Yamada Campaign Headquarters
Yamada For Assembly 2010
P.O. Box 528
Sacramento CA 95812
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Biography
Democratic Candidate
California Assembly, 8th District
Social Worker (MSW, University of Southern California, 1974)
Chair, California Democratic Party 8th Assembly District Committee (2002-04)
Chair, Yolo County Democratic Central Committee (1998-2000)
Yolo County Supervisor (2003-2008, Chair 2007)
36 Years of Public Service and Forging Partnerships
District 4 Director, Yolo County Board of Supervisors (1999-2003)
EEO/AA Officer, San Diego County Dept. of Social Services (1989-1994)
Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Dept. of Commerce (1982-1987)
US. Census Bureau, 1989 Undercount Reduction Campaign (1977-1982)
Assistant Deputy County Supervisor, Los Angeles County Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman (1975-1977)
Biography
Mariko Yamada is the Democratic candidate for California’s 8th Assembly District, comprised of portions of Solano and Yolo counties and the cities of Benicia, Davis, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland.
Mariko currently serves as the 8th District Assemblymember, and is a member of five Assembly Committees: Rules; Water, Parks and Wildlife; Agriculture; Veterans Affairs; and Aging and Long Term Care. She also serves on the Assembly Select Committee on Foster Care; the 2010 Census; and Regional Approaches to Managing the State’s Water Crisis. In her freshman year, five of her bills focusing on annuities fraud protection, Alzheimer’s research, water reform, and consumer and civil rights were signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Prior to her election as the 8th District Assemblymember, Mariko served for five years as Yolo County Supervisor, District Four, and for four years as District Director for Yolo County Supervisor, now Yolo County Superior Court Presiding Judge David Rosenberg. She has consistently fought for the protection of civil rights, open space and agricultural preservation, and the inclusion of underserved communities in our educational system, the economy and political process. Her education and experience as a social worker drives her leadership on issues affecting the poor, elderly, and disabled.
Mariko’s experience also includes a decade in Washington, D.C. in federal service, first with the U.S. Census Bureau working on the undercount reduction “campaign” for the 1980 Census and then as the only female investigator in a staff of four headquarters staff with the Office of the Secretary, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Commerce. During her “D.C. days”, Mariko co-produced and co-hosted “Gold Mountain, D.C.”, a jazz and information show on WPFW 89.3 FM, one of the Pacifica Foundation radio affiliates. Classic R&B remains one of her mainstays.
Mariko was born in Denver, Colorado on October 23, 1950, after her family’s release from the Manzanar War Relocation Center, one of ten such Japanese American internment camps established during World War II. She attended inner city public schools in the “Five Points” neighborhood, and in June 1972, was the first in her family to graduate from college, earning her B.A. in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with an emphasis on the special mental health needs of Asian Americans. This interest brought her to Los Angeles, and in June 1974, she earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California, specializing in community organizing, planning and administration. She began her career in political social work with a Los Angeles –based United Way Agency, and then joined the staff of L.A. County Supervisor Edmund D. Edmund, her first job in politics.
Mariko has been married since 1983 to Janlee Wong, also a social worker and the Executive Director of the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. The have two adult daughters, Meilee, an alumna of the USC Annenberg School who is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Political Management from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Midori, a UCSD Urban Studies and Planning graduate who currently works for the San Diego Association of Governments.