About JETAA USA

JETAA USA is comprised of 19 Chapters across the country, along with three Country Representatives (Reps), a Board of Advisors, and a Chapter Council. It is part of a global community created by alumni in collaboration with stakeholders in the JET Program in order to support the Program and its former participants, as well as to carry on JET’s objectives of promoting a deeper understanding of Japan and strengthening its ties with the rest of the world.

The foundation of JETAA USA is its Chapters. The Chapters provide information and services to alumni as well as being a place to come together to share friendship and camaraderie among people with similar interests and experiences.

The Chapters are run by officers comprising an executive committee, usually elected by the membership.

Because they cover large geographic regions, Chapters often have Subchapters in outlying areas that hold events of their own, sometimes receiving support from their parent Chapter.

Chapters and their officers are supported by the three JETAA USA Country Representatives, who are elected by the Chapters every year. The Country Representatives are, in turn, supported by the Board of Advisors. The Board is comprised of alumni who have served for years in various positions at the chapter and national level and are deeply familiar with JETAA and its issues. Board members, with their experience and perspective, can also serve as a resource to Chapters and individual alumni.

Each Chapter has a seat on the Chapter Council, which represents the chapters in discussions of issues affecting them and which oversees the activities of the Country Reps.

The 19 Chapters and the regions they cover are listed below.

Below is a chart of the ecosystem in which JETAA USA exists. Click here to learn more about our specific partners in this chart.

Current CRs & Initiatives

Valerie Stewart

Valerie was an ALT in Saga Prefecture from 1999-2002. She then worked privately as an ALT in Omura, Nagasaki from 2002-2004. After leaving Japan, she began working in the concierge and loyalty industry. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, her current role is in the Marketing and Partnerships Department of John Paul, a Global Loyalty Company, as Senior Vendor & Marketing Coordinator. Since 2010, she has served as both Secretary (2010) and Treasurer of JETAA Southeast (2011-2021). Her tenure as a local Chapter officer enables her to maintain a connection with Japan, and to see a JETAA Chapter go through various stages of activity, alumni involvement, and resurgence into a strong, active alumni organization. Valerie was first elected CR in April 2021 and is currently in her fourth term.

Initiatives:

JET Program DEI Recruiting

Vivian Chen

Vivian was an ALT in Masuda City, Shimane Prefecture, from 2016-2018. After returning to the United States, she has worked and volunteered in various roles supporting U.S.-Japan relations including at organizations such as the Japan Society of Boston, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, and the TOMODACHI Initiative. Residing in Washington, DC, she currently works in the federal government with a focus on strengthening U.S. engagement and collaboration with the Asia-Pacific region. Vivian previously served as the Communications/Technology Chair (2023-2024) and the Professional Development Chair (2022-2023) for JETAADC and has volunteered as an interview panelist for JET Program applicants departing from Washington, DC. She looks forward to working on and promoting accessible activities and programming that connect JET alumni throughout the United States. This is Vivian's first term serving as CR.

Initiatives:

JETAA USA LinkedIn Page Outreach Initiative

Our Board of Advisors

The Board of Advisors are appointed jointly by current Country Representatives and Advisory Board Members. The Advisory Board supports the JETAA USA community in a myriad of ways including providing historical and institutional knowledge and guidance as needed. The Board of Advisors focuses on supporting national long-term goals and ensures the efficiency and sustainability of JETAA USA.

Cheryl Hou

A Pacific Northwest native, Cheryl Hou returned to Seattle in 2008 after 3 years as an ALT in Toyama-ken. Due to her work in Toyama (AJET Library Coordinator 2006-2008, Regional Coordinator 2007-2008) she was well suited to jump right into the Pacific Northwest Chapter of JETAA and did so with great enthusiasm. Her passion and love for Japan and the program kept her involved in US-Japan relations through her local Chapter where she served as Social & Volunteer Coordinator (2009-2011), Vice President (2011-2012), and as President (2012-2014). Cheryl was also integral in bringing the JETAA USA National Conference back to Seattle in 2014, where she served her fifth and final year on the council as National Conference Coordinator to great success.

In 2015, Cheryl was elected as a JETAA USA Country Representative, where she served until 2018. During her time, she worked with her fellow Representatives to restructure how JETAA USA operates in pursuit of its objectives and its involvement with not only the individual Chapters, but also within the larger international JETAA community. In this role, she attended the 2016 JETAA International Meeting in Tokyo, the first such meeting to occur since 2011. Here, she brought her experience to bear on reviving discussions about the future of JETAA, of how to support Japan's relations with the world, and the ways to establish and strengthen JETAA groups in smaller participating countries. Cheryl continues her JETAA service on the JETAA USA Advisory Board, where she continues to be involved in furthering the larger goals of JETAA USA.

Cheryl now enjoys attending local JET Alumni events, traveling all over the world, and eating as much congee as she can. If you're in the Seattle area, come find her for some bubble tea, an awesome meal and some local tourist-hopping!

Jessyca Livingston

Jessyca Livingston has served as executive director of the US JET Program Alumni Association (USJETAA) since January 2023. She leads USJETAA’s work to support the nearly 40,000 American alumni of the JET Program, as well as its predecessor, the Monbusho English Fellowship Program. Prior to taking the helm of USJETAA, Jessyca was Programs and Membership Manager at the Japan-America Society of Colorado, and she also worked for seven years as the JET Coordinator at the Japanese Consulate in Denver, CO.

Jessyca has a long history of leadership in the JET community. After returning to the US, she served as treasurer for the JET Alumni Association Rocky Mountain (JETAARM) Chapter for two years, and then as a JETAA USA Country Representative for another two years, helping guide the JET community through its response to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. In 2012, she led the effort to create a comprehensive set of bylaws for JETAA USA, including the establishment of the JETAA USA Board of Advisors, and she also served as a founding board member for USJETAA when it was launched in 2015.

Steven Horowitz

Raised in New Jersey Prefecture, Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, Kariya-shi, 1992-94) is the founder and publisher of JETwit.com, the “official” unofficial alumni magazine, career center, and communication channel of the JET alumni community in the US and internationally, as well as the JETwit Jobs Google Group and the JETAA-sphere Podcast. Steven has served on the JETAA USA Board of Advisors since 2013, and also served on the JETAA USA Disaster Relief Fund Committee and on the JETAA New York Board of Directors, as well as the Professional Outreach & Development Chair for the New York Chapter. Prior to that he was the JETAA New York Newsletter Editor from 2002-2008, was invited to be the keynote speaker at the 2008 JETAA Canada National Conference, represented JETAANY at the 2005 JETAA International Conference, and has attended a number of JETAA national and regional conferences in over the years. A lawyer by training who studied at Waseda University and graduated from Duke Law School, Steven has an MA TESOL and a CELTA certificate, was Director of Legal English Programs at St. John's Law School from 2015-2020, and currently has worked as a Professor of Legal English at Georgetown Law since 2020. You can follow his work on the Georgetown Legal English Blog which he founded and runs. He enjoys helping JET alumni connect with each other and find and create work opportunities for themselves. Steven lives in Silver Spring, MD with his family and can often be found playing ultimate frisbee at nearby parks. (Click here to connect with him on LinkedIn)

Jim Gannon

Jim Gannon is CEO of Peace Winds America, a humanitarian group that provides emergency relief and humanitarian assistance around the world to disaster survivors, refugees, and other vulnerable people whose lives have been upended by disasters, conflict, and crises. Jim taught for two years on the JET Program in Ehime Prefecture from 1992 until 1994. From 2001 to 2021, he was executive director of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA), a foreign policy institute where he still serves as senior fellow. He then served as interim executive director of USJETAA from March 2022 until January 2023. He currently is vice chair of the US JET Program Alumni Association (USJETAA), and he previously was on the board of JETAANY.

Jim became reengaged in JET alumni activities in 2009, when the new Japanese government was debating whether to cut program funding. He helped mobilize an effort by alumni and US-Japan experts to speak in its defense privately and in the media, and briefed senior Japanese leaders on the diplomatic value of investing in JET alumni. After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, he helped manage the JETAA USA Earthquake Relief Fund and spearheaded alumni efforts to assist in the Tohoku recovery, including a disaster volunteer program in Rikuzentakata for JET participants and alumni. In 2011, he was selected to represent alumni from around the world in giving the keynote address in Tokyo for the Japanese government’s 25th anniversary symposium on the JET Program.

Ryan Hart

Ryan manages brand, content and sales initiatives for Milliman in Seattle. On the JET Program, Ryan taught in junior high and elementary schools in Ichihara-shi in Chiba Prefecture. After JET, he continued to live and work in Japan for 3.5 years, teaching and developing curriculum for AEON Corporation and moonlighting for Tokyo’s largest English weekly, Metropolis Magazine. Ryan served as president of the JETAA PNW Chapter from 2008-09, JETAA USA Country Representative from 2009-10, JETAAi Vice Chair from 2010-11 and was a presenter at the Returning JETs Conference in 2011. He now serves on the JETAA USA Advisory Board.

Monica Yuki

Originally from Malibu, California, Monica has resided in New York City since 2005. After graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder, she spent two years as an ALT in Iruma-shi, Saitama-ken, from 2002 to 2004. Following her time on Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), she moved to New York and joined JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY), serving as Social Chair and Vice President before assuming the role President for five years. Eventually she joined JETAANY’s Board of Directors, which she currently chairs. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit and one of the largest chapters in the United States, JETAANY has flourished under her leadership, strengthening not only its membership base but also its ties to other Japan-related organizations. Monica has been a driving force behind collaboration with CLAIR’s New York office, as well as the Consulate General of Japan in New York, Japan Society, the Japanese American Association of NY, the Japanese American National Museum in LA, and many other sectors of the Japanese community in New York and across the country. She also has met with countless Japanese officials and was instrumental in demonstrating the value of JET and JETAA when they came under threat during the administrative reform debates from 2009 to 2012, as well as in convincing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to expand its employment of JETs from 5 to well over 200. Furthermore, she has been deeply involved with predeparture orientations for new JETs and with JETAANY’s Career Forum for returnees and mid-career alumni.

In addition to her leadership roles at the chapter level, Monica served as a Country Representative from 2015 to 2020. Starting well before her time as Country Rep, Monica attended 11 JETAA USA National Conferences (NatCons), six of which she organized. Furthermore, she played a major role in organizing the 2017 NatCon in Washington, DC, which included the JET30 Reunion, hosted by USJETAA. While NatCon is already a major event, with participation by all 19 US chapters and over 50 attendees, JET30 more than doubled the scale of the gathering, drawing alumni from around the world. Building on this experience, Monica also helped organize JET35, held in 2022 by USJETAA in Seattle. Beyond this, she visited 13 of the 19 US chapters to support leadership development and improve chapter functions, discuss issues and concerns, learn about their activities, and share ideas and best practices in order to strengthen the chapters and the national community. In 2016 and 2019 she represented the US at the International Meetings held in Tokyo as one of three US Country Representatives on the Executive Committee for JETAA International. She has been a member of the JETAA USA Board of Advisors since 2020.

Monica also served on the working group that led to the creation of USJETAA, the national nonprofit sister organization to JETAA USA. After this, she held the ex officio JETAA USA representative seat on the Board of Directors for USJETAA from 2017, and was then taken on as a full Board member in her own right from 2020.

Mark Frey

Based in Northern California, Mark Frey has been a leader in JETAA and US-Japan exchange for over 20 years. He is a proud “Monbassador” cultural ambassador for Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, where he served as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) and County Leader on the JET Program. After returning from Japan, he served as Communications Coordinator, Vice President, and President of JETAA Northern California (JETAANC). He served two terms as Country Representative of JETAA USA. He served on the Working Committee of the JETAA USA Capacity Building Initiative that laid the groundwork for USJETAA, the national U.S. JET Program Alumni Association. He was selected by CLAIR to represent the U.S. on the JETAA Satogaeri Homecoming Project, which led him to launch the global JETAA KenJETkai Program to reconnect JET alumni with their home prefectures. He is a sought-after speaker who has presented at numerous JETAA USA and JETAA Canada National and Regional Conferences. Mark is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Oakland-Fukuoka Sister City Association (OFSCA). He is also currently teaching a Kabuki Theatre Appreciation class at the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California. Connect with him at linkedin.com/in/markfrey2.

Bahia Simons-Lane

Bahia Simons-Lane is the Executive Director at International Student Conferences (ISC). Prior to this, Ms. Simons-Lane was Executive Director of the national nonprofit U.S. Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme Alumni Association (USJETAA) for four years, furthering U.S.-Japan relations by supporting the network of more than 40,000 alumni of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program in the United States.

Simons-Lane was an English teacher in Japan with the JET Program from 2005 to 2007 and then the assistant language teacher (ALT) advisor for the Gunma Prefecture Board of Education, Compulsory Education Division. When she returned to the United States, she became president of the Florida JET Alumni Association. She held this volunteer position for 5 years, developing a deep understanding of the needs of grassroots alumni efforts and working with JETAA officers to grow the Chapter membership, strengthen ties with the Japanese community in Florida, and expand the digital reach of the Chapter.

Previously, Ms. Simons-Lane has worked as a graduate research assistant at the Office of Global Learning at Florida International University (FIU), editorial assistant for the Comparative and International Education Society, and office manager and then marketing analyst for a software and consulting company based in Washington, DC.

Ms. Simons-Lane holds a B.A. and graduate certificate in Theater Arts from the University of California – Santa Cruz. She earned her M.S. in International and Intercultural Education in 2014 and her Education Specialist (Ed.S) in Curriculum and Instruction: Language, Literacy, and Culture in 2022, both at Florida International University. Her research has focused on the implementation of global learning and on outcomes such as global perspectives arising from undergraduate learning.

You can email her at bsimonslane@iscdc.org