Profile

Mamiko Reeves serves as the Assistant Vice President and Dean of International Programs at Northwood University, a not-for-profit private business university in Midland, Michigan. Her responsibilities include oversight of International Program Centers (IPC), Study Abroad/Exchange programs, SEVIS compliance, campus internationalization, International admission, Intensive English Program and international student support. She serves as a board member and a liaison, conducting site visits and audits, at IPCs in China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Switzerland (student enrollment at 1350). She works with 25 additional partner universities around the globe and develops international business and partnership.

Mamiko has a passion for global education and providing cross-cultural opportunities for students, faculty and staff. She established and led an award-winning, collaborative study abroad program to China and India with the Young Presidents’ Organization-World Presidents’ Organization over the last 7 years. She also launched an international job shadow event in collaboration with the Midland Area Community Foundation and Midland Chamber of Commerce. Mamiko serves as a board of trustee for Youth for Understanding USA, Michigan American Council of Education (MI-ACE), she also serves as a committee member of Sister City student exchange for city of Midland.

Mamiko started her career with IR Japan, an Investor Relations company, as an account executive, and served as an international marketing and sales representative at Sony Corporation in Tokyo. She served for Japan International Cooperation Agency as a translator and facilitator for civil servant delegations from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Palau. She also worked as a volunteer counselor for the Tokyo English Life Line taking crisis calls. After moving to the USA, she worked as a consultant to Dow Chemical and Dow Corning Corporation providing cross-cultural training and destination services for their managers, expats and new hires. She also served as long term volunteer and a consultant for YFU USA and YFU Japan providing orientations, training, student counseling and crisis management. In higher education, she has taught Japanese language and culture as an adjunct faculty at Saginaw Valley State University and career development courses at Central Michigan University. She also contributed to a program on Japan for educators and administrators at Yale University. Mamiko was born in Nagoya, Japan. She earned a B.A. in Communications at Nanzan University (Nagoya), and a M. A. from Central Michigan University in Counseling and Ed.D from Northeastern University in Organizational Leadership. Mamiko is a former marathon runner, triathlete and spinning instructor.

HeartTalk.

Interview

1.What is your definition of women empowerment?

To me, women empowerment is to create opportunities for women to reflect on their experiences, and have them make connection between their experiences and skills/knowledge required to take action and go outside of their comfort zone. If they do not have relevant experience, I will encourage to set them attainable goals to gain skills and knowledge so they will feel confident to reach stretch goals. It has a lot to do with building self-efficacy.

2.What motivated you to get involved in being inspirational for change?

When I was 13 years old, Mother Theresa came to my junior high school in Japan. I could not speak English well, so I did not remember what she said, but I remember shaking her hands and thinking, “Wow. If this tiny little wrinkly woman can help people in India and change the world, I should be able to do something too.”

Another critical moment was when Asian higher education administrator told me they were happy to see me in a management position. I realized me being in a leadership position will help other women, especially Asian women, to feel encouraged and motivated to achieve higher.

3.What are some key characteristics of an empowered person?

An empowered person has strong guiding principle, authenticity, humility and is not afraid to fail.She also has resiliency, self-efficacy and surrounds herself with positive people.

4.What can leaders or individuals interested in advocacy do to facilitate empowerment?

Giving women challenging opportunities to fail, but then discussing how they could have done things differently, and encouraging them to try the same project again. In order to build confidence, women need to acquire skills to overcome challenges.

5.5. What advice would you give to those who want to give up due to a lack of empowered feeling, thinking and action? (e.g. What is an important first step?)

I would recommend women to read a couple of books:

Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Dr. Angela Duckworth

Find handful mentors who can provide guidance and support in different ways at different times. For example, one mentor can be someone whohas your two jobpositions higher. One mentor can be someone who can give spiritual encouragement.
Find your energy source.

People say it is good to find passion in life. Even when one is passionate about what we do, sometimes we get down or discouraged. Just like a computer cannot go on without re-charging power, we need to know what charges our energy. For example, going out for a walk, setting aside quiet time every day, etc.