Naomi Ishisaka joined OneAmerica as Communications Director in October 2008. For the previous eight years, she served as the editor in chief of ColorsNW Magazine, a full-color, award-winning, monthly publication focused on communities of color in the Northwest. Ishisaka is a Seattle native and worked at several Puget Sound newspapers, including The Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The News Tribune and the Bremerton Sun. She is a Justice and Journalism Fellow studying immigration and border issues and was a Spring 2005 fellow of the German Marshall Fund and traveled throughout Europe. In 2005 and 2006, Ishisaka traveled to the Gulf Coast states to cover the affects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on communities of color.

Ishisaka’s journalism education includes editing training at the Dow Jones Copy Editing Program, the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism’s Immigration program, the Minority Editorial Writers Seminar and she is a graduate of the Asian American Journalist Association’s Executive Leadership Program. Ishisaka is a frequent speaker at media workshops and community events. Launched in 2001, ColorsNW won over 50 awards in the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Competition and Ishisaka won five first place awards for editorial writing, feature writing and commentary.

Ishisaka is a graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and has a B.A. in ethnic studies and journalism.