How a japanese american veteran paved her own path

It wasn’t until 2004, 25 years into Macri’s Navy service, that the Department of Defense formed a task force to address sexual harassment and assault in the military.​ RAND estimates that

1 in 16 women and 1 in 143 men experience sexual assault within the Department of Defense. On top of that were the “snide and rude remarks” she encountered about women in the operating

room: “ ‘We don’t need any women’; they say it right to your face.” Macri said she was foiled every time there was an assignment she wanted, and she was deemed not qualified to be an

orthopedic surgeon, work with the Marines, or be a doctor on a ship. In the end, she became a gynecologic oncologist.​​ Macri said she was undeterred by all the obstacles she faced. “You

just have to become more competent than them. When people aren’t doing their job and you call them out on it, you’re at least saving someone’s life. So I did that with regularity and earned

a reputation for being, truthfully, a great surgeon.”​​​ PAYING IT FORWARD ​ Macri’s résumé includes a variety of academic and executive leadership roles at the National Naval Medical

Center, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Naval Medical Education and Training Command, and the Uniformed Services University. But her most validating moment before leaving the Navy

in 2013 was when she was assigned to her final position: special assistant to the chief of naval operations for diversity. In that capacity, she was able to voice her thoughts on the

benefits to the military of embracing a diversity of races, ethnicities, genders and life experiences. Because she encountered relatively few Asians in the military when she served, let

alone Japanese Americans, Macri felt the greatest camaraderie with her teammates on the Navy’s women’s soccer team.​ ​“I was literally 15 years older than the next oldest person. Yet some

of those young ladies have kept in touch with me,” she said. “Since 1999, I’ve had absolutely great conversations with some of them. So I feel like I’ve been good at mentoring younger people

to help them make good decisions.” ​ Today she is a member of the executive council of the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA). In addition, she serves on the Maryland Governor’s

Commission on Suicide Prevention, the Maryland State Veterans Commission, the Montgomery County Veterans Commission, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Advisory Committee on Women

Veterans. ​She is also a volunteer physician at the Chinese Community and Cultural Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, providing COVID shots to older residents. She also conducts

outreach for Asian Indians for Community Service because she spent so much time in Pakistan in her youth and identifies with that community.​​ "The Asian community is multilayered.

There are a lot of immigrants who are first-generation, multigenerational households, and varying numbers of people from each country having variable skills, traditions and needs,” she said.

“None of us shares a distinct culture, language or religion. So it’s harder to come up with a single solution to answer an overarching problem within the community.”​ _JAVA will cosponsor

“The Go for Broke Spirit,” a photo exhibit featuring images of Japanese American veterans who served during World War II, by Los Angeles-based photographer Shane Sato. The exhibit will be at

the Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington, D.C., from June 9 to July 22, 2022._​