Dr. David P. Janes

Chair, Board of Trustees
EngageAsia

Dr. Janes is Chair and Co-Founder of EngageAsia. He was formerly Executive Director of Global Citizens Initiative, a global education nonprofit that builds ethical leaders through programs for high school students, teachers, and schools around the world. Prior to this David served as Chief Advancement Officer, Office of the President, at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and President and CEO of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Foundation (OIST Foundation.) He is a highly respected strategic leader with over 25 years of experience in US-Japan relations, philanthropy, and international education at major universities and non-profits.

Before his work with OIST, Dr. Janes was Director of Foundation Grants and Assistant to the President at the United States-Japan Foundation, where he led the Foundation’s multi-million dollar grant-making program and served as the public face of the Foundation to potential and current grantees in the U.S. and Japan. He served at the Foundation for nearly 18 years and managed over 100 active grantees annually and had key responsibility for fiscal and programmatic oversight of these organizations’ grant-related programs. David’s work emphasizes educational exchange in the U.S. and Japan, and he has worked extensively with teachers and students. He founded the Foundation’s Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Awards, conceived of Stanford University’s Reischauer Scholars Program, which brings together top scholars of Japanese culture with high school students in the U.S., and has assisted numerous organizations to integrate service-learning into their projects.

David is Chair of the Board of the Japan ICU (International Christian University) Foundation; Executive Vice President, COO, and Treasurer of the American Friends of the International House of Japan; Vice Chair of Board of Directors of the AmerAsian School in Okinawa; Vice President of LEX America Research Foundation; Trustee of the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns; a Board Member for the John Manjiro-Whitfield Center for International Exchange; a Scott M. Johnson Fellow of the United States-Japan Leadership Program; a Fellow of the British-American Project; a Fellow of the U.S.-Japan Network for the Future directed by the Mansfield Foundation; a Member of the French-American Foundation Transatlantic Forum. Dr. Janes is also a member of the International House of Japan, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the U.S.-Japan Council, the American Sociological Association, and the Association for Asian Studies.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, David Janes earned a Master of Arts degree in Religion from the University of Hawaii, focusing on Japanese religious traditions. He then studied in the Department of Theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar. David is also a graduate of the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Japan, where he obtained a certificate in Japanese language and culture. In 2005, David received a Master of Arts in International Affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and he holds a Certificate in the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict from the same institution. David holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research where he was a University in Exile Fellow.