Then, with the highest recommendations, Donna Lee Siple arrived as our Interim Executive Director. She is intelligent, creative, honest, hard working and a lover of all things Japanese! Honestly, we could not have been luckier than to have the leadership of Donna Lee, especially when it has been badly needed in a time of transition. She has been incredible, but her preceding commitments have prevented her from accepting the position on anything but a short term basis. Time is running out, and again, what to do about our Japan-America Society?

Then some wonderful Board members raised their hands (again). An executive search committee was formed by Ed Gerstenhaber, Don Traviss, Brenda Jordan, Dennis Unkovic, Donna Lee Siple, Sam Ishihara and me. A job description was created and posted on our website and in the not-for-profit world. Resumes were received from as close by as our beloved Pittsburgh neighborhoods and as far away as California and New York. Conference call discussions were followed by a series of interviews. The candidates were male and female, young and old, American and Japanese, and each applicant brought a unique strength to the table. It was a very difficult task to choose among such amazingly qualified people!

And then a decision was made, and Wendy Bennett has arrived as our new Executive Director. She is intelligent, creative, honest, hard working, and another self proclaimed lover of all things Japanese! We are absolutely thrilled to have Wendy’s leadership. I know you will enjoy getting to know her, and here’s a little background.

Wendy received her college education at University of California Berkeley with a major in Art History and a minor in Asian Studies, and she’s a student of the Japanese language. She has worked in the Asian Art Conservation Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Honolulu Academy of Arts in Hawaii, been a Washi Tour paper conservator participant in Honshu and Shikoku Japan, and a staff conservator at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. She is a published expert in conserving Japanese graphic work, drawings and watercolors. Wendy also possesses proven business skills. She is an entrepreneur and has been running her own company, Wendy Bennett Fine Art Paper Conservation, since 1995. She was very active in the Pittsburgh-Saitama Sister City Committee, and has also organized a soccer delegation to Saitama. She is a mother of three sons (ages 15, 18 and 20), and her husband is cartoonist/illustrator David Coulson. Wendy is already well known to some of our board members as well.

Like I said, Pittsburgh is full of amazing people. I am very proud to say that one of Pittsburgh’s own, Wendy Bennett, is our new Executive Director. Sam Ishihara and I ask that you each give her your warm and full support, and join us in welcoming her to the mission of leading our Society.

Yours sincerely,
Steve Cuervorst