donna Manoiguet served as the First Lady of Hawaii during her husband Governor David Ige's term from 2014 to 2022. She's a strong advocate of early childhood education, literacy, and global education. Prior to her role as First Lady, she worked in business, public relations, and was an elementary school teacher and vice principal. Our keynote speaker is Suzanne Vares-Lum, who's been the president of the East-West Center just for over a year now. Susie, as she likes to be called, is the first woman and Native Hawaiian to be chosen for this role since the establishment of the center. As a retired major general with 34 years of service, President Susie has held key roles addressing national security challenges in the region, and she has decades of executive leadership and planning experience. She is a 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor awardee, and her, her most recent recognition is the 2023 Girl Scouts of Hawaii Women of Distinction Award. We're honored to have her today as she managed crisis at the highest level and broke ceilings throughout her distinguished career. Last but not least, Yasu Yamakawa. Yasu wears many hats: an entrepreneur, a president of CIC Japan, which is a leading ecosystem incubator for startups and entrepreneurs in Japan, and a professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, a school that's been ranked as the best MBA for entrepreneurship for nearly 30 years. But to us all at JWLI, he's an invaluable ally. In addition to his expertise and insights and entrepreneurship, his approach to failure has shifted our mindsets as a chance to grow and learn. Yasu is the facilitator for Q&A and plans to bring some action to the audience. So please be ready with your questions. First, Please welcome former First Lady Dawn Amano-Ige.

President Suzanne Verislum, Mr. and Mrs. Fish, distinguished guests, and to the participants of this year's Japanese Women's Leadership Institute Summit, and to all of you, welcome and aloha. A little bit louder. Let's hear aloha. This is an exciting summit.

Aloha.

That's more like it. It is a pleasure to be here and to welcome you to Hawaii for the JWLI Summit on Transforming Crisis into Opportunity. I'm excited to be here as your work during this summit will further enhance your networks as well as develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills that will strengthen your communities. Summits like these are critical in building global networks among women who who can bring about change. And I want to thank Atsuko and Larry Fish and the Fish Family Foundation and the East-West Center for bringing this program to Hawaii. I know all of you will be hard at work this week, but I hope you will be able to enjoy and experience the culture of Hawaii. We are proud to be able to share the aloha spirit and hospitality with you. Hawaii's unique geographic location, cultural diversity, and educational facilities such as the East-West Center make our island community the crossroads in the Pacific in areas of leadership, economics, and education. Hawaii's history also exemplifies the strength of women. Over 100 years ago, Hawaii's early monarchy, including Queen Lili'uokalani, Queen Kapiolani, And Queen Emma led Hawai��i during periods which were turbulent and defining. They all overcame the extraordinary to establish legacies that continue to serve as a foundation for our community, particularly in the areas of social welfare, education, and healthcare. So it's fitting that Hawai��i is a place for these kinds of conversations. I believe we are at a critical juncture for women leaders in Japan and Hawaii and throughout the world. So how can we garner the power of that women have to offer? I believe the great equalizer is educational opportunities like today where we build knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to overcome inequities that may be before us. And then most importantly, to take the next step in developing action plans that serve as roadmaps for implementation. Education has always been part of my life as a student, as a mother of two daughters and a son, as a teacher and public school administrator. And it was here at the University of Hawai��i that I developed my interest in leadership and education. Since then, I have learned much. When I served as First Lady, I realized that for advancement to occur, we need to know that we are able to overcome our own uncertainties to address the challenges that come with crisis. And each and every one of us have been through crisis. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we all had to change the way we work, communicate, and live. In crisis, I learned, like many of you, the value of technology. And with virtual communications, distance was no longer a barrier. Time differences, especially between here and Japan, was a big challenge, but distance does not prevent us from moving forward. So I combined my interest in literacy and last year worked with Hiroshima and Okinawa prefectural governments to develop the first sister library relationship between Hawaii State Library and the Hiroshima and Okinawa prefectural libraries. The agreements were officially signed by the governors of Hawaii, Okinawa, and Hiroshima during formal ceremonies in Japan. The program includes annual exchange of children's books that are written by local authors from each area and were on topics of culture, sustainability, and each area's history. As part of the exchange, visiting librarians can visit the area libraries and virtual meetings will be held throughout the year to, to share ideas about improving literacy in their areas. It is my hope that this program contributes to cultural understanding and appreciation between Japan and Hawaii and among our young children. In dealing with uncertainty, I had to focus on what I could do with my passion for children's literacy and early education. One of the lessons I learned is the value of partnerships. For this program, I brought together librarians, cultural groups, and government officials to establish a firm and enduring foundation for this program. Without the partners, programs like these cannot happen. It was apparent that the power of technology connected us to keep us going, but we must not forget that on a global level, the gender gap to digital access still persists. Today will be part of many discussions between women leaders in Japan, Hawaii, and from around the globe. In furthering your initiatives, you will be continuing the work that is much needed to close the gender gap that exists today. To begin this afternoon session, I would like to introduce One of those remarkable leaders we have, and she is this afternoon's keynote speaker. Susan, Susanne, Susie as we all call her, Puanani Ferris Lum took office as president of the East-West Center in January 2022. She is the first woman and Native Hawaiian to be chosen for this role, and in the short time she has been in her position, She impressively led the organization into developing a multi-year strategic plan, which is now being implemented. She is a retired major general with 34 years of service. Susie has held key roles in addressing national priority, national security challenges in the region. She brings executive leadership and planning experience spanning the past several decades culminating in 5 years serving and advising the most senior officials at the US Indo-Pacific Command. After her retirement and prior to her position at the East-West Center, she formed the Verus Lom Indo-Pacific Consulting Firm to provide consulting and advising on regional issues. She advocated on Indo-Pacific issues and led collaborative initiatives in the region. Last September, she served on a panel at the US Pacific Island Country Summit with the United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and we're so proud of her for being part of that. As a community leader, Susie serves on a variety of nonprofit boards, including the American Red Cross Pacific Island Region, Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, and the Pacific International Center for High Technology. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, something I like to say we have in common, and her Master of Education and Teaching, both here from the University of Hawai��i at Mānoa. She is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and earned a Master of Strategic Studies degree in 2011. In addition to her many military and community awards, she is this year's recipient of the Girl Scouts of Hawaii Women of Distinction Award and a 2017, as mentioned earlier, Ellis Island Medal of Honor awardee. So it is my honor and true pleasure to introduce you to President Suzanne Varaslaou.

Aloha mai kakou! What a thrill it is to be here, and thank you so much, First Lady. You know, she has been also a member of our board and has been spearheading a lot of wonderful educational initiatives and encouraging us to do that. So thank you so much, Atsuko-san and Larry-san, and of course to all of our recipients of the JWLI. It's wonderful to have you all here, and all of you from across the region and around the world, we are thrilled to have you in this space today. Thank you so much. I also, I also want to acknowledge our home here in Hawai��i, as the First Lady said, here in Manoa, the home of our ancestors, the Kanaka Maoli Native Hawaiian who have stewarded the lands here for generations, right here along Manoa Stream, in these wonderful communities that have fed and taken care of generations of people. And of those communities, 50% were women. That's a fact. No matter where you go, they've taken care of people throughout history. So it's so appropriate that you are in this space with us today to talk about this very issue that sometimes we don't want to talk about, the role that women have and how we have turned crisis into opportunity. And we are in a time when we see a lot of concerns about crisis here in the Indo-Pacific. We talk about climate change as the number one existential threat, the geopolitical strategic competition that's happening. We see conflicts around the world. We worry, coming out of a pandemic, about our own economies. Will there be enough food, water, educational opportunities for our kids and generations to come? But I, I'll tell you that amidst those crises, we have an opportunity today because of many of you, all of you. I look in this audience and I can name each and every one, amazing men and women who are here today who have done extraordinary things. I mean, we could have a field of stories just by telling your story. So I'm very excited today to share with you a few people who have inspired me. But before I do that, I want to talk a little bit about the East-West Center. Don't worry, I'm not going to give you a huge strategic briefing. Probably worried, oh no, she's going to talk about her strategic plan. But I got to say something about this strategic plan. Is the last one supporting good governance? I want to talk about that because under that is not only free and open information and journalism, but it's also about supporting women's leadership and empowerment. Because we know that good governance and societies that are free, fair, and open have equal opportunities for women. You just got to look at the list. You don't need to be a scientist. You can look at the list and see that those countries where you have struggles, opportunities for women are not there. You know, those who do well and thrive, opportunities for women are there. So it's, it's very clear that this is an important part of our strategy. So we're excited to have this event here today. I also want to talk about, you know, the vision here of the East-West Center. So we're standing here and you're probably wondering, what is this, this object here? This is actually an abstract heart, pu'uwai, heart. What makes sense that this would be a heart, a place where East and West could come together. The vision really of those who created this place of the East-West Center in 1960 when Eisenhower, President Eisenhower, signed the authorization to establish this place where East and West could come together. Senator Lyndon Johnson and our own Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye— if you came in the airport, that's named after him as well— ushered this place because it was very clear that we needed to have events like today from all around the world to be at the heart to discuss the key critical issues. So that's why you see this pu'uwai here. You know, this vision has brought about 70,000 alumni from all around the world, 53 chapters, and in Japan alone we have 9,000 alumni from Japan since 1960. And I've got to say that our forefathers, or those who established this, were very diligent in the way that they created this. If you notice this picture, in the early years there was an— and yes, everyone dressed like this around the East-West Center in 1960 because that's just how it was. You wore gloves and nice shoes. But, um, you'll see the equal amount of men and women. That's very visionary for 1960, I must say, to say so many of them, these women from many of your countries had PhDs, went on to do some extraordinary things. In fact, when I was in Tokyo in, in October for the U.S.-Japan Council meeting, I met our alumni, and one of them was here in like early 1963, and she went about changing Broadway shows and translated them so people in Japan could enjoy them. But she thanked— she came all that way to come and see me to say thank you to these kinds of programs. So it's not just about me, it's about what I represent, what we all do, that these programs make a difference in people's lives. You know, when I think about women alumni, you can see here this picture. Um, we have president— the first president, female president of the Marshall Islands on the bottom right. That's Senator Hilda Heine, also on our board. And you'll also see in there several other alumni, distinguished alumni from Japan, and we have many from many of your countries. But I just wanted to point out for our special guests today, Ambassador Kazuko Shiraishi, Ambassador in Charge of Arctic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan. Miss Haruko Watanabe, Vice President, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. Miss Junko Ochano, Executive Director, Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Just some sampling of the amazing women who are alumni and who are from Japan. But I want to mention something that Miss Haruko Watanabe said. She said, quote, being a woman born in Japan at a time when there were still many taboos surrounding the role of women in society, I achieved what I did mostly due to the support of the male decision makers. Professionals, and other helping hands. So we heard that allies that Atsuko said. This started right at home with my husband, who all along was supportive and cooperative, and I'm thankful to them all. And this— yes, Larry, that's you too. This sentiment is similar, really similar to mine when I come to think about, but I'll come back to that in a minute. I want to talk about another famous alum in this space. It's Ann Dunham. If you notice her, um, she is the mother of President Barack Obama. So she was an East-West Center grantee from Kansas and actually met, according to the stories, Barack Obama's father right on East-West Center Road out here. And then later on met Maya, his sister's father, who was East-West Center grantee from Indonesia, right in Burns Hall down the road here at East-West Center. And what's amazing is that she went on to go into communities and make and really help to develop microeconomies within Indonesia. So she in her own right, besides creating an amazing President of the United States, she also in her own right did some amazing groundbreaking things. And of course, when I, I just mentioned this Japanese garden right here, I hope that you got a chance to see it. But down here below is where he used to play a lot. He would play as a child because his mom was busy working. So we talk about family support. East-West Center provided family support and childcare. With the East-West Center Garden down below. Although today I don't know if I'd recommend that with the water, but he survived. It made him stronger. So again, crisis into opportunity. You know, it's what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Gold is refined by fire, diamonds by intense heat. So if we think about that, all of those who came before us that I just mentioned, all experience that. And just one more person before I get into my story is, you know, this is an ��ōhi��alehua plant. So if you go out here, you'll see our friendship garden, and there's all these native Hawaiian plants, and there's a new grove, ��ōhi��alehua, a very fragile plant that's really an indigenous plant that we're trying to grow a lot more of these native plants here. But this was a recent blossom. And I just point that out because the person who planted it is really a woman of courage, and this is Senator Mazie Hirono. She is the first female, I mean, of Japanese ancestry to be in our Senate, our US Senate, and on one of our most powerful committees, the Senate Armed Services Committee. She is one of two women of Japanese and Okinawan ancestry who represent Hawaii in our U.S. Congress. She is also the first to be born in Japan and an immigrant that's currently sitting in our Senate and the only Asian senator in our Senate, full Asian senator in our Senate. So she planted that grove because she has been an advocate of those who have been marginalized. She has been an advocate because of her story. She's turned crisis into opportunity. She— the reason why I share her story is she came here. We honored her with the First Lady right here where you're standing. She planted this, and on the day I saw her again, that ohia lehua blossomed, and she loves those. So I got to share that story with her. But, you know, her mother had a lot of courage. Her mother left Japan in the '50s. Can you imagine that? With 3 children. Leaving her husband. And she says this publicly, got permission because it's in her book, um, that her father was really, um, negligent and alcoholic. She came here with mom. She worked two jobs, raised these children, got the support of teachers, and we met one of her teachers, um, and changed the course of many people's lives. She is definitely a woman of courage, and I was really inspired by her, her book Heart of Fire. And I— it's a fascinating book. And don't worry, I'm not promoting her book for— I'm just saying that it is wonderful. If you want to get inspired, I'd recommend reading it. It shows how she has broken barriers, how she has overcome and turned crisis into opportunity. So I just want to say again, I am very proud to be here as the first female president. But gosh, 62 years, that's a long time. So I'm grateful for our board, um, and I'm grateful for all of those who paved the way to allow this to happen. But I'm not, uh, really a stranger to firsts. So this is a picture of the Indo-Pacific. 36 nations, 14 time zones, 4 of the 5 United States national security challenges with China, Eastern Military District of Russia, North Korea, you know, terrorism, as well as more natural disasters occur in this region than any other place. And I share this that, you know, I was the first female at Indo-Pacific Command to be a deputy Commander, Acting Deputy Commander. You can see that picture right there that's covering Hawaii. Um, and yes, that's General Minihan that was in the press, the 4-star that's in there. You might notice his face. But, um, Admiral Davidson was my boss. But you notice they're all men. Um, when I got into that job, by the way, it was fascinating because, because I was the first one sitting in that job, a predecessor said, I'm not sure how Asian countries will react to you being in that job, having to deal with general officers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan. How would they react to you? And I said, you know, made me doubt, right? When someone puts that question of doubt in your mind, you're like, gosh, I don't know, I wonder how they will react. But I'm happy to say that of all these countries, you kind of see some of the bilateral— they're small, but bilateral pictures out all over the region— that they were very open because they were expecting to see this tall guy maybe coming up with stars on his shoulder, and they saw me, right? Sometimes they would actually go to my assistant and, and they'd say, no, it's her. So I learned to walk out of there with a lot more confidence, and then they started coming. If you walk out there like you're Angela Merkel or something, then people— or the Tokyo governor— walk out like you're confident, then people will start to come to you. But I was happy to say that I had no issue. In fact, many of these men would say, we're proud to see you in this job. And sometimes they would tell me things that they wouldn't tell a man, like how upset they are with the United States. Very upset. I don't know how you can talk to me about human rights when you've got X, Y, and Z. So it actually opened the door for many of these countries. So I'm— that just— that gave me a lot of confidence after my first several engagements. And, um, you know, it's not unusual that I've been in a, in a room like probably many of you, where you're the only woman in the room. And after a while, I didn't notice until someone pointed it out. In fact, there was a general officer from Korea, and he came up to me and he said, you know, I want you to know that how I feel when I walk into a room full of Americans, it's how you feel when you walk into a room full of men. And I said, oh, that's interesting, because I never thought about it anymore after 34 years, but I got to say, in the beginning I did. And that's why I share this story, that sometimes when we're starting out, we think, I'm the only one here. I don't know how— especially women in STEM or women in areas where you don't have a lot of, of female representation. But that's where the male allies come in. So how did I get there after 34 years? It really started with a lot of male allies, and you'll, you'll see, you'll see this picture. One's Japan on the bottom, the other one's Indo-Pacom, and the other one's at Washington, DC. But you can pick out the women, and I know you can't see it very well, but they're mostly men. But a lot of these men are my friends. They're my allies, they're my network. They're the ones that back me up when I need help or sponsor and say, you can do it, you can do it, you go do it, Susie. That's the difference. So it's not like it's an insurmountable obstacle. It can be done. You can turn what seems to be a challenging moment into an opportunity. You know, when I started off and my first duty station was in Germany, when there was an East and West Germany, and some of you weren't born. East and West, yes. And I went into my first unit, and it was division artillery. I said, are you kidding me? That means that equals mostly men. I thought, I thought I was an intelligence officer going into a unit that's mixed. But, and then being from Hawaii, everybody thinks you just dance hula and surf and play, you know, and are you going to come on time? So I made sure I did. And it was that opportunity though that paved the way. So what did I do? You know, I like to say that in every moment I worked hard, you feel like you gotta work harder because you're the first. You can't let your gender down, right? Can't let Hawaii down. You've gotta work harder. You gotta work smarter. And, but after a while I began to build those allies, those people who relied on me. And those were guys. And they said, well, Susie can do it, you can do it. And then I learned to really learn to be a part of the team, not to make myself stand out so much, but to really know that together we're stronger and it's not me as an individual. And I also learned, even though— because even though you got great people, you also got those people who are the naysayers. They stand there and they tell you what you can't do, why you shouldn't be there. And I learned to just ignore that, because if you focus on that, you will never get to the goal, right? If we listen to those voices, or what I like to call barking dogs, you're never going to get there. And that's what I resolved to, to understand. And then I understand— I became comfortable being uncomfortable that pretty soon I didn't notice. So, you know, I want to kind of wrap up with this a little bit more about my personal life. So after 34 years getting into the military, I really came from a family of a mom who's from Japan. So you see the picture of Mount Fuji, and the other one to the right is actually Haleakala with snow on it. So my dad is from Maui, so he leaves Maui in 1960. First duty station, local boy, in Japan. Now, they only had one stoplight, by the way, on Maui, they said, in 1960, and ends up in Tokyo in 1960. That was a big shift. My mom, post-World War II, you know, everybody's getting out of the economy. She gets a job on the base, tells them she could type, and she couldn't. Used her English after 6 years and got that job. Met my dad, ends up, you know, of course having us. My dad goes to Vietnam and then we move back here. So she's in Hawaii, loves it, but it's still a cultural difference, a shock. So as I was going and I got— went into the military, went through ROTC here at the University of Hawaii, she said she would tell me, you know, women cannot do that. And when I went to airborne school, jumping out of airplanes, she said, women cannot do that because women are not able to do that. I mean, that's what she said. But I got more to this story. Then later on, I got promoted to colonel. She's like, oh, gambatte, ne? Good. Got promoted to general. Oh, gambatte, ne? And then, you know, it started to change. And then she went back to school later in life and became a certified nursing assistant. Learning English, really practicing. And then when I went to Iraq, she said, very concerned, but she knew I could do it. She said, "Ganbatte ne." So pretty soon I started to see a change in my own mom who grew up in that circumstance that you heard one of the alumni mention earlier, in a Japan in the 1940s that was much different than the Japan today. And I see this change that she gave to me. And I just share that because over time we might have a certain way of thinking, and then we can shift and change. And that's very much— it has inspired me. You know, when I think about the globe, that story, the globe today, the fact that we—

things—

people can change, the way we think can change. But when we look at the Global Gender Gap Report that came out by the World Economic Forum last year. You know, they looked at 146 countries, and the percentage of the gender gap is about 68%, meaning that's going to take 130 years to find full parity. 132 years. You know, when we look at the gap of educational attainment, just some examples I thought I'd use: United States and Japan. United States is at 51 out of 146, but we're going to get better with the focus on education. And Japan is 14, so fairly high on educational attainment in Japan. But when we look at economic gap, the United States is pretty high. It's 27— I mean, 27th on the list of 146, and Japan is 116. So there's a huge economic gap despite the fact that you have very highly educated. So that's an interesting question as to why, what can we do, what can we do together to make sure our futures look differently? And I think that is exactly what all this, these partnerships are trying to do to change that gap. So You know, when I think about what we do now, I want to leave you with this thought. There's a saying in Hawaii called "Kulia I Ka Nu��u," which means "strive for the summit." So you saw the summit of Mount Fuji, the summit of Haleakalā. You know, it looks beautiful from a distance, but when you get close up, the roads are like this. I mean, you've— and some of you maybe hiked Mount Fuji. Is it easy? No, it's not if you're really gonna hike, not the, not the tourist part. And there's a lot of obstacles in the way. There's twists and turns, and sometimes you can— no entry, I'm sorry, it's blocked. But you know, and sometimes you'll fall over, fall down, but you have to get back up and not give up. And sometimes you need someone else to give you a hand and pull you up. Sometimes you need someone to show you the way to get to that summit. I just thought about that, Atsuko, to get to that summit, right? And not give up. So never quit. Kulia i ka nu'u. Gambate ne. I think it's question time.

That was amazing. And I lost my microphone, so forgive me about that. I have the best seat in the front row. I almost forgot that I had work to do, which is an honor, which is a pleasure. But back again with the microphone. So thank you, Susie, for an exciting and very inspiring and very personal story that you shared. With us, a journey almost. Yes. And I remember yesterday, uh, you mentioned to the group that each and every one of us has a story to tell, but yours was of course extraordinary, one of a kind, and, uh, I'm very sure we're learning how much from it. Two things in particular I'm, I'm pretty sure about at this point. First off, your words of wisdom have already impacted many of us today in a very positive way. So thank you for that. And secondly, I am also very sure that we want to hear more and we want to ask questions and learn from you more in depth and breadth. So without further ado, I'm gonna go around and, uh, I'm sure you have questions. So don't be shy, raise your hand. Okay, we got a lot coming in. Okay, just going to start with you. Yes, Minako-san.

My name is Minako Kato. I am a JWRI alumni from the boot camp 2019 in Nagoya. I am the president of the Japan Indoor Air Quality Association. Our association is one of a few organizations in Japan that determine indoor air quality, which is very important right now in post-COVID. Thank you very much for your great speech. I learned a lot. My question is this: what is one important thing to do when you try to collaborate or get partners?

Thank you so much, and congratulations, and thank you for the important work you are doing, and thank you for that question. And you know much about collaboration. For me, it is looking for opportunities, sharing with people, meeting new people. And I think sort of like what I said yesterday is actually being willing to talk to people you don't know. Because what do we do when we first go into a space? Oh, Atsuko, I know Atsuko, I'm gonna talk to Atsuko. And I don't, you know, we see, and I love it, of course, we get to see Nancy, Louise, like, oh, hi. But There's so many people, it's so easy for us because I think the more that we can network and collaborate, met some new friends today to collaborate, I think that's where it starts. But it is almost a willingness to do that. And doesn't mean that it's not hard for some of us. I think for some of us naturally can be introverts and shy, but once you open that door, it's exciting, it's full of opportunities. And sometimes you need the help of friends to do that. So I do try to take advantage of opportunities, and I'm trying to think about who I can collaborate. And I ask advice from friends, you know, and, you know, the First Lady has been great. Like, have you thought about doing X, Y, and Z, getting advice from other people as well? Thank you for that question, and congratulations again.

Other questions? In the audience. Okay, let me go to you.

Hello, my name is Hitomi. I'm originally from Japan, but I live on the island now, beautiful Oahu.

Thank you very much for the story, Susie.

My question is, it struck me that you said the only woman in the room, and we all experienced that.

What struck me was you said for 34 years.

Is this still the case? And if that's the case, what more can we do to change that?

And each of us, what kind of mindset should we have?

Thank you.

Thank you for that question, and thank you for what you do. I'm glad that you made Hawaii your home now. You know, I— what I did notice when I was leaving Indo-Pacific Command The senior-level leaders were always— usually we'd have these briefings, all men. And one day we were standing there, it was myself, it was the senior communications general, another general from Australia, um, we even had an LNO from Japan, which— Tamakoshi, the senior pilot from Japan. I mean, women all on this side. And we didn't notice until we all looked at each other and said We're all women. Where's the camera? You know, we were so excited. But I think there is concern in many, and we're very excited now today in Hawaii. Like I said, 50% of our U.S. congressional delegation are women. Senior infrastructure leaders here in Hawaii, I was just talking to the First Lady about that. You know, we have Ann Tiranishi, American Savings Bank, Hawaiian Electric that powers all electricity for us and our strategic assets like Indo-Pacific Command is, uh, Shelley Kimura. We have Hawaiian Telecom, a gas— the, uh, our power, our gas company. So this is areas that have been traditionally male-dominated, and yet in Hawaii they're all women. And they're not older women like me, they're younger women in their 40s running these companies. And, you know, I think a lot of that has been— before that, Hawaiian Electric Industries was Connie Lau. She was leading, you know, and she, I believe, helped to mentor as well as men mentoring other women and giving them an opportunity. I think that kind of mentorship and sponsorship has to continue if we want to make that change. We see it here in Hawaii, and I hope that we can share how we've been doing it here. And we were having that conversation about what is it about Hawaii that allows that to happen here, the openness to see the common humanity instead of saying, you know, well, we're going to only have a man in there or a woman in there. No, how about this, this human in there who's awesome? So if I look at people in that way, but it's a change of mindset that I think we have to share, that we can share here our, our mana and energy in Hawaii with the rest of the world.

Thank you. Any other questions from the audience? Yes, let's go to you.

Thank you very much for your wonderful and inspirational talk. My name is Yu. I'm from Japan, and I'm the CEO of the company called Anna How. I'm passionate about bringing the more global diversity into Japan's innovation ecosystem. And my question is, from yesterday for the welcoming speech, you repeatedly mentioning about the importance of the storytelling. And actually from your bio, like a general, major general of the US Army, it's more like a powerful leadership using like, you do this, like the strong command or strong order. So storytelling is kind of, for me, is like opposite concept. So I believe that can be also the unique or the strong parts of you having, uh, for, for them, for the U.S., uh, Army to have you as a leader. And that is your uniqueness of a leadership in the so much, uh, male dominant, uh, team. So why you think the storytelling is the key and how you exercise that power of the storytelling in your leadership in the 34 years of your services. I'd like to know that what impacts on the many, the male leading team, how that impacting to communicate or create a more powerful team.

Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing, and congratulations as well in your position as a CEO. That's wonderful. Um, you know, I think leadership and storytelling— I mean, there are preconceived notions on what's good leadership, whether you're in the military, whether you're a CEO, whether you're in East West Center or any kind of industry— that leadership, I think, is powerful when there is a part of the storytelling, because then you understand, you have empathy, compassion. And I don't think that's weakness, I think that's strength. And I think some of the best leaders, even in the military, whether you're a man or a woman, that those best leaders, you know, you might have male attributes. You think of just telling people, but those are probably not the most effective leaders. The most effective leaders are the ones that can inspire, persuade, or, or hear and listen, get the ideas from those who they work for or work for them. I mean, those are the best leaders. That I've worked for, and they were men. Now, you always have those onesies and twosies that decide that maybe if I just tell you, it's gonna happen. But if you have to force someone to give their 100%, you're not gonna get 100%. But if you inspire someone to get 100% from a story, then you're gonna get 110. So it's gonna be, if that's such a thing, on 110. I know people say there's no such thing as 110, but there is. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the question. And if I may add a little bit, can you articulate a little more on the decision-making? So she was touching on the leadership styles, but in terms of decision-making, touching on the military, probably more top-down versus nonprofit, which might be more bottom-up, and the pandemic happening. Has there been any effect, impact on how you make decisions in your style? Does it conflict or does it go together? If you could elaborate a little more on that.

Well, thank you for that. And, you know, I appreciate that on decision-making, leadership, because they're, they're tied together, right? Those decisions that impact people. And it may seem like the military does that, but there actually is called a military decision-making process that includes a collective believe it or not. And it's that process of things like, what are my facts, what are assumptions? But I gain that from the collective, and, um, in its, in its time and place, right? When you have time to do that, what are the possibilities? What are the possible, they say, courses of action? How do I weigh that? By what criteria? Is it feasible? Can I execute it? Do I have the resources? But you don't get that from the leader, you get that from the team. I've brought that at the East-West Center. But, you know, with the breadth of experience that we have at the East-West Center, if you don't use the knowledge of these amazing people and their experiences, you're losing the richness, right? It's like going, um, driving your car on empty. You've got to do it with the full power behind you, and that's the people. And any leader, I think, in any organization, it may seem like Um, it's unique to nonprofit, but I would say that in a hierarchical type institution, they run better. And I think that's the uniqueness of democratic institutions. You know, democracy— like, if you look at— I use the example of Putin, right? He lost like 11 generals in the first month. Well, why? Because it's very hierarchical, right? You don't teach people how to have initiative, how to have good judgment on your own, how do you inspire people to be independent. But instead, instead they have to stand there. That's a very hierarchical— but in democratic institutions like we have in many of our countries where we try to inspire people to think for themselves, that's a very different kind of, of leadership model, which I think any institution, whether you're a military nonprofit or business can gain from.

Thank you. And the reason I'm carrying this gadget with me is because there are people online participating. And while I see a lot of hands already in the crowd, so it might, it might be hard for me to get to the online questions, but we'll get there. So don't hesitate to reach out and ask questions through the Zoom. Please. Okay, all right, back to the audience. How about you, Minai-san?

Thank you very much, it was very inspiring. My name is Minai Suzuki, I'm from Toyota City. And my question is, what are the most important values for woman leader I'm a founding member of the student guild. One of our male staff members shared he feels uncomfortable with a woman-only program. With a woman-only program. So my question is, what are The most important values for women leader. Thank you, Manai. Thank you for your question and for what you're doing. Thank you so much. That's an important question. And I was interested in your comment where they said some people don't— are not interested in women's organizations. And, you know, I really believe it goes back to this education process. That it's not a woman's issue, it's a human issue. That in any— going back to any society, if you want it to function well, I think sharing the story— this is going to be a collective effort, right? I don't think it can be you alone. And that's why I, I'm excited that it's part of our strategy. I'm excited about what you're doing because I think each and every one of us have to do it because people have this preconceived notion of, oh, it's a women's event. Oh, and why? Why is there such a— well, I say, actually, no, it's a human event that is addressing the 50% that often doesn't get looked at. And when you change it, but sometimes coming from women alone, it cannot. That's why I appreciate the men in the audience because it has to be the allies as well. It cannot be alone because it is a human issue. That you— and then they have to see the value, that it's not just the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, right? That you benefit by women thriving, societies benefit by women thriving. Again, if you just look at those that are not, you know, I gotta say that we've got our own, um, you know, one of our research fellows here, she was the former minister of of, of Justice from Afghanistan. She's Dr. Adeli. She's standing right there. I just want to point her out.

On the—

thank you, Dr. Adeli, for being willing to stand. You know, she was extracted out of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and all the way here. So Minister of Justice on women's issues. Now, if you look at the economic gap It's on the bottom right now. She's watching this— everything they've built up implode. Economic instability, all the things that go wrong. Well, what's the one thing that's wrong? Is no education for women, mistreatment for women. I mean, you don't have to be a scientist to figure out that if you don't take care of the health of your entire society that's 50% women, we are all not going to thrive. So convincing people that, you know, even in business they show you that board members, when you've got enough women on boards, those companies do better. The statistics are there, but it's almost like we have to be willing to educate on, on, on that. But in the meantime, you find allies, other guys that will speak up, and, uh, I think that's That's important, but thank you for that question. It's an important question.

Thank you. And if I may add, once again, we did talk about describing yourself in one word. And since you touched on the value, I just wanted to add an extra question about any keywords, any factors that represent you or the values you highly respect. Can you give us some keywords? For us to take away?

You know, I think of honor, integrity in everything that we do, because while there are people out there who are not showing those very important things, that's what we're missing sometimes, is I have integrity, honor, which means I work hard, which means I respect people, which means I am willing to collaborate, and I'm willing to admit when I don't know it. I don't know the answers. That's why I go and collaborate. And, uh, and then I'm willing to give credit where it's due— the people who work hard. And being a leader, because many of you are, is that, you know, we lift up the people who work for us, and that's honorable. That's having integrity. And those are— I know those are two words, but thank you.

Integrity and honor.

Okay.

All right. I just realized there's been a lot of questions from the online, uh, participants, so let me read, uh, we'll get started reading. So from one of them, I was encouraged by your speech. Thank you. As you know, in Japan, the very concept of women's rights and gender equality has been met with backlash from some male chauvinists. Female leaders who support women in Japan are being harassed by some of them. And I run an NPO that supports single-parent families. I have also been slandered by some male chauvinists. So there is a saying in Japan, that a nail that stands will be hammered down. So maybe a tall poppy syndrome. Have you ever suffered from gossip or slander from others? How should we respond when we face unjustified accusations?

Thank you for that, and thank you for sharing what's happening in your world. And, you know, I have encountered, especially early on when women were just breaking through in certain areas. But it goes back to not listening to those voices, but not being deterred because it's from the action by doing examples and allies. I remember there was someone who would always say these things to me, but when, you know, they see me with certain people who are our allies, Like, oh, you know him? Like a senior leader who is a spokesperson. And I've got to say, I had an event planned on women's issues, but the minute I brought my boss, like Admiral Davidson, to come and speak at this women's event, oh, now they all wanted to come. I mean, that was a big difference. What do you mean, the Indo-PACOM commander's going to talk about women, peace, and security? Yes. Or Admiral Harris, you know, the first Japanese American commander of the most consequential command. If he's up there saying, I want us to focus on women, peace, and security, then all of a sudden everybody's interested. But that's almost sometimes what we have to do is find those people who will be willing to stand up, who are in positions of power, that will lift others up. And I think, and then we also have to encourage people that we're not in a scarcity mindset. There's plenty for everyone. Because sometimes in certain countries, right, you're hearing this backlash. Well, women's rights taking away jobs from men. Well, no, there's plenty of jobs. There's a lot of opportunity. That's scarcity mindset instead of abundance mindset. There's enough. In fact, it will make you better. It's not a threat, because that's often what it is, right? Why would you silence women in Afghanistan? Because it's a threat. It's a threat to my existence. It's a threat to my way of life. But actually, no, you'd actually have great food, beautiful things, actually, if you included women in Afghanistan, right? Things could be wonderful. You could have parties and people would enjoy themselves. Why wouldn't you want that? You know, it's just this, this mindset that has to change. But I think it takes all of us.

Thank you. And once again, if I may add, I'm a firm believer that failure is good. I teach a class on failure is good. But in terms of the context, a Japanese cultural context, we are told to embrace failure, but we're having a hard time. But embracing failure is one of the main characteristics of a great leader. So we were hoping that if you could share some of your setbacks, something very serious to something very funny, so that we all can feel that failure can be good, and that's part of being a great leader.

Yeah, I think, you know, failure— I had a boss in that first job in Germany, and his first comment to me was, if you don't fail, that means you've done absolutely nothing here. I was just a lieutenant. Because you're too afraid to try, so you have to allow yourself to fail. And I thought, wow, here's this colonel— I'm just a lieutenant— telling me I can fail.

But that didn't—

I knew that wasn't a license to just mess up, but it was almost permission to try, and if you fail, it's okay. Um, and sometimes I'm so excited. So I'll say more recent, you know, I took over here at East West Center for strategy since 2005. I just so excited, we're gonna get going, and then you're pushing, pushing, pushing, coming out of COVID realizing and hearing the voices of your team who are working so hard And, um, don't worry, I'm not using this platform just to talk to my staff, but I know I'm working so— working. And then you realize you've got to listen to those voices, because if I would have continued on that path to just stop and let's focus on, on how do we transition and listening to those voices for me. But, you know, I'm in a position now, in this position where I'm controlling that, right? But when you're not when you're young, you know, you're younger and you're trying. Oftentimes I found— I remember when I was in Germany, I had an older— they would put lieutenants with these older sergeants, and he was older. And I guess I relied on him so much that, you know, you're going to take care of it. I'm just leading, and you're going to take care of it all. Well, he— passed out on this major exercise in Germany across a 40-kilometer front that I was responsible for. And it was, it was not good. And I thought, oh no, I, I don't know what I'm doing. And, um, you know, instead of the moment of panic, I instead, I, I figured out that I had to go find help and that's how I got out of it. But it was almost a moment of catastrophe. And luckily, um, I was able to get help from other people. But I think it always comes back to that, listening to people, be willing to ask people for help in these moments of professional crisis.

Thank you for sharing your story. I thought I saw a hand up from this side. Yes.

Thank you so much for your inspirational speech.

Yeah, I'm Yuka and JWL fellow in Boston last year.

Yeah, it's the first time to visit Hawaii and it's a very special experience. And my issue is to the right for breastfeeding in public and child rearing in the workplace. And my question is, Sometimes women's reader got jealous, jealous feeling by some women or men, and how to get over or how to avoid this feeling and action.

Thank you, and congratulations to you as well. And yeah, those things that are natural for women in society and what is allowed are all different based on social norms of each community. And I think it does take courage. That's another word. I think it's courageous. Even your question is courageous. Some people don't even want to talk about that question, and yet you're willing to bring it up. But I think it takes that kind of courage to address these issues. That it's to take care of children, it's to feed children. That you shouldn't have to be, you know, go to the bathroom and sit in the bathroom, uh, you know. And I, I've seen that so many times. I even saw it, you know, at Indo-Pacific Command, where it's military. And what they did was create a room with a refrigerator so moms could put their— and these are soldiers, sailors, airmen, you know. So, but it was, you know, folks willing to speak up. So I actually Young women would come to me, we don't have anywhere in the bathroom, you know, can we have this place? But it's having that courageous conversation that I think we need to. So thank you for bringing that up. And I think legislation, right, we have a lot of amazing people and, you know, our former Congresswoman Hanabusa, when we talk about legislation. So here's another Asian American woman in Hawaii. So going back to, you know, Hawaii leaders who, kind of broke a lot of ground for us. And, uh, but it's the legislation, the support, you know, not just us talking about it. We— it has to turn into action, I think, to support women to be able to do that.

Thank you. Allow me to go back to the online participants. Um, we have one from Noriko-san. My name is Noriko. I run an organization called Do It, which works to advance equity and learning in primary and secondary education in Japan. Her question is, what kind of impact do you hope this summit will have on Hawaii overall, as well as the East-West Center?

Well, thank you. Thank you for your role in education and dialing in online here with us. I, I think this summit, you know, sometimes you need, you need that catalyst, you need that jolt to get us back, especially coming out of COVID We're out of COVID people can get complacent, but yet there's so many issues going on. And it's that courageous, again, event like this that's willing to address the issue that no one wants to talk about. And if we don't, we're going to continue to go down paths that we don't want to statistics that we don't want to see, and, and not raise the voices of activities that you're doing with young children, the activities that all of you in this room are doing. And if we don't leverage this summit to network, to build the next steps, to continue the momentum, I think this summit is needed because we stand on a summit, right? We look around You can see all around when you're on a summit, and we can see by meeting, we can see by understanding, we can see by having those conversations.

Thank you. Any others in the room? This is your chance. All right.

Thank you for your speech. So my name is Kyoko Nagata. I am founder of NPO Tivra and JWLI fellow autumn. I support men but also women. So I have a question. So I think it's important to have leadership, not only leader, but also— oh, but also Everyone, so what I want to ask you, what is the most important things to get the leadership to individual person to transforming crisis into opportunity?

Well, thank you. Congratulations also, and thank you for what you do. So if I understand your question correctly, is how do you get more people to have leadership opportunities? Yes, yes. I think it's leaders developing leaders that develop leaders. But that means that you have to release control, right? You have to give people opportunities to lead. And you have to, as leaders, because many of you are in your organizations, sometimes we can tend to not want to give it to someone else because we— only I know the right way, right? So I don't want to give people opportunities. Well, if you want it done right, then you just do it yourself, right? That's not going to help develop other leaders. Giving someone a chance— well, she's not ready, you know, she's not ready, I don't think— you know, that kind of, of, I think, perspective is not helpful. I think what's helpful is when we say, I'm willing to take a chance on you, why don't you try, and it's okay, you can, I'll help you. I think we have to all give people, young people chances, the next generation chances to try.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Megumi. I'm also one of the 37 fellows from Japan. My organization is working for gender equality and women's empowerment in rural Japan. And the, yes, my question is, could you give us any example or action to deal with gender norm? Because women are actually taking care of a lot of caregiving and also housework. And my organization, for example, provide programs for women for leadership or empowerment programs, but then it's very difficult because Oh, I have to take care of the children. So we provide full caregiving, but then we feel that sometimes it's not really changing the gender norms. It's providing opportunity. But so could you give us actual example if you have any done as a president of East-West Center or any of your entire career?

Thank you. Again, congratulations and thanks for what you do. Very important work. On gender. Um, you know, my husband, he's great because we actually met— we are dual military, and he's very, very supportive. We have two children. I didn't mention that. And many of my colleagues that I've worked with that attain the general and flag officer, I'm amazed that all the four-star generals and admirals that were in the press recently, those are your American They all have children. That would never be seen before. You look at even Senator Duckworth, 2 children, now breastfeeding. Speaking of breastfeeding, being allowed, Congress changed it. You can have a baby if you're breastfeeding a congressional or a senator in our US Congress. That's groundbreaking. But we have a lot of press around it. What made me think Besides having a supportive spouse, but how do you change a cultural mindset of, of men who may, may want to help? So my husband last night, we were at Halekulani and he said, oh, there's the men's, the diaper changing table in the men's room at Halekulani. And I said, oh, that's awesome. He goes, yeah, whenever I see guys in there, I congratulate them. I tell them, hey, good job, Dad, you're changing the diapers. But it's those simple things that message to men, like, you have a responsibility. This is your family. But it's almost starting with the next generation. So I remember in the press where that was one legislator or man, young man, he took the paternity leave, made, made even our press, right? A Japan legislator, he took paternity leave and people are like, What? But that's becoming more of the norm, that you are a father, you're part of the family, you should be helping. And, um, and then having the systems in place for childcare, you know, in a job like the military where they start at 5:30 in the morning, having the— so my, even my father-in-law, my niece, it's the Air Force, she had a baby. My father-in-law's, you know, he 89 when he passed, God rest his soul. I'm just telling this story, Pop Pop. But he, he's from a generation where he said, like, who's gonna take care of the baby? How can she be in the Air Force and take care of the baby? I said, they have child care from 6 in the morning to 6, and they're excellent child care. But you've got to have the infrastructure in place to help, to enable, to have excellence if you want the best of, of society, you've got to put those things in place. And dads being able to help with child care as well as elder care, which, which is another issue. And I think media plays a big role. So when the media spotlighted this gentleman, I mean, I remember it, it went all over the world. I think we could do more in that space by highlighting these individuals who make change. And, you know, and I think about when, you know, Prime Minister Abe talked about Womenomics, and he talked about one of my counterparts, which is, uh, first female admiral in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. And she— he mentioned her in a speech. She told me, oh, you know, the Prime Minister mentioned me in a speech. I said, that's great, but because she's the one and the first. But it's like the media has to spotlight these changes to kind of help enable change, I think. But thank you.

We have a lot of hands in the room and questions from the audience, but for the interest of time, you know what, time flies when we're having fun. We're enjoying it, and that's why time flew. But our final inquiry, if we may, that is to finish strong with a call to action. What could we do to help you, Suzy? Or can you conclude this session with a few words?

Well, thank you. Thank you again, everyone, for being here at this summit that will launch continuing conversations coming out of COVID to really make change. It's very exciting to have all of you here. Men and women, and those of you in virtual space from around the world, a collection of humans, people with experiences and compassion and care about our societies. And if we really care, then we would ensure that everyone is participating in the society. You know, I think about when I tell— we like to play charades sometimes at home, and if you played charades and I said, Okay, this side of the room is going to go against this side, but this side you can only use half, and you can use this half, but that half has to stay silent. Now this side, all of you can answer the question. Now how effective is that? And yet that's what we do sometimes. But you are the voices to make that change, all of us, men and women, young and old. From Japan to Hawaii to Singapore to China to wherever you are, it's us. It's in this room. You care enough, that's why you're here. So thank you. I know that you'll make a lot of friends in this space, and if you walk out of here, I, I encourage you to introduce to yourself to someone you don't know and make a new friend, a new ally, and a partner, because I know I already have. It's all of you in this room and all of you online. Mahalo nui loa and take care. Ganbatene.

Thank you very much, Susie, once again. I guess it is up to us now, each and every one of us, to take action. So action triumphs everything. Let's do it. All right. So Maybe another round of applause for all of us joining, including in person and online.

Thank you all for joining.

Um, thank you, President Suzy. I'm gonna go off the script a little bit because I wanted to tell you that this summit actually has been proposed originally in 2019, which is 4 years ago. And I was sitting over there listening to Susie. I can't believe that it's actually happening after 4 years. This summit has been in the making for 4 years, and it feels so right to be here in Hawaii, and it feels so right to be here at the East-West Center. And thank you so much for being here. You could be somewhere else, but you chose to be here with us today. This is incredible. Um, so I want to break out for a 15-minute break, um, and please enjoy yourself with the complimentary water and tea from Ito Inn, and we'll be back in 15 minutes. All right, welcome back, and are we ready for the global panel? Yes. All right, today we're joined by 5 amazing women leaders from 4 regions: Hawaii, the continental U.S., Japan, and Singapore. First, Cathy Betts. She's Director of the Hawaii Department of Human Services and has served in this role throughout the pandemic. Prior to that, she led Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women for 6 years, overseeing several policy successes. Next, our moderator today, Anissa Camaroli Costa. Anissa is their philanthropic executive and is Rivian Automotive's first-ever Chief Sustainability Officer. Most recently, Anissa held the same title at Tiffany Co. Under her leadership, the company constantly earned top sustainability ratings. Next, Megumi Ishimoto. Megumi is a GWLI alumni. She's representing the 37 women and is co-founder of Women's Eyes, a nonprofit for women survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Megumi most recently published a highly cited research paper titled Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID on Children in Single Mother Households. Next, Patricia Mathias from Singapore. She's the head of the gender platform at AVPN, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network. With support from the Gates Foundation, she launched the Asia Gender Network, a network of philanthropic women for women and girls in the region. Last but not least, Rose Lee. Rose is the head of philanthropy at the Equity Fund. A global organization committed to funding feminist futures. Formerly, she was the Vice President of Strategy and Programs at the Miss Foundation for Women. In the next 90 minutes, you'll hear from these women leaders on today's theme, crisis that were turned into opportunity by women leaders. And also, you have a chance to ask questions by lining up behind one of the two microphones. One is over there. One is over here. And for those online, please submit your questions through the Q&A feature on Zoom. We'll try to get through as many questions as possible, alternating between in-person and online. Now, please welcome JWI Hawaii Summit's global panel.

Thank you, Kozu.

Atsuko Fish, the founder of JWLI, first established the summit's theme, Transforming Crisis into Opportunity, in 2021 when COVID was the main crisis facing the global community. So you fast forward to today in March 2023, and we have multiple crises in front of us as a global society. They range, of course, from Russia's invasion into Ukraine, to natural disasters, climate change, racial inequality, uncertainty, and of course, gender-based poverty. I'm so pleased to be able to moderate this panel here today, which is going to explore how these women leaders have transformed crisis into opportunity. Our aim with our time today, and we spent a lot of time speaking about this, is to exchange ideas, to find common issue areas, to strategize solutions, and of course, to strengthen connections for collaboration. As we prepared for today's conversation, each of us spoke about how we would hope to empower and to urge other women leaders around the world to continue to make a difference and to build a global network for larger impact, which we're already doing again in the room today. So without further ado, I'm thrilled to be joined on stage by these inspiring global women leaders. Who've come together to share their experiences. We're going to do some brief self-introductions to augment what Kozo already spoke through. Why don't we start with Megumi, who is a pillar of Tohoku, Japan, which has experienced multiple natural disasters, I would say, including the earthquakes in 2011, as well as the tsunami, of course. But you're one of the most respected voices in the region, and we'd love to hear a little bit from you in your own words about your journey and yourself and your work.

Thank you for your introduction. My name is Megumi Ishimoto. I am co-founder and executive director of Women's Eye. Women's Eye is working in rural area focusing on women's empowerment and gender equality. I co-founded this organization 12 years ago right after the, the triple disaster. So the biggest earthquake ever in Japan, and tsunami, and Fukushima incident. So back then, uh, 3 months after, I was in evacuation centers, and there was no partitions for women to have the privacy, and there was no, um, consideration of women's products such as underwear and the feminine hygiene. And so in addition to this, there was no representative of women in the community centers or in evacuation centers. So that means there is no woman on the seat in the decision-making places. So what we did is in early stage we provided the support, but then later on we switched to working on the community building where the women will be included. And so last 12 years we've been focusing on this, and recently, um, we are also, uh, not just working in a grassroots level, but we want to, um, include this opportunity and the experience to the higher, uh, positions as well, so that We've been providing information or attending in W20, or this year I'm attending in W7, so that not just policy advocacy, but just, how do you say, just connect our experience working in grassroots or everyday life to the policy advocacy, because we know that Just working in a grassroots level cannot really change much. I mean, of course we do try our best to empower women, but we really need to change that from the top, that we need to really, really, really let the leaders, global leaders know how they can change so that we can work together. Am I okay? This is my introduction.

Yes. That's fantastic. This is like, this is a great, great start and introduction. Thank you, Megumi. So Pat, thank you for traveling all the way from Singapore to join this global panel. You are a mobilizer. You're a connector of people, resources, ideas, and you have built this amazing network of women philanthropists in Asia, perhaps the first of its kind, I believe. For women and for girls' empowerment. Can you talk to us about your journey?

Well, thank you for having me here. Well, you've heard my bio. So to introduce myself, let me take you through my journey. So I grew up in a small town in India, but in a family with big heart. I think my parents were very progressive, because I remember when I was 16, I was selected to be an exchange pro— a youth exchange student in the United States. And you must remember, this is before there was WhatsApp and video calls and email and things like that. And nobody in my town had ever been on an exchange program like this. In fact, very few had even been on a plane. And so all the neighbors came rushing into my parents' home and said, you must be insane. How can you send a daughter, a teenage daughter, all the way off to America to live with families you've never met. And I remember my parents being very calm and saying, we trust in the values that we have brought her up with, and it is now time for her to find her wings and fly. And the only reason I share this story is that these are the values that have defined my journey. The value of adventure, of wanting to meet people of different cultures, The values of empathy, of understanding, of justice, of equality, the spirit of believing that however far you might go, there are good people in the world, and people fundamentally are the same. And so through all of these values have defined my work at Procter Gamble. I worked there for 20 years, where I honed a lot of my professional skills, my leadership abilities, working with people all across Asia. And after working there for 20 years, I decided to move and join the social sector. I currently work for AVPN, which is a network of funders, funders like foundations, funders like impact investors, funders like corporates who are coming together to mobilize their capital for social impact. I lead the gender program at AVPN, where we're really committed to improve gender equality and to try and close that gender gap within our lifetime. 136 years, as you mentioned, Susie, is too long. We have to find a way to close that earlier. And through that, I met very inspirational Asuko Fish, who then has brought me to Hawaii, and my journey has now brought me onto this panel, and I'm extremely grateful to be here.

Thank you, Pat. I love hearing about the values that sort of have guided your journey and how that sort of as the core. Roz, continuing on that theme, right, in terms of what guided Pat's journey, would love to hear about why you do what you do. You have been a fighter for justice, for racial, gender, economic, LGBTQ rights. I mean, I could go on. And you've been doing this, like Pat, through philanthropy. So if you could talk us through your journey and why you do what you do, that would be fantastic.

Sure. Thank you. And greetings, everyone in the room and joining us online. It is my honor. To be here talking to you today. And looking around the room and imagining the online audience, I'll start by saying that I probably look different than most of the people in the room and online. And it's— the main reason is because I have the longest hair of everyone here. But there are many commonalities that we have, and particularly as leaders looking for equity and equality and justice for all genders. And so I'll just, I'll tell you just a little bit of my story. So I've been a social justice activist since I was 17 years old. I grew up in a house with parents who believed in justice and freedom for all, and I took that forward. They were parents who were teenagers when I was born as their first child. And so they had a journey to go on to be able to achieve their dreams. They raised me to become a very proud Black lesbian feminist, and therefore I am also my ancestors' wildest dreams. At least I hope that is true. No, it's true. It's true. I have a wonderful and supportive family. And so my roots come from community organizing, and that led me to social justice philanthropy. And the short story I will say about that is it was my desire in the field of philanthropy to help bring access to philanthropic resources to those who had the least access to resources, and they are often the people who are affected by the problems and at the same time have the solutions. That's my very brief introduction. I'm sure in conversations you'll hear a little bit more, but like Pat, I'm driven by the values and the lived experience, and it connects me to all of you because what is possible for me is tied to every human being in the world, whether I know them personally or not.

Thank you, Roz. And we're definitely going to be drawing out more of those stories. So Kathy, rounding out our amazing global panel, you are a champion for women and families, some of which are at times in sort of their most desperate time of need. Can you talk about some of your journey? And how you've helped these women and families.

Sure, thank you for that question, and aloha everybody. Thank you for being here today. I'm really grateful to be a part of this conversation. I don't usually get out of my office very often, so I'm surrounded by people now, and it feels much better than being in a state office by myself downtown. Like many of you that I've met today, I'm a proud daughter of an immigrant mom. My mom immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1959. Raised us all with a real sense of justice, integrity, kindness, and that those are the values that I try to carry forward in the work that I do. I started my professional career working with teen sex assault victims. I worked for a local nonprofit here in Hawaii, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, where we worked with teens ranging from 14 to 18 to teach them about healthy relationships, identify misuse of power and control, and really to just instill in them their own agency. But when I did start getting disclosures from teen victims, I realized that systematically we re-victimize survivors very often through the state structures that we have put in place. And so I wanted to change that. So I went to law school here on this beautiful campus across the street, Richardson Law School. And then during law school, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Patsy Mink Fellow. I worked in the Washington, D.C., office of the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, and I worked on bills for reparations and citizenship for World War II Filipino veterans. My grandfather was one of them, so it was an issue that was near and dear to my heart. After law school, I went into family law, so I litigated child abuse and neglect cases, restraining orders, custody, divorce, uncontested, contested divorce. And then again, I saw gaps in the system systematically created that denied people their true agency and autonomy over their life's decisions. And so I continued on. In 2012, I was appointed to lead the State Commission on the Status of Women, where I worked as a coalition builder and an advocate working on progressive legislative policy for women and girls, including revising our equal pay statute that had that laid dormant in the books for a long time and had never been challenged, increasing protections for breastfeeding women in the workplace. We finally passed after 16 years. And I look at Colleen Hanabusa in this field today. She was one of the trailblazers that started working on this bill called Compassionate Care, which would mandate that emergency rooms provide emergency contraceptive to rape victims that presented in the ER. 16 years, long, long years. So it really came full circle. I started at SATC when I was in my early 20s, and then I rounded out and was able to pass that successful legislation through the Hawaii State Legislature as a young mom. And, and there at the commission, I really became passionate about economic justice for families. And I realized that when you uplift women, you not just uplift their families, you uplift communities. And so after I left the commission, I became the deputy director at the Department of Human Services. And just to give a little snapshot of what the department oversees, we oversee food stamps, temporary assistance for needy families, child welfare services, adult protective, public housing authority, Office of Youth Services, youth correctional facilities, homeless programs. So it's a, it's a very big portfolio. I started as a deputy in 2017 when I had 2 preschoolers and became director about 3 months into the pandemic. So you can guess what crisis I'll be talking about, trying to homeschool a kindergartner and a second grader while leading a $4 billion and 2,000-employee department through a global pandemic. And that, that kind of rounds out my journey and my story. So thank you.

Thank you, Kathy.

Well, well, this is just whetting everyone's appetite because we have to draw out all these inspirational stories and more. Megumi, though, let's start with you because you touched on the number of crises that have been faced alone in the Tohoku region. And we know that crises, as we've already heard, are not just moments of catastrophe, but they're moments for opportunity. But they also often really expose much more so the deep inequalities that we face in society and much more so, of course, for women and for girls who bear the brunt of, of a lot of this. I'm hoping you can talk to us through one example and tell us how you turned a crisis into opportunity.

Okay.

Thank you, Anita. Kathy, I really agree with you that it's really connected to what we did during COVID-19. Our organization is working in the grassroots so that we basically provide face-to-face programs. So that when COVID-19 happened, all our programs had to stop. It didn't— you will remember that you were not being able to meet people. I mean, it was difficult. You couldn't come together like this. And so what we did was we remembered what we couldn't do 12 years ago. I mean, at the time of the disaster, in a triple disaster. And since then, for example, we provided like a program for more than 10,000 women. But then back then, we just didn't have the capacity to record the data and voices so that we can use it as a policy advocacy or just to change the measures. So this time what we did was, like Cathy, there was so many single mothers who were very difficult to keep their jobs because of— because schools closure and there is no childcare. So that's— we started research program. And we couldn't do that by ourselves, so that we did together with researchers and policy advocacy experts and single mother support organization for about 3 years. We did 15 researches and we collected more than 5,000 single mothers' voices. And we use the data and voices to policy advocacy And we— I think that was first ever really for us to really win the result that led to the single mother's allowance by the government. And still that is the data and the voices are changing the system.

That's great. I mean, the importance of bringing that data right to inform the decisions is really important. So, Cathy, continuing On that note, right, you specialize in serving women and families in crisis, right? Whether it's poverty, domestic violence. But we also know, as Magumi just spoke to, that women need to be represented in the decision-making, right, during these times of crisis. Can you talk us through, for example, the pandemic, how you made sure to represent and to lift women's voices out in these conversations?

Sure, thank you. It's, it's interesting to reflect on 3 years of fight or flight and then come out with some, you know, life lessons. But one of the things that I realized early on was, you know, as I mentioned, I was home with 2 young children. We had to shift to telework overnight. I was the director at the time, and I needed to figure out how we could uplift half of our families that were dependent on our benefits, on our safety net services from a virtual perspective. Luckily, I work with a lot of really amazing women and male leaders. But what we did was we— I think as a lot of moms, and I'm sure there's moms here in the room today, you don't wait around for other people to make decisions because you have limited time. So we just shifted our government system overnight. For anybody in the room that has worked in government before, our systems are often antiquated. I have typewriters and various different old tools in my, in my office that we are still reliant on. And so to modernize and innovate overnight took, you know, people that are creative thinkers. What we did do, we dealt with an exponential rise of applications for SNAP, which is our food stamp program, formerly known as food stamps. And if you think about Hawai'i's demographics, we have the highest number of multigenerational households in the nation, highest cost of living. We had the highest rate of unemployment insurance claimants in the nation because of the job loss. Tourism was gone. We were really suffering, and we needed to ensure that we could innovate and look at ways to turn this crisis into something else. And one of the things that we did was creating more policies that are family-friendly for, especially for female workers and people that are caregivers. We inherited an old patriarchal system of government functions and government work. And we cannot go back to that old way of doing things. So I embrace flexible work policies. And telework for whatever need. We had a lot of caregivers. I was one of them. I was taking care of, you know, 2 young children while running the department. My dad had a heart attack during the pandemic at my house, so I had caretaking responsibilities for him too. But what I think sometimes happens in, especially in government work, if you're not in the office, people are going to make the decisions for you. So you have to ensure that you lead with integrity and kindness, but also by example, that I'm going to be the decision maker. Decisions are not going to get made without me because you trust my judgment, you trust my leadership. And so that's something that I think that we all had to navigate during the pandemic is we're all working in different places. We can do digital work and still get the work done. That's something that government hasn't embraced in the past. It's more of a, if your butt is not in the seat, at 7:45, I think you're out on sick leave or vacation leave, right? Versus the rest of us, we were working, you know, 80 hours a week to make sure that benefits could get to people. I also think that moving forward, we can innovate our workplaces. So how do we create more flexible work policies for caregivers and working families? That's something that needs to be uplifted if we want to bring younger people into state government, which a lot of people don't want to go into state government because it's not necessarily lucrative, attractive, we have to retain these flexible work policies. And we also have to give women, younger women, opportunities to go up the ladder. And part of that is mentorship and providing a lot of the workplace policies that private sector do that government historically has not.

That's incredibly helpful. And I think, you know, it's interesting if I can add, it's really important that we continue to maintain and innovate and that we attract grid talent into government because at the end of the day, no crisis is going to be solved by any one sector alone. And so I love the fact that you were able to model that agility and change and innovation within a sector that traditionally sort of hasn't had that. Um, Magumi, you obviously, as we all know from your question earlier, are a JWLI alumni. You've participated in the program in 2014, I believe, right? And Atsuko Fish and JWLI believe that collective voice and action really accelerate social change for larger impact. But at the same time, we were talking earlier about how traditionally in Japan, cross-sector collaboration isn't necessarily the norm and it's less common than here in the US. So how did you build and nurture the cross-sector collaboration that you and your organization have been a part of?

Yes, and actually after the, the national single parent research we did during the COVID-19 for 3 years, we leverage that experience to the local area that where we work. In a rural area, of course, you cannot just say, oh, we have this data and voices to the government. The government, rural government people would say, oh, this, you know, women's organization is coming to say something Like, what they're going to say? Like, we already know that there are a lot of problems, which one? Is then, are they going to get really mad? Or like, so usually they are quite scared to, you know, what they are going to, I mean, what we are going to tell them. So it's really, really need to build a trust relationship. Last 12 years, we've been there. And, you know, when we need to say something, of course we say that. If there is a problem, of course we say that. But other than that, it's— I, I— we believe it's person-to-person relationship, not the NPO versus organization. So we often visit them and we share our, uh, our thoughts and the what we do. So when we One, we wanted to leverage this survey. Note that we didn't do that by ourselves. We asked them to do that together. So that it took like 6 months to build a questionnaire, but still the question, those were not just us, but the government also wanted to know many things so that we built it together. So when we do the research, The government did that for us, and we did the analysis, and then together we create the report so that all together we did it. And they also, they helped us to, to change the measure. I mean, we are in still in the middle of doing that, but this department helping us to reach to other department and introducing us to the other department so that It's going to be the collective result, we hope, really. So that's currently what we are doing. And that's actually what we— I mean, what I learned from JLLI almost 9 years ago. And still, we are doing. And I really, really, really want to know just not just do it, but make it happen.

Great that you're modeling that in the collaboration. And Pat and Roz, I'm going to pull you in in a second, but Kathy, just to the topic of collaboration, you just spoke through how you had to basically, you know, modernize a whole government system overnight. Could you just touch briefly on how you leverage collaboration between sectors during that time?

Sure, sure. Thank you for that question. I think what really helped poise us for success was our early our early cross-sector collaborations that we had with national think tanks that focus on social justice and human-centered solutions for human service organizations. So organizations like National Governors Association, Aspen Institute, Ascend, they really focus on strengths-based solutions for human services professionals. We're not just providing benefits, we are wanting to end intergenerational poverty. We want to end violence against families. We don't want to inflict more trauma on families. A lot of times when families intersect with various government systems, especially human service organizations, I can attest to that, they are re-victimized, they are re-traumatized, and we can't— we have to stop that. And so one of the things that we did early on pre-pandemic that helped poise us for some success was working on a multigenerational approach to ending intergenerational poverty. And we base that on truly amplifying the social determinants of health and well-being with our families. So looking at maternal and child health, looking at early learning, looking at access to paid family leave, focusing on data and sound policy decisions for families rather than what we think works best for government workers. So focusing on families, that's something that, that helped us really create that lens during the pandemic, where we're gonna focus on families, we're gonna focus on social justice, and we're gonna focus on disrupting some of these systems that haven't worked before. I, I try to think of accessing government systems from a survivor's lens. If you are a single parent, a survivor of domestic violence, 2 kids, and you need to go to 5 different offices to get financial assistance. Childcare subsidies, food assistance, anything else under the sun, how would you even start to navigate that system? So I try to think of it from a survivor's lens and, and figure out how we can not create a one-stop shop, but desilo, desilo the government so that all of our systems work together. Like I mentioned, we have antiquated legacy systems. I mean, it is not a rare thing for me to see a green screen with black, you know, blinking cursor. There are programs that we still have that we're trying to modernize that take 45 minutes to log on to. So part of, I think, creating that social justice-oriented human service organization is really based on not just desiloing our own minds of how things should function, but also rather than having the common retort to any question of something being asked of government, no, we can't do it, is yes, but how can we? And so how do we work with our community partners to really look at solutions that, that benefit us all? So that's something that, that really helped us during the pandemic.

I love that. Yes, how can we? And stepping into the shoes of those that we serve. And I think that's something that we all, I think it's fair to say in this room, try to do. That's powerful. So, Pat, we've been hearing from Cathy and Megumi about collaborations in the nonprofit and the government sector. Can you talk to us about philanthropy and how you've leveraged collaborations?

That's—

philanthropy is known for collaborating amongst itself, but also in other sectors as well.

Sure. The COVID crisis touched all of us, and the philanthropic sector was not excluded. And sometime early in 2020, some of our members, AVPN members, philanthropic foundations actually approached AVPN and said, we can see that there is a crisis, we want to help with COVID relief, but we're stuck. There are lockdowns, there are travel restrictions. How do we go and meet organizations to provide this relief? And from that crisis of lockdowns and travel restrictions came an opportunity, and the opportunity was what we call philanthropic pooled funds. And so what AVPN decided, because we have networks across Asia, we have connections with organizations all across Asia, we decided to take the funders together and say, how can we maybe pool the funds together and then start dispersing it to organizations, small organizations that we know on the ground that are doing exceptional work? And so the first philanthropic full fund was launched in 9 months. In 2020. It was a million-dollar pooled fund, and we called for applications, and it was incredible. I mean, we were supporting organizations that were taking boats and going to remote islands in Indonesia to make sure that vaccines reached people that otherwise couldn't be reached, going to remote hill tribes in Thailand. And from there, we kind of sat back and said, hey, this is a great opportunity. Since then, we've had many more pooled funds. Over the last 2 years through COVID, I think we've dispersed about $8 million to about 40 organizations, and this is unrestricted funding to help the organization scale. And we've just launched actually the 8th pooled fund, and this I'm really excited to say is a pooled fund to support the economic empowerment of women in Asia. Women were the first to drop in a crisis. They're also the slowest to come back up. And so this pooled fund is now our largest. It's a $25 million pooled fund over 5 years, and we've just called for applications, and Japan is included. So I will use this platform to make a shout out. Please do send in your applications because there are so many worthy organizations in this room and online, and please avail of the pooled funds.

So you went from the first pooled fund being $1 million to $25 million in 2 years. Let me ask a follow-up question to that. Did you see the number of philanthropic organizations increase in terms of coming to the table to collaborate?

Absolutely, absolutely. We started with one member suggesting it, and there were 3 that joined the pooled fund, if I recall. We've just launched the women's economic, and there's the Gates Foundation, there's Stargate Foundation, there's the Chanel Foundation, and there are 5 members from the Asia Gender Network that have contributed to that. So it's incredible. Members from Myanmar, members from You know, Malaysia, Philippines, they've, they've all come together to support women in Asia, and that's really powerful. And that's like really now such a strong opportunity that came from crisis.

Fantastic. So, Roz, talk to us about your work. You have been supporting movements and ecosystems, trying to also ensure that there are diverse constituencies that are a part of the conversation, have a seat at the table. Are at the beneficiary end of the positive impact. Can you talk to us about that?

Sure.

In preparing for the panel, I wrote notes as most people do, and just thinking about how could I best contribute to the conversation today. I'm going to step away from my notes a little bit. My definition of feminism, and I've said I identify as a feminist, feminist is to— is giving yourself permission to do things differently. That's, that's my entire definition of it, um, and it manifests itself in different ways. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna do— what I'll say is I'm going to respond to some of the things that I've already heard, and one of them was from Susie, my new friend, um, about scarcity and abundance. And I would underscore, there is enough Right? There is enough. Right? There is, there is enough for everyone, and it's just a matter of how it gets distributed. And that's also true for philanthropy. And when we think of philanthropy, Pat and I both work in what I would say is organized philanthropy. We work for foundations or institutions who distribute resources out to organizations and leaders in the field. but philanthropy is a community practice, right? Every community, regardless of how many financial resources it has, engages in giving, engages in taking care of community. And when you think about it in that kind of framework, then we look at our— we look at what we have in a very different way. And that's why it's not just a buzzword. To say that there's an abundance because we know what our communities have and what our communities have always had to be able to provide. The other thing I'll say is there has to be in life, in whatever you do, the balance of purpose and joy. So as we move toward trying to do well for everyone, to take care of everyone to lead with our values to make sure that people have access to what they need. They have access to justice. They have access to move freely about, and they have access to provide for their family and for future generations. That has to happen from a place of intention, and it has to happen from a place of imagining what is different. You have to live, you have to be able to live that difference. And that's something we just came together for the first time, the group of us on this stage. We had a little Zoom time, some of us had a little Zoom time, and then we had lunch together. And we're already bound, we're already bound to a commitment to each other. We even have a WhatsApp group that we're going to come up with a really cool name for, um, because WhatsApp group is not a real name. But the bottom line is we're able to be— we know that we're going to be in relationship to each other because that's how we're thinking even of our relationship with each other, from a place of abundance, a place of leadership. And that when women leaders come together, then we make even more of a difference. And then the last thing I'll say generally about philanthropy is it is really important who sits around those tables. If it is the same people, then they do not always bring the same stories and the same narratives. They're not always paying attention to everyone. They're just paying attention to what they know. So voices like Pat and myself are important in philanthropy, not just because of the perspective perspective that we bring, but because of the humility that we bring to the work, that we are never in those rooms on our own. We are bringing a lot of people with us. I had the honor of being invited by the JWLI team to be a part of this summit as someone who is not an alumni, who, who's not from Japan, who's not from Hawaii, but I'm a part of women's leadership. I am a part of movements for gender change and gender equality and fairness and equity. And so therefore, I have to be connected. We have to be connected to each other. And there have to be things that we all can hang our hat on. So that was not my notes. Just saying. But it was the thing to tell you.

Well, let's keep going on the no notes. I'm going to change things up a little bit, so roll with me. I do want to say, and this is incredibly important, I think that Atsuko and JWLI and the team have done such a great job with this, to your point, Roz, in terms of there's consultation, right? There's consulting with different groups, but co-creating, having local communities, having organizations that you're trying to work with, right, not just for, at the table to co-create is so critical and so important. But I want to get both Pat and Raz's take, but also Magumi and Cathy's take on philanthropy and how it balances immediate versus long-term responses, right? Would love to get your take from a philanthropic perspective, and then Cathy and Magumi, if you could also chime in with your take on how whether from the nonprofit sector or from government, the interactions with philanthropy, and again balancing long and immediate, long-term versus immediate.

Well, I could jump in there, and this is always a tussle, right? Whatever's urgent versus what is long-term important, and you're all the time toggling between the two. But I think one area that we have driven, which I think will have long-term impact, is actually the launch of the Asia Gender Network, which is what Atsuko is part of. Now, the Asia Gender Network is this small network of philanthropists from all across Asia, and the reason why I think it has powerful impact long term is because of 3 things. The first thing is, this is a network that allows philanthropists to learn and share with each other, and as a result of learning and sharing, their own philanthropic giving will become more robust, more sound, and hopefully they will give more because they have learned from each other, and specifically in the area of giving to improve outcomes for women and girls. So, for example, recently we had a member from India, a member from the Philippines, a member from Indonesia, all of them doing great work to support female artisans. But when they came together and started discussing what they do, they started learning they had a lot of commonalities. But a lot of the challenges they were facing, they could learn from somebody else, and therefore they could grow the work that they're doing. The second area where I think this can have long-term impact is actually in influence. Megumi was talking about influencing government from the top. There are a lot of policies out there, a lot of systems that need to change if we are going to have gender equality, and it will only come if we can influence that change. And so the members of the Asia Gender Network actually co-authored the principles for giving with a gender lens, and they were tabled at the G20 in Indonesia and Bali last year. This year G20 is in India, and we're going to be taking the power of the Asia Gender Network to these forums so that we can work with UN Women and work with other organizations to impact some change. And finally, I think the area where networks like this can have long-term impact is by providing a platform and providing a voice. There is not too many global platforms, if you kind of attend them, which shines a spotlight on what's happening in Asia. Maybe a little bit about India and Bangladesh, but if you go further east, you have very few spokespersons coming from other parts of Asia, and there is so much incredible work happening in Asia. Some of the language that is used is very alien to Asia. You know, words like feminist, philanthropist are very Western words. And the way you do things, the cultural nuances is very different in Asia. And so just finding a way to integrate those voices, I do believe will also have a much longer-term impact for a more equitable world. So I'll just pause there. But I do think in the area of sharing influence and providing a voice, we can see long-term impact.

Roz, I don't know if you want to— Sure.

Which one's it?

Double mics.

So just really kind of building on what Pat shared, a couple of thoughts in thinking about this in a global context. And so for me, I've had the— for the past 3 paid jobs that I've had, because I do organizing in my everyday life that I don't do, don't get paid for as well. But for my jobs in philanthropy, I've worked at the global level on advancing LGBTQI rights. I've worked on the global level and advancing rights for women and girls. And when I was at the Ms. Foundation for Women, I also had a focus on advancing rights and protections for women and girls of color and indigenous women. And I'm giving that kind of context to a lot of the changes that these populations and populations that I count myself as a part of are looking at are long-term, right? They're not necessarily problems or solutions that will be arrived at in my lifetime or in our lifetime. So it is a long haul. And so as you're supporting movements, in philanthropy, you're also thinking about how can you be there, stay the course, be there for the long term while also being flexible and nimble enough so that you can respond. So for example, in my— in the work that the Equality Fund, where I've currently been working, in the work of the Equality Fund, it's doing both things. It's supporting feminist movements and ecosystems for the long haul, making sure that those resources are very flexible, that they're unrestricted, that they're for multi— they're multi-year gifts where there are as few strings as possible attached. And yet we are in a state of what people would describe as permanent crises, from conflicts to natural disasters, where women and girls are often on the front lines. They are the first responders. They are the ones who are standing up and thinking about the community as a whole. And because of that, you can't only think about the long-term change, but you also need to be thinking about how can you help people in their daily lives, in their daily experiences. And so you have to be thinking in strategic ways about how to use philanthropic dollars with the understanding that that's still only a drop in the bucket. And so what are the other resources out there that you can also access? And I'll say regardless of what country we're from, the majority of resources we have are within our own governments. And I live in the US where Believe me, we're paying a whole lot of taxes that we should have more control over, and this should be going to the greater good. And that's how philanthropy works. And what can philanthropic dollars do that other resources can't do? And some of what we're talking about in terms of equity and justice and equality is the kind of drum that philanthropic our dollars can help beat until we can get other dollars to really do what they should be doing for everyone. And then my last thought, and I want to leave you with this thought, this is not going to be the last thing I say, but for this moment, if we think about gender equality in a global context, at the current rate in which we are investing in gender equality, it will take 300 years to achieve it. Just think about that for a minute. So when we're using philanthropic resources or we're trying to leverage philanthropic resources, the idea is not that we can make those 300 years go away, but it— where are the opportunities to accelerate change. And that is why there are— Pat, the kind of work that Pat's doing, the kind of work that institutions like the Equality Fund is doing, is how can we make sure that those, the leaders and the organizations and the movements that are going to be there for the long haul, have what they need, have their fair share, are seen and identified and known so that we have— because they're the ones, if change is going to be accelerated, they're the ones who are going to be pushing those buttons.

So where are the acupuncture points, the surgical precision points where you can come in and make an impact? And thank you for underscoring something else because I think that quite often it's perceived that philanthropy has unlimited resources and dollars, but again, to the whole collaboration point, No one sector, and certainly not philanthropy alone, without government, without nonprofits, without the corporate sector, are going to make a dent. I want to make sure I leave space in case Cathy or Megumi want to jump in from another sector perspective.

Yes, I'd like to just say about from a small organization perspective, my organization is only 12 staff. Including part-time. So full-time is only 3. But then during the pandemic, we tried to do the research project, right? Like I mentioned. And we had no idea how to do that. But we tried because we believed that we needed to do it. And so we got the researchers and the support organizations and within this team that we helped each other and we learned so much from the researchers how to do the research. You know, it's really one by one. And after 3 years, now we are doing in a rural area, making impact. And I think this is this support system within— it's in a short time we made a short, urgent result. I mean, for the urgent needs, but it gives us a skill and experience so that we can make it in the longer term. We can make it bigger impact. And here we have women leaders from government and foundations, and within, you know, With these people having a network, we can make it even bigger impact, not just in a rural area or where you work, but with even in national or international. I think we can just— I can just imagine that we can make a bigger impact together.

Great. So Atsuko had this really great idea, and she said, why don't we open— before we open it up to questions, so everyone please think of questions for the panel, both in the room and as well as online. Type those in now. You can start typing them in right away. Atsuko said, why don't we ask— just open the floor to the panelists to ask questions of each other so it's not just the moderator asking. So I'm going to do that now. And I know that everyone sort of has thought through questions. You probably came up with a million more during this conversation today. Pat, do you want to kick us off?

Sure. We talk a lot about finding opportunity or dealing with crisis. And whenever there's a crisis, our first thought actually goes to, the people that work with us, or our organizations, or society, people who are underprivileged, people that need help. But last night I was having dinner with Roz, and I actually had a question then which I thought that Roz could share with all of you, which was, what do you do for yourself? How, how do you stay resilient? How do you stay grounded? How do you take care of yourself? Because if you don't take care of yourself, it's very difficult to take care of everybody around you. So, Roz, why don't you share? What are your tips and ideas of how to care for yourself?

Why, sure, Pat. Well, we had a great dinner, and so some of my self-care involves excellent sushi, which Hawaii has definitely delivered on. But one of the things I shared with Pat is that I don't wait for sick days. I don't wait to be sick and have to take care of myself. I take wellness days, right? I think of my time as wellness days that I will take a day where I go visit, I go to see that museum exhibit that I really wanted to see, the show, the music concert that I really wanted to go to. To lounge on my couch and watch very bad television for several hours. It varies, but the bottom line is it's my time and I'm not replacing work with another kind of work in that time, right? Because then I could say, okay, I'm taking a wellness day and I'm going to do my laundry for the next 3 years, or I'm going to go grocery shopping. Those things will get done, but the wellness is taking that time for myself. I love vinyl records, so I'll spin records all day and DJ for my family or my neighbors or take a long walk or ride my bicycle, something I like to do. And I'm not just waiting for the moment that I'm not feeling well or I'm exhausted. I'm living that what I mentioned to you earlier, that balance of purpose and joy. Oh, I have a question for you, Kathy. So, you know, especially, you know, we're both parents and we, we talked a little bit about that and how you balance things. And we also talked about just the constant bombardment of, of crises or, or challenges we need to, to face. And so it can sometimes pull you off course. So what do you do to make sure that you're sticking to your values, you're sticking to your goals, you're staying on the course that you set for yourself?

Good question, Roz. Uh, first of all, my immigrant mother would not let me veer off course. I would be quietly slid out of the family if I was not living by my core values, but I think at the end of the day, your word is everything. Your integrity is everything. I value my work in the service of others, and I also, I find joy in feeling my core values in the work that I do. And I don't know if that makes sense to other people, but you know when you're doing something that's right, right by you, right by the people watching you, right by your children who are looking up to you as a role model for for their future. And so I find my work to be joyful when it's resonating with my core values. And so I don't veer off course, if that makes sense. Oh, my question time.

Okay.

This one that I've been reflecting on because of not just the national crisis in politics and healthcare and reproductive healthcare in this nation, but also global politics that have become extremely toxic and damaging to a lot of our most marginalized communities across the globe. But where do you find hope and optimism that helps drive you? Who wants to take that one?

Okay, I'll give Megumi some time to think. Where do I find hope and optimism? Actually, it's really interesting, but it doesn't have to be from all the large-scale politics and things that are happening. I actually find hope from the smallest things that are closest to me. So the hug from your daughter. I have a teenage daughter, and when she comes and says, Mama, lie down with me, oh my gosh, I have hope for the future. Completely. Um, the, the type of things young people are doing today, I mean, they, they are so much more inclusive. They care about the environment. They care about the Earth. Uh, that gives me hope. Um, the, the fact that, you know, when I spoke to a few of you, the work that you're doing, that gives me hope. So I think you don't have to look very far. Uh, I just wish this was reflected in global politics, and maybe we'll get there someday. But whenever you want a reason to smile, you can find it in the areas closest to you.

I wanted to add what Rose said about the Wellness Day. I really think that's a really great idea. Because I remember when I went to volunteer 12 years ago, I was living in a volunteer center for 6 months with a sleeping bag. But back then I had no outdoor experience, so that it was very difficult to, you know, sleeping in a sleep bag with hundreds of people and so cold or so hot. But then I should have Wellness Day. But including me, all the volunteers went there. Of course, that's out of the goodwill. We felt guilty to take the day off. And I think many people working in a nonprofit or support organization feel guilty. Or for me, it was difficult to say, oh, I'm going to Hawaii, because, oh, you know, have a nice day, you know, enjoy. Yes. So I was able to say that, oh, I was invited to a summit. So, but I should be able to say I'm going to Hawaii. And I'm going to enjoy. I'm going to have a wellness day to take care of myself so that I can provide a better output. And so that's what I wanted to say.

I just want to say back to Megumi, thank you for saying that. And we talked at lunch as well about that. And what I've said a couple of— I think I've said at least once that I started out as an activist when I was 17 years old. And I'm 56 now, and I am still as active, if not more fired up and more of an activist now. And because I take care of myself, because I believe in wellness, because I believe that social justice is about making contributions that each generation makes contributions that matter, that every time you make progress, there's going to be backlash. And so you have to take care of your heart and your soul in order to keep standing up and standing with people. And that's where my commitment to wellness comes from.

Absolutely. And as women working to affect positive social and environmental change, I'm glad that we brought into this conversation about impact, personal wellness, and being, and brought up words like guilt because it's on all of us to be that support system for each other so that we know that we have to take care of ourselves so we can take care of others as we move along in this journey. I saw some folks already online. Yes, please, if you can get up and ask your questions, if you can identify yourself, that would be fantastic. Again, for those that are joining us online, Please do submit the questions. Kozu will be reading off questions that are coming in online, and we'll alternate in person and online.

First of all, thank you for coming to Hawaii and hosting this global summit for women and empowerment. I think it's a very important subject matter, and I can see an aroma of Holy Spirit coming floating in like in the mainland and University of Kentucky, that there's a church across the street. And for 2 weeks, they're praying and everything, and just continuing, and people just roaming over there because they see the positive sign of aroma. Maybe we keep this up, maybe we can continue seeing this positive movement. First of all, I'd like to introduce my name is Russell Houma. I'm with APEC Hawaii, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. There's 21 countries involved, and we hosted it in Hawaii in 2011. And this year it's going to come back to the United States in November. They're going to have the leaders and the CEO summit with the private sector business. And matter of fact, in August in Seattle, Washington, there's going to be Women in Empowerment Economic Forum with indigenous species and indigenous people like Native Hawaiians, Indians, Eskimos, and Pacific Islanders. And I believe that East-West Center is going to have representation. Thank you for our new president, Susie Lam. And but anyways, my question is basically, I know like in all the APEC countries, we have 21 countries. I know that India wants to be a member, hopefully. But if you look at it between the third world countries and developing nations, even though all the 21 countries of APEC are male chauvinist countries, I know that United States is more developed in that way. So we have programs and laws and regulate, you know, rules to obey that we're going to have equal gender. We want to change the Constitution or laws and our statute as well to give everybody equal opportunity. But if you go to these third world countries, oh, it's some, you know, it's chaos. You get— you take away jobs away from men, you know, they get, you know, they get aroused and they take it home and they take— they beat their wives up and, you know, all those kind of things. So just because they're not educated in that way. I think that social systems is not equipped for them be able to handle that kind of thing. So I think if you look at— so my thing, my question is, how can we, you know, get the third world countries to be more, uh, sensitivity, be more civilized to the woman and empowerment with the children? Because to me, women plays a major role. They're like Mother Earth. You know, they take care of family, they take care of children. If you go to like Middle East, like we had that problem, uh, they don't— men are not— but anyways, I just wanted to use the platform, like, you know, like APEC has an organization, a committee for women and empowerment. East Asia has one. ASEAN has a committee as well. So I think if you move that kind of agency, that'll be good.

What I heard is the question is, how can we broaden other countries and bring other countries into the women's empowerment?

Exactly.

Great, thank you for the question.

Maybe I will start because you talked about third world countries and I represent third world countries here. Um, I don't think of it like that. I was really happy to see a man come up to ask the first question in a women's leadership summit, and we do believe that we have to work with men as allies. But I don't see third world, first world. Some of the issues are the same everywhere. In fact, I think we should stop defining countries that way. Some of the things that you think are working really well in First World might be working even better in some of the places you think of as Third World. Some of the things that are not working well in the Third World are not working well in the First World either. And so I, I don't see— I feel like a lot of these definitions, throw them out of the window, please. Let's try and think of everybody. How can we lift the whole world? Not one world, not a second type of world. Let's lift the whole world.

Thank you, Pat. I have to pick up the mic too and comment along with Pat because I, you know, we share a similar perspective. But what I would add is this. That we shouldn't— the idea of the Third World, I mean, when we add up all the peoples of the world and we add up all these different countries, I mean, it's not the Third World. There's not a Third World, right? Like, what's the First World and what's the Third World, right? So that's one thing I would say. Then I wouldn't make any assumptions about where the US is. On gender equality.

Yes, I'll take a correction on that. Instead of third world, I would say developing nations.

Okay, well, we— this is going to bring us on a— we're going to have to— maybe we can— maybe this can be a side conversation at the reception.

Let's do that. Okay, we can do that.

But the one quick thing though I did want to say just in terms of this conversation about gender, and we are talking about gender and we're talking about gender norms And we're talking about an anti-gender agenda, right? Anti— if you look at all of the different things that we're coming up against, I told you I work on LGBTQI issues, right? And supporting LGBTI rights, supporting rights for women and girls and non-binary people. Underneath this all is gender norms that honestly are not working for anybody. And when you look at the people that they do serve, just think about how— who benefits from gender norms, right? Who benefits from an anti-gender agenda? And they are likely to be the opposition to anything that equals equity and equality for all.

Thank you, Roz. Thank you. We have another question. This is great. Yes, please.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for wonderful panel. I am Maki Abe, CCJA finalist 2018. I'm the co-chair of Empowerment to Kanagawa, which is aiming to create a society without violence. My question is for maybe Pat. I'd like to have any idea for activities, especially in fundraising. I'm the activist for teen dating violence prevention, because I believe the dating, dating violence prevention must be the key to create a society gender-free. But Japanese domestic violence prevention law doesn't protect the victim of dating violence, only protects victims between married couples. So I want to change the law, and of course I'm working for this, but I cannot wait. There are so many victims. So I established the hotline specialized for dating violence in Japan, only one. And I changed the system to remote during pandemic. But now I have to get financial support. So to keep up my hotline. If I could any idea for our activities, it will help for other Japanese issues. So please, something.

Thank you. It's a good question that probably a number of us could touch on. Pat, you're picking up the— I'll pass it up, but if anybody—

First of all, I compliment what you do. It is extremely hard work. It can also get you down, because some of this is really, really heartbreaking. How can you apply for financial help? Now, that's a tougher question, but I don't think it's impossible, because I do know there are many organizations across Asia that want to support this space. What I could do, and we could connect after the panel offline. There are a number of different organizations, different foundations that are working in this space, and maybe we could help make some connections.

Thank you very much.

I just like to— I need to make a comment about earlier remarks. Sorry, just allow me just 2 minutes. I don't agree with that women are great because they are taking care of the children and women are Mother Earth. No, because women are diverse. Some women are mothers, some women prefer not to be a mother. There are different kind of women, and also we talked about this Changing the gender norm. I asked Susan about how we can change that in a rural area, or the changing the gender norm of women taking care of the children or taking all the house, housework, right? And Susan mentioned that, for example, we can change from putting the diaper, diaper, yes. Thank you for supporting me. Yeah, diaper changing the place, that's one way of changing. It's like a system or structure, so more men can change, you know, be participating, uh, for childbearing, right? So I just wanted to say that I wanted to make a stance that I don't agree, and let's think about more changing, how we can change the gender norms. That's some people are thinking that way.

I want to actually thank you for that question because it actually enabled us to unearth a number of topics and terminology. Actually, it's easy to get up here and all have similar perspectives or be in a room with people with similar, and I'm not saying you had different perspectives, but I think that that's where you actually can move forward and create the most change when you bring people with different backgrounds, different perspectives together. So I'm actually really glad for that question and the conversation that it's engaging us in both here and clearly also at the reception later on as well. And Kozue, I think you have a question from our online audience. So I'm going to turn it over to you.

Thank you.

So I have a few questions, but one particular is interested in well-being. They seem to be very interested in well-being, and in fact, we actually had one of the workshops earlier with the 37 women participants on the very topic well-being. So if you can talk a little bit more about it, what you do, how you take care of yourself, what exactly you do, and also how to sort of keep balance mentally when you have to take away from work.

Oh, maybe I'll jump in while you guys are thinking of more things. I, because we were talking about this at lunch, I think that the most difficult thing these days, at least for me personally, is putting the phone down. Um, I work for a company that's based on the West Coast. I'm based on the East Coast, but it's a global business that we're in, right? This business of positive impact and change. And again, we're all I'm sure none of us, you know, all of us up here on the stage and in the audience online and in person, you feel like there's so much to do that you cannot sort of pause because if you do, something's not getting done or it's not moving as fast as it can. And for me, that's the most— that's not an answer in a positive sense, but it's just an honest reaction that it's hard for me to put down the phone and not feel like if I'm not— if I don't respond now, then I can't keep the wheels sort of moving. So I think what would help me is having everyone else in the room sort of pause as well. And that would maybe allow us all a little bit of breathing room.

I'd love to add a little bit. I shared with you about the wellness days. And so I highly encourage you to figure out some version of that for yourself. But I'll really quickly tell you, when I was in my early 30s, I worked 6— at least 6 days a week. At least 14 hours a day, probably 16 hours a day for justice and equality. One day my lung collapsed and I didn't know it. When I discovered it, I was able to get treated, but I almost died. It was for good reasons. I was working really hard for good reasons, but I wasn't going to be around to enjoy all of the things that I now enjoy. I'm a parent. I am in a wonderful, beautiful relationship. I have a wonderful family, an extended family and chosen family that I wouldn't have been around for if I didn't really figure out how to kind of strike some balance. And so I'm just giving you some real talk about these things do catch up to you if you don't have systems. And another— some quick things is for my work, I don't answer email constantly. I pick my spots for when I'm going to do email. Like, I'll do it in the morning, and then I'll do it later in the afternoon. I set aside any kind of challenging messages or calls I need to get to to the next day. I turn my phone off at night. So I am not available 24/7. I'm not looking at my messages. I kind of do like social media, so sometimes I check that out a little bit, but I don't— I stop working and I'm not available. And I lead teams where everyone on the team understands that if they get an idea at late in the day outside of business hours, that they figure out how to save and send it later.

Great. You have a question? Yes, please.

Hi, my name is Daralyn. I work at the East-West Center. I'm an alumni network specialist, and interestingly enough, my first job was during the summer at the Department of Human Services at the Pava'a unit down in Kaka'ako, and I've worked in a lot of these public service type of jobs, and I really do understand the, the antiquated part of it. I mean, I've even worked in Japan as well and face the same issue, and a lot of the times we're told like, oh, um, it just doesn't work that way. No, you can't do it. That's just the way it is. So, um, I have a few questions for Cathy. Um, how do you respect the old ways while also encouraging new ways? And how can you instill change in a place that is set in its ways? And how do you have hope for change in those situations? Thank you.

How long do we have for this one? First of all, thank you for your service to the state. I know it's not easy. Some of those public-facing positions can be extremely difficult and trying for folks. So thank you for that. So the first part of the question was, how do we respect those with the historical information and knowledge and expertise in the field without kind of being relegated to the old guard? I think that what we've done is we've identified what we call changemakers. And some of those changemakers are some of the most respected and older individuals that have been working for the— for our department for, you know, decades of time. They know a lot. They might not have ever been asked by any director or any supervisor, what are your thoughts on this? So we get buy-in. So we have changemakers across the department that we kind of gather to look at new solutions, new ways. Right now we're modernizing our benefit and eligibility system. So that's all the financial benefits. And what we've been doing for the last 3 years is having these changemakers. They come, they test out new technology to see if it's gonna work for them, and we, we attempt to garner, you know, respect and innovation while also respecting the historical information that they have, and also recognizing— I think we need to recognize the struggles that they've endured by, by going, by being in state government for so long and having to try to serve someone in the public that is in need very quickly with an antiquated system, because that's— we're not going to get new people into our team to work in government if we can't modernize systems and give people the tools that they need to be successful. The other two questions, I need you to re-clarify what they were.

The other 2 questions.

How do you—

how can you instill change in a place that is set in its ways? And how do you have hope for change in these types of situations?

How do you instill change? I'd go back to the changemakers. I mean, we, we, we try to uplift those with lived experience within our systems. We listen to their concerns. Obviously, sometimes that's, that's more successful than others, and we try to create change from within by respecting individuals that have worked in the system for a really long time. I think that instilling change takes time, and when we talk about state government, we're talking about shifting the movement of a glacier at times. So we have to be patient. It, it's not going to happen overnight. Like I said, we've been modernizing this benefit eligibility solution system for 3 years with a contracted provider. We built the Colea, which was the MedQuest Medicaid benefits portal first, then we're working on the BEZ, then we're working on the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System. So it takes a long time. It takes a long time, but we have to be able to have these difficult conversations with staff and also see them. I don't have a staff of robots or people that just come to like punch papers. They're humans that have families at home They're parents that want to take care of their kids. They want to make a living wage. I have, I have people on my staff who have been houseless, who have lived in their cars, who haven't had access, that needed access to our benefits. We can't, we can't let that happen. So we actually, we have to be, you know, we have to be forceful in innovating government, but we also have to see our staff as valued individuals that are doing the really, really hard work to uplift government. I hope that answered your question. Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Kathy. Thank you for the thoughtful answers. I have to apologize. This podium obstructed my view of all the people on the line here, and I didn't even see the mic there. So please, let's go to this side of the audience.

Or online.

No, no. Yes, the podium. I couldn't—

Hi.

Thank you so much for your motivational dialogue. It was really insightful. I'm Keiko Chida. From End-of-Life Care Association of Japan and JWLI fellow alumni. We help create compassionate communities at every stage of life so that everyone can experience well-being from birth to death. And I believe the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for everyone to recognize that suffering, including death and grief, is inevitable, familiar to all of us. So everyone is vulnerable, and recognizing this gives us the potential to be kind to others. I think everyone here makes an effort to help those who are suffering, right? So here's my question: How can we make more people like you, compassionate people?

More, um, I've got to say, I don't know if it's more people like us. It's more people like you.

Yeah, uh, yeah, it's more people like the people in this room. And I think that that's what Atsuko and JWLI have really lifted.

You just shared what you do. We need more people like you.

Yeah, thank you.

Would you like to ask a question? Yes. I'm going to move over here so you can see my face.

My name is Ara. I'm a creative director for a coworking space called Box Jelly. I'm an educator. I've been working at the art department here at UH Manoa for the last 13 years. My question is, women are usually in the forefront when it comes to conflict resolution, right? So my question is, in the context of the history of militarization in Hawaii, in the context of Hawai��i as a strategic point in the Pacific, right? Where can we be of best service when it comes to conflict resolution? How can we best collaborate, not necessarily, not just on an academic level, but on a community level to create bigger impacts in our, in our community?

I'll open it up. I, I, to me, when I hear that question, it goes back to, again, to just having a seat at the table, right? And I think so often women are not at the table, whether it's from a nonprofit perspective, a government perspective, corporate or local community perspective. So that, that would be one of my responses. But everyone has a lot to say.

Okay. So just actually, this is in relation to both of those questions, both questions. So one, I agree about the seat at the table, but I also think it's about changing conversations. So around the world, whether we're talking about militarization or conflict around the world and particularly around war, we never really hear the side of the story that particularly impacts women. Right? So women are— women and girls tend to be weapons of war, but the entire dialogue is about the expenses on military resources, how many— how the deployments, but not the human cost. And the human cost is often women and girls. And that part of it is why it's important to have the voices of women and girls, and I would say non-binary and trans folks as well as a part of the conversation. Then I think to Pat's point to the other question, I think telling our stories, the storytelling thing, it gets treated as if it's not a part of movements and it's not a part of social change, but it's actually really critical. One of the things that we don't do well, is tell the stories of the social change work that we're doing, right? So a lot of times we feel like we have to almost apologize or be defensive in describing the kind of social change work that we do, right? So if someone says, what do you do? Then we have to— we tell a very, very long story about what we're doing, what our organization does. When we really should be just getting to the point. There's gender-based violence, and I'm addressing it. There's— girls are being forced out of school in the 6th grade in my country, and I'm trying to change that. Women are not allowed to vote or discouraged from voting even though they have the right to vote. We're making sure that they can get to the voting polls.

And we—

the opposition to some of these issues that we're progressive on, or we want to see change for women and girls, we— the opposition tells right off, we don't want you to have that. You should not be equal. You should not have that right.

Thank you. Well, I think that's a really good What a great set of words to end on. We're just getting the proverbial hook, but for good reason. And I see that there are a number of people still online for questions. We are all going to be staying for the reception through the evening. We'll be here tomorrow. I really want to encourage the conversation to continue. This panel was about making sure that voices were lifted, that everyone could leave the room, both virtual as well as in person, and feel empowered. To make change, and I think that we've done that today. Let's keep the conversation going. Thank you to Atsuko. Thank you to JWLI for this amazing community and the work that's happening.

Thanks to you. Thank you, Anissa, and the panelists. Let's give another round of applause to the amazing panel. Our final speaker today is Governor Josh Green, who needs no introduction here in Hawaii, but let me, for those online, He's a physician, humanitarian, and public servant who has been working tirelessly to improve the wellness and well-being of the people of Hawai��i. He's also an emergency room physician, has been at the forefront of the state COVID response. We're honored to have him today with us as an important ally to women leaders. Please join me in welcoming Governor Josh Green.

Aloha.

First, thank— let me thank you for the honor of being able to speak in front of a group of women leaders. It is not lost on me that I should be humbled by that, so please thank you for that. Thank you, Atsuko, for welcoming me as we shared life stories not long ago. So that was very kind of her. And I'm so pleased to see you, President, Congresswoman, some out there. It's really a great honor. And I will start here. We need to tell the stories. That is what was just said from our esteemed panel, to tell the stories of women. So let me indulge my own memory and share with you the stories of the two women that had the greatest impact on my life. So I was born in 1970. In 1973, as we know, that is when women were given the right to choose. When I was 5 years old, 1975, the first memory I have that's very clear is my mother taking me by the hand on a National Organization for Women march in a large t-shirt because it was made for adults, down to my toes. And she explained to me about equality and the women's movement. At the time. So to have a woman lead me through my childhood was extraordinary. And then I was able to reflect on the woman that helped lead her, and that was my grandmother, Phyllis. So my grandmother Phyllis, who was born in 1920, graduated, graduated from Carnegie Tech, which is now Carnegie Mellon University, at the age of 20. She graduated in 1940 from that esteemed university that is mostly science-based. And that was the other extraordinary woman figure I had in my life. She, my grandmother, went on to be one of the presidents of Planned Parenthood in the East. And I feel this moment very acutely and keenly right now because just yesterday I was given the honor to get to sign the piece of legislation.

Thank you.

A piece of legislation that women leaders wrote here in our state to protect a woman's right to choose and the healthcare providers that care for them. So we can see in the lines of history how women leaders now are present. And my grandmother, who never had an opportunity to have the career that I can only imagine she should have, would have, absolutely in every way could have had. But in the '40s and '50s and '60s, she instead was not able to do that. Now, she raised an extraordinary family, and her boys and daughter then helped raise other people, and here we are today. But I wanted to tell those stories because they probably more than anything, were what led up to the moment that I was just given the honor to be a part of yesterday with my wife and for hopefully my 16-year-old daughter. So I wanted to share that. Next, I wanted to talk about the two crises that I think have occurred in the last, last 6 years, which are leading to leadership moments. Two international crises in my mind: COVID and the election of Donald Trump. And I say that because if we are speaking honestly about women and the effects on the world, and I'm not trying to be overly political here, both of those incidents led to, in my opinion, the opportunity for women leaders to emerge in intense ways. So in our state, in our state, we had women leaders emerge, not just Kathy, who I'm so honored that she leads in many ways the largest department. I think it may very well have the largest budget in our entire state. But also people like Libby Char, our Director of Health, woman, who led us through the depths of the COVID response so steadily against all of the clichés, all of the, you know, the stereotypes that often attack women. Women can't be scientists. Women can't be leaders in a crisis, don't have the composure. All of that was nonsense, of course, here in the greatest crisis that we had in our history. And I would say this, that though it was a tough 4 years after a president disparaged women in the course of becoming president, it led to other women deciding they would step up. And I've been so lucky to meet so many women governors. Just in the last few years. And I can tell you that they are empowered and strengthened by having to deal with the reality that politically, politically, they felt that they were not included, that they were demonized, that they were— they had their self-worth challenged. So those are crises, but they lead us to moments where we can then rally. Now, a few things that we're grateful for in our team and in our state. We are almost, almost at parity for judges in our state. We have 42 men and 40 women. It will be 42 and 41 in about 3 weeks. And I will tell you that by the time I'm finished, there will be more women judges than there are men judges. And the opportunities that we have To have leaders, women leaders come to the fore now, I think unlike in the past, are there finally for us. Again, you got to see Kathy Betts, who is extraordinary. And in the back, Liz Skillin, who was my campaign and political leader to help me become governor, sitting right here with us tonight. So she was central to that. But not just those individuals. Nani Majerus, who is our housing czar, and housing and access to stable housing, which is an issue that plagues women when they aren't able to house their children or can't find stable housing for themselves because of disparities. We have a woman leader in that position. And then finally, I would mention that we are lucky enough in Hawaii to have a new department a department that works on trauma-informed care. And it should be no surprise to you that a woman is also leading that department for us. So as you share these personal stories and these experiences, at least thankfully in one corner of the world and hopefully many corners of the world, we're going to see women take the leadership roles. And then finally, my Chief of Staff. Is yet another woman. So the first 9 people that I appointed, and I didn't intend it that way, were all women. So I think that we have the capacity to finally believe, to believe that women leadership is a possibility. It's a possibility after a time of crisis. I personally believe has become more likely rather than less because we are finally getting over ourselves. After having dealt with pandemics, a challenging political era, and then all of the global conflicts that we constantly see. And so I just wanted to say mahalo, mahalo to you for including me to just share my stories of women leaders. And I wanted to thank you again because a guy probably doesn't get to deserve to come and be with you in this capacity necessarily. But as a speaker, I'm just honored to get to have that chance to share these tales. So again, mahalo, mahalo for welcoming Hawaii into your lives, into your experience, and for sharing your leadership capacity with all of the young women here in our state and of course globally as they watch us. So again, you guys are wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you, Governor Green. Before we start our reception on the wānai, I would like to give a special thank you to a few people, so please bear with me. Ayaka Weike from JWLI. Ayaka? For her hard work and dedication that made this very summit possible. And Raya Sekimoto. Raya, where are you? Ah, okay. Without her diligence and care, this summit would not have happened. Raya? And our fearless leaders who continue to challenge us and inspire us at Scofish and Susie VerSlum. This is a thank you to all of us from JWLI and the East-West Center and to all our speakers for being here at Hawaii and candidly sharing your stories. Thank you so much. And also, this is a quick reminder because your job hasn't been done. After the— after this ends, please come to the, um, the stage for final group photo. And finally, thank you to all who joined us in person here and online. This summit is only the beginning, and please leverage this opportunity for further women's leadership and for collective action and collective voice. Now let's go enjoy the pupus and refreshments on the lanai.

Mahalo!