School of Public Health
This project is supported by a grant from
The California Wellness Foundation
and co-sponsored by the
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

California's Senior Leaders
Promoting Cultural Programs and Cross Cultural Understanding, 2007

An essential part of community building is helping members of a geographic or common identity community appreciate and share their cultural heritage, while also promoting cross cultural understanding.  And these next awardees –Hee Seon An, Felicia Elizondo, Grace Kimoto, Jessie S. Lee, and Jimi Yamaichi – were selected in part because of their invaluable contributions in these areas. They are historians and bridge builders, activists and cultural treasures.

Hee Seon An

Mr. Hee Seon  An could easily have received his award for his contributions to healthy aging, for he works tirelessly at his senior independent living community, the Oak Towers, running the weekly farmer’s market, organizing  the brown bag program, serving as a translator for Korean residents, and doing numerous other things to promote senior health. 
But he was nominated and selected primarily for the crucial role he has played in building a sense of community and cross cultural understanding in his diverse community of African Americans, Koreans, Chinese Americans and Ethiopians in this West Oakland residence.  In Mr. An’s words, “I want to show our fellow residents that when you put your heart and care into it, language is not a barrier.”  
Mr. An’s nominator agrees, commenting that “Mr. An’s energy and enthusiasm has inspired members of [all races] to take serious notice. When you have someone who gives sacrificially, it rubs off on others.”  We too are in awe of Mr. An’s outstanding contributions to promoting cross cultural understanding among seniors of very diverse backgrounds.

Felicia Elizondo

At a time when most older transgender people continue to live lives of hiding and invisibility, Felicia Elizondo works to make openness about gender identity not only possible but comfortable for members of her LGBT community. A participant in the Tenderloin’s Compton Café riot in 1966, where San Francisco drag queens made headlines as they attempted to stop police harassment and violence against transgender residents, Ms. Elizondo has for more than 20 years volunteered with many social justice and service organizations throughout the city. These include the San Francisco AIDS Project, New Leaf and Project Open House, the first comprehensive housing and senior services organization for LGBT elders of all income levels.
Ms. Elizondo’s passions include educating the transgender community about HIV/AIDS, but also educating other LGBT seniors—and transgender youth—about this little understood community and its rich history. And she raises money for a number of San Francisco AIDS organizations through the Ducal Court events.
Her lifelong commitment is to making sure that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity regardless of their gender identity or sexual preference. We are so pleased to honor Felicia Elizondo as a California Senior Leader.


Grace Kimoto

Now in her late 70’s, Grace Kimoto was pulled out of school during World War II with 120,000 other Japanese Americans and forced into the internment camps.  That experience left a huge footprint on her heart, and after her retirement from the Merced public school system, Ms. Kimoto devoted herself to volunteering with close to a dozen organizations, among them the Japanese American Citizens’ League, the Central California Nikkei Foundation, and the Student Relocation Commemorative Fund. 
Ms. Kimoto helped put together an exhibit highlighting Japanese Americans in Merced County before and after the War. She is a frequent speaker in schools about the internment camp experience, in an effort to prevent such an atrocity from ever happening again.  And she also has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Hmong and other SE Asian refugee students, and has mentored a group of these students every one of whom is now graduating from high school and going on to attend college.
Having spent the last 78 years involved in her community, she says her post-retirement community efforts do not feel like “work” or “volunteering” at all. She just enjoys meeting with different groups of people with like minds and purpose, and being part of her community.


Jessie S. Lee

Twenty five years ago, when her mother was ill and needed a skilled nursing facility, Jessie Lee looked everywhere to find an appropriate place. The problem was, it didn’t exist – not for a 76 year old Chinese American widow who spoke little English. All the facilities, including the food and activities, were geared toward Caucasian English-speakers. There was no one that a Chinese American immigrant woman could reach out to or communicate with.
It was this situation that inspired Mrs. Jessie Lee to take a leadership role on the board of Sacramento’s Asian Community Center to help raise funds for and then build the Asian Community Nursing Home. It is now rated as one of the top nursing homes in Northern California, and certainly is an environment Mrs. Lee’s mother would have thrived in. Mrs. Lee’s concern for addressing the unmet needs of immigrant elders, and the broad diversity of California’s older population, is at the crux of her community work. As she told us, “I think when a population has been marginalized for years, social justice is recognizing their individual and unique needs, and understanding that those differences call for diverse solutions.”
Mrs. Lee also volunteers with AARP Driver Safety Program and raises money for children’s therapy programs through the Elks Lodge. Her commitment to honoring the diversity of Californians young and old is why she is a California Senior Leader.

Jimi Yamaichi

Like a previous awardee, Mr. Jimi Yamaichi also had his life turned upside down by the internment camp experience in World War II.  And he has since dedicated much of his life to helping insure that Japanese Americans remain in touch with their history and their culture, and that Americans of all races and ethnicities learn from this experience. This is why his nominators so respectfully refer to him as “Mr. Japantown.”
Mr. Yamaichi is a founding member and curator of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, a Boy Scout senior advisor, founder of the Nikkei Matsuri Japanese American Festival, and a leader of the effort to designate Tule Lake – one of the Japanese internment camps – a national landmark. He leads tours of the Tule Lake concentration camp, the very one he was moved to at the age of 19.
His work with over a dozen organizations has won him several awards including a Courage Award from the Council of Islamic American Relations who honored Mr. Yamaichi for the kindness he extended to Arab-Americans after 9-11 who experienced discrimination similar to that experienced by Japanese during World War II. We are thrilled that he can add a Senior Leader Award to that list.

Questions about the project should be directed to Meredith Minkler: mink@berkeley.edu or Marty Martinson: martym@berkeley.edu
Photos by Marty Martinson & Diane Driver
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