Manami is a strategist and advisor to nonprofits and foundations advancing social change and racial equity through media, culture and narrative work. With over two decades of experience, she specializes in strategy and organizational development, resource mobilization and funder collaboration. She has played a key role in designing and launching philanthropic initiatives that center community power and equity. She is the co-creator of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, which has mobilized over $20 million to support BIPOC-led independent journalism and built a national network of 50 community-centered media organizations, and she designed the Color Congress, a participatory fund supporting nonfiction storytellers and documentary makers of color, backed by the Ford and MacArthur Foundations. Previously, Manami served as deputy director for the global media program at the Gates Foundation, where she led investments to amplify underreported stories and elevate underrepresented voices to influence policy change in global health, economic development, and education. She shaped media and communications strategy and guided cross-regional teams in the U.S., Europe, India, and Africa. Earlier in her career, Manami spent a decade working with community arts and grassroots movement organizations in the Bay Area — including Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Forward Together, CAAM and Kearny Street Workshop — advancing racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice and culture change. The daughter and granddaughter of Tule Lake internees and great-granddaughter of immigrants from Hiroshima, Manami brings an intergenerational justice perspective to her work. She is a Zen Buddhist practitioner and a National Urban Fellows alum, holding an MPA from Baruch College and a BA from UC Santa Cruz.
