Kanoko Kamata is a co-founder and former Executive Director of Community Organizing Japan (COJ). She earned her B.A in Biochemistry from Nihon University and Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the Harvard Kennedy School. After eleven years working in a private sector, she shifted her career to the non-profit sector. At the HKS, she learned community organizing from Dr. Marshall Ganz. In 2013, she launched COJ with her colleagues, which trains nonprofit organizations, union and youth in the community organizing framework. In the past three years, over 1,500 people have participated in COJ’s workshops. COJ also offers coaching sessions for grassroots campaigns for women’s rights, victims of sex crimes, post-disaster recovery, and other issues. During the 2018-19 academic year, Ms. Kamata will conduct research on grassroots leadership development and social movement in Japan and the U.S. She will also be a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Sociology and collaborate with Mary Brinton on a research project that examines fertility in postindustrial economies.