Candidate for
Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of Alameda; Assembly District 14

I first became aware of movements for societal change and party politics during college, when some of my friends were arrested in Seabrook, NH, protesting the building of a nuclear power plant. Our graduating class also wore armbands protesting apartheid in South Africa and US policies that helped to support that regime.

In graduate school, I helped found the Harvard School of Public Health Disarmament Forum, which sponsored a series of lectures and symposia seeking to explore the impact of military spending and use on the public health.

As a young professional, I was the one of the first co-Chairs, along with Robert Gould, of the Peace Caucus of the American Public Health Association. Among our initial and signature activities, we organized a protest and civil disobedience at the Nevada Test Site in favor of a comprehensive test ban. Over 120 public health professionals were arrested for "trespassing" at the Nevada Test Site during the 1985 APHA Annual Meeting, held in Las Vegas.

During this time, I volunteered on a number of political campaigns, including that of Barney Frank in 1980 and 1982; Paul Tsongas in 1978; and Jerry Brown in 1980; and George McGovern in 1984. In 1988, when Michael Dukakis decided to run for President, I quickly volunteered for his campaign, and was one of the organizers for Seattle, where I lived at the time. Through this campaign, I ended up becoming closely involved in Democratic Party activities, and eventually became a member of the 13th State Senate District Executive Committee in Washington.

I moved back to Minnesota in 1989 (where I had lived from 1984-86), and volunteered for the Wellstone campaign. I had met him previously in early 1986 when I was organizing another protest at the Nevada Test Site, and he heard of my activities. We were in periodic contact over that time and during his campaign. When he was elected to the Senate, I invited him to speak at the next APHA Annual Meeting in 1991, in Atlanta, and he accepted. His strong support of single-payer health care seemed a natural link to the APHA.

I became active in the Democratic (DFL) Party in Minnesota, as precinct chair, County Central Committee Member, and State Central Committee Member, and worked on many related committees - platform, resolutions, credentials, etc.

In 1992, along with two other people, I coordinated the Paul Tsongas campaign in Minnesota. I ran the floor strategy for the campaign at several Senate/County Conventions, Congressional District Conventions, and the State Convention.

In 1993, I was one of about a dozen people who worked closely with State Senator John Marty, as he developed his campaign strategy to gain the DFL endorsement for Governor, which was successful. Unfortunately, he lost the general election in 1994; luckily, he remained in the State Senate, where he continues to fight for progressive measures for all Minnesotans.

Most recently, I have been a volunteer on the Dennis Kucinich for President campaign. I first met Dennis in 1999, when he spoke at a symposium honoring my parents and their work. This symposium was held at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. The museum had agreed to accept and archive materials related to my parents' work as central figures and catalysts of the macrobiotic movement, which has played a key catalytic role in the development of the natural foods industry, of the mainstreaming of Japanese culture, and of the spread of alternative health practices.

As a professional, I have conducted and been involved in a number of studies examining the role of diet in risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, especially breast cancer. My work has been published in top biomedical journals, and has been cited in many mainstream news media. I serve on committees of the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health, and collaborate with colleagues at a number of institutions.