Glenn Omatsu
Glenn Omatsu is an educator who works with community and labor
groups and international solidarity networks. He was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947 as part of the post-World War II
internment, third-generation Japanese American cohort. He has
lived most of his life in California. He is a graduate of East
Los Angeles College and University of California, Santa Cruz.
At
UCLA, from 1985 to 2002, he served as associate editor of "Amerasia
Journal," the nation's leading research publication in Asian
American Studies; and editor of CrossCurrents, newsmagazine of
the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. At UCLA, he teaches
"Asian American Social Movements," "Community Education: Youth
Empowerment," "Asian Pacific American Labor Studies,"
"Investigative Journalism and Communities of Color" and other
classes relating to student and community activism.
At
California State University, Northridge, he teaches classes in
service-learning, Asian American Studies, and developmental
reading and writing, and serves as Faculty Mentor Program
Coordinator for the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP)
assisting low-income students.
At
Pasadena City College, he teaches an introductory sociology
course focusing on the Asian American experience.
He
is co-editor (with Steve Louie of San Francisco) of "Asian
Americans: The Movement and the Moment," published in September
2001 by UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press.
He
has worked with a number of interethnic alliances in Los Angeles,
including the New Otani Workers Support Committee in Little Tokyo
and the Koreatown Restaurant Workers Support Committee, campaigns
for immigrant rights, and other struggles for social justice.
At
UCLA, he was named an honorary life member of the national Mortar
Board, an honors society. He is the recipient of the Community
Service Award from the Japanese American Historical Society of
Southern California and the Community Activism Award from Korean
Immigrant Workers Advocates of Los Angeles.
Contact address: CSUN Educational Opportunity Program (EOP),
18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8366 |