The Board of Sojourn Center is pleased to welcome Andy Morikawa to the board. Andy is no stranger to Sojourn Center as he becomes a member of the board in January, 2024.
Top Row: guest speaker ,Marian Silverman; Anne Campbell, Pres; Ed Spencer, VPres
Middle Row: new board member, Andy Morikawa; Nicole Thompson; Rick DiSalvo
Bottom Row: John Bush; Jerry Via; Lisa Sprinkel
He has helped Sojourn Center professionally as the facilitator of several workshops for our board, for the board and extended friends of Sojourn Center, and for the executive committee over the years. More recently, he has attended several board meetings to help us assess how we might effectively move forward during our current “pause” as we observe the Medicare regulations related to hospice and the usage of hospice services in the NRV and determine when is the appropriate time to fundraise and build a hospice facility.
Andy Morikawa, a third gen Japanese American, is a former Peace Corps Volunteer ESL teacher and trainer. Following Peace Corps in the Palau District of Micronesia, Andy found a career in nonprofit work, primarily in the New River Valley, beginning in 1979. He has served as executive director for New River Community Action and founding executive director for the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. As a volunteer he serves and has served on the boards of directors of local, regional, and national nonprofits. He is IPG Senior Fellow at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance where he is a team member serving the development of community change organizations. He founded and hosted an IPG podcast, Trustees Without Borders. He lives in Blacksburg with Susan, his wife. His three children, three grandchildren, and great grandson all live in the New River Valley.
Regarding his interest in Sojourn Center, Andy says, “Anne Campbell of the Sojourn Center reached out to me many years ago to help facilitate planning sessions during the Center’s startup. I’d not previously known about hospice houses and felt drawn into the conversation. I was then in my late 60s and starting to look ahead and consider how to explore and develop an end of life practice of my own. Since then I’ve embraced my elderhood and the prospect of my life’s end as an enormously rich opportunity for growth about life’s meaning. So, when the board extended an invitation to become a member of the Sojourn Center Board, I realized I’d need to change my decision to not accept any more invitations to do volunteer work. Likely, this will be my last assignment. I look forward to it and am glad to be in the good company of the Sojourn Center’s distinguished trustees.”