Associate Director, Operations for Seven Directions (Seattle)
Leo N. Egashira, MBA, is a Japanese-American born and raised in Seattle. He is the Associate Director of Operations and a Research Coordinator at Seven Directions at the University of Washington and has been with the team since 2018. Prior to Seven Directions, he worked at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute, also at the University of Washington; he has worked with tribes for over 14 years.
Leo is currently working on several projects, including several sub-projects in the CDC-funded Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention program, and Healthy Tribal Nations alcohol policy and violence against women study. He was the main liaison to Tribal Colleges and Universities partners on three past projects and has visited tribal communities to facilitate many on-site focus groups and conduct data collection. Through these site visits, he has witnessed first-hand the strengths and resilience of tribal communities, which in turn has informed his passion to Indigenous Public Health.
Leo has a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese & Chinese languages, and a Master’s in Business Administration. He has studied linguistics and four foreign languages, and is a strong advocate for indigenous language retention and revitalization. He also remembers how to diagram sentences from his 1960s English classes, and uses that skill to serve as the primary editor for Seven Directions’ publications and manuscripts.
On a personal note, he is an outdoor nut, hiking and going on 5-10 day backpacks to remote corners of North America, and snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing in winter. A non-car owner for 20+ years, he bicycles Seattle’s hilly terrain daily in rain or shine.