Peggy A. Nagae

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Peggy A. Nagae 

Peggy A. Nagae, a third-generation Japanese American, grew up on a farm in Boring, Oregon, USA and earned an AB from Vassar College in East Asian Studies, JD from Lewis and Clark Law School, and an MA from the University of Santa Monica in Spiritual Psychology.

Peggy was a trial attorney at Betts, Patterson and Mines in Seattle, WA; assistant dean, at the University of Oregon School of Law; partner, Nagae, Nash and Hoarfrost; senior trial attorney, Urban Indian Council indigent criminal defense program; and a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at Multnomah County Legal Aid in Portland, Oregon.

Peggy served as the third president and first female president for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (“NAPABA”); vice-chair of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity; president of the Asian Bar Association of Washington (“ABAW”); and a  board member of the Asian American Justice Center, The Center for APA women, and the Oregon Women’s Political Caucus, to name a few.

In addition to representing Minoru Yasui in reopening his WWII Japanese American exclusion case, she is recognized for her community service on the Japanese American Citizens League National Redress Committee, which formulated the Congressional legislation for redress; and as one of President Clinton’s appointees to the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund Board, where $3.5 million dollars in grants were awarded so that the injustices borne by Japanese Americans would not be repeated.

From 2014-15, as co-founder of the Minoru Yasui Tribute Committee, Peggy spearheaded Mr. Yasui’s successful nomination for a Presidential Medal of Freedom, which President Obama awarded posthumously in November of 2015. In 2016, she worked with the Japanese American community and the ACLU of Oregon to pass legislation creating a permanent Minoru Yasui Day.  She continues to work on the Minoru Yasui Legacy Project, a program under the Japanese American Museum of Oregon.

Peggy recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for White Men as Full Diversity Partners/Full Diversity Partners Global for over 2 years. She is a senior consultant with the organization. Her work focuses on leadership development; diversity, equity and inclusion; executive coaching; strategic planning; change management; and potentiating the human spirit at work. Peggy’s work is collaborative, values-based and heart-driven.