A Conversation with Gayle Kojimoto

Tell us about your family. We'd love to hear about you growing up here in San Francisco.

My mom is Chinese American, and my dad is Japanese American. They met in the early ’70s in San Francisco while working at an Asian community center in Chinatown. Both were deeply involved in community activism, including unionizing sweatshop workers and working on other community projects. My family history pretty much reflects much of what you find in history books.

On my mom’s side, my grandfather was an illegal immigrant and a “paper son.” My mom’s maiden name is hyphenated as Eng-Wong—Eng being her family name and Wong, the paper name. My grandfather had three wives, two of whom were in China, before meeting my grandmother in New Jersey. My grandmother, a devout Christian, was the oldest of five children and the middle of thirteen siblings overall. My mom, however, did not share her strong Christian beliefs.

When my mom attended college during the height of the civil rights movement, she began her journey as an activist. She even participated in the March on Selma to show solidarity with the movement.

On my dad’s side, my grandparents were incarcerated during World War II in Japanese American internment camps. My grandfather served in the 442nd Regiment Battalion, which remains the most highly decorated battalion in U.S. history.

Because of my grandfather’s wartime experience and my grandmother attending high school while incarcerated, it was an interesting upbringing for my dad. On one hand, they embraced a very Americanized lifestyle, but on the other, being part of the Japanese American community in San Francisco was integral to their identity. This created a sort of push-and-pull dynamic when it came to cultural identity.

My dad attended UC Berkeley in 1969 and was actively involved in the Third World Liberation Strike. This movement sought to establish ethnic studies programs at colleges across the US, bringing together African American, Native American, Hispanic American, and Asian American communities to ensure their histories were not erased.

Growing up hearing these stories, I have always considered myself a person of color in solidarity with these groups. At the same time, I recognize that, as an East Asian American woman, there is a degree of privilege I carry that others may not share. Not everyone views us as part of the marginalized community.

Growing up in San Francisco – awesome! It was a little bubble of sorts. When I went to college at UC Davis, I did experience a bit of a culture shock, even though it isn’t that far away. I was like “What do you mean, you don’t eat raw fish? Everybody eats raw fish.”

As a child, I attended a Japanese Bilingual Bicultural elementary school. Many of the kids were mixed like me, but I didn’t always feel completely included. For example, if you were Buddhist, you could join a certain group, or if you spoke Japanese at home, you could join another group. I didn’t do either of those things! So, thinking back to this early experience, inclusivity has always been important to me.

You touched on it a bit already, but you are so passionate about DEI within our division and UCSF. Was there a specific moment growing up that you thought, I need to do this, especially seeing your parents as activists?

It’s always been part of the culture at home. There were probably two times when I felt particularly invigorated and passionate about it. The first was during college, where I was exposed to new and different ideas about culture and identity and felt I had the support to develop my own belief system. I majored in Psychology and had this dream of opening a community center that would provide mental health services. This was during a time when mental health wasn’t openly discussed. I even assigned my friends roles in planning this center, which they thought was a bit crazy. While it hasn’t come to fruition, the idea was deeply important to me.

The second time was during the pandemic and around the time of George Floyd. It brought so many issues to the surface and in your face. Not to mention the Asian hate at that time. It was a reminder of the feeling of being “othered” and of the systemic inequities playing out in the media.

Within our division, it was clear how these events affected everyone. I appreciated seeing how much people cared and how these issues were brought to the forefront. Steve recognized the importance of addressing this, which led to Bridget, Yuika, and me forming what was then the Anti-Racism Taskforce. I felt a bit like a fish out of water, but I relied on my lived experiences.

With the holidays coming up, do you have a favorite family tradition and memories attached to it?

I love jellied cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving! We must have jellied cranberry sauce. Every Thanksgiving, we go away because that is the holiday set aside for just the four of us, so we go to the mountains to try and find snow. We love Hallmark holiday movies. We love holiday movies of all sorts, but mostly cheesy, romantic, holiday movies.

Sticking to the holidays - the DPM ornaments! When did you start making them and what got you started?

I started making the ornaments probably around my first or second Christmas with the SMS. I just love to craft, and I wanted to do something for everyone, but I could not afford to do something for everyone on a grand scale. So, it started off in the SMS Wednesday IDT meetings. I didn’t know exactly how many people came at that time, but I would make these ornaments and bring them to the meeting and let people take them.

I think the first ornament was a ceramic ornament or star, and I painted it “SMS 2011”. It just became this tradition that I would do this, and it got bigger and bigger.

Around 2018 was probably the first year I started giving them out at the Palliative Care meetings since this pre-dated the start of the division. They still said SMS on them but in 2019, they for sure said DPM.

It varies from year to year and what inspires me, but the tradition continues.

You dabble or have dabbled in a few arts and crafts; can you tell us about what kinds of things you’ve done? Of these, what has been your favorite?

I knit, crochet, needlepoint, and sew – although my poor sewing machine recently died! I do a lot of paper crafts. I have a cricket. I’ve done alcohol ink and resin. I try different things at different times. It comes and goes in waves.

Favorites – probably knitting and multi-media projects.

Kiana says my love language is gifting things, so I often do crafts based on the gifts I’ll be giving.

Writing: You do a lot of that here at DPM from newsletters, poetry, and facilitating writing sessions. Was it always something you were into, or more so when you started with DPM?

Funny story: I used to write really teeny bopper things in the style of Sweet Valley High! I used to hate writing when I was in elementary school, but my 4^th and 5^th grade teacher would make us journal, and it could be on anything. At this point, I realized that I could write whatever I wanted and use my imagination more, and each week of journaling would be a different ongoing story, and I really liked that.

After middle school, I didn’t really write outside of school. I liked writing letters and could write pages! When the kids were younger, I used to have a crafting blog! I don’t know what happened to the blog now. With social media and all, it takes a lot to keep it up.

I found my voice again around the time of the pandemic and George Floyd. We also started doing poetic medicine around that time and I kind of just realized the outlet of writing.

For a little while, the MERI center had a little blog going, talking about racism and inequities. Now, I write the MERI newsletter and must think of something every month and try to make it different, so finding inspiration can be challenging, but when I do, it’s like, “Just keep writing!”  

You have been with UCSF for 20 years; how did you get started here? We'd love to hear about your journey.

I am a third-generation UCSF employee. My grandmother worked for UCSF in pediatrics and would probably be considered a Practice Coordinator.

My mom was looking for a job when my parents moved us to San Francisco from New York when I was about four years old, so my grandmother just said to apply to UCSF.  My mom started at UC around 1981 or 1982 working front desk at OB/GYN. She then worked in pediatric hematology and neurology. In 2004 or 2005, she was laid off, but this was also around the time my grandmother was diagnosed with dementia, so my mom took early retirement to help my grandparents.

I do have to say, that wherever my mom worked at UCSF, if I had to go into the office with her, she would put me to work. In high school, I volunteered in the office and had an early clinical research job before it was an official position, so I’ve been working here forever!

After I moved back to the city and got married, when Arnold became Governor, I was working for a non-profit doing front-line social services. I was a little worried about my job at the time and needed some stability and no place is as stable as UCSF! So, my mom ran into this woman she knew at UCSF, and the woman said, “Send me her resume!” That’s how I started. Yes, I’m a nepo baby.

I started in general surgery then quickly moved to colorectal surgery. After being in colorectal surgery for almost four years and moving up to Practice Supervisor, I decided that I needed a change. I went to the float pool and worked at all different kinds of places on the clinical side of things. Finally, I got a position with Symptom Management and met Mike, and he absolutely sold Palliative Care to me. I was like, “I don’t care what I do in Palliative Care; I want to do it!” I want to be a part of this thing where we take care of pretty much any kind of distress that a person with a serious illness is experiencing and consider them as a whole person. We consider the patient, their family, and their caregiver. I remember wishing my grandparents had this type of care.

As a newbie, I would love to know what has kept you here and keeps you sustained. Through your years here at DPM and at UCSF, is there something you are particularly proud of? What advice would you give?

I think finding that place where you feel passionate, that you feel you are contributing to something that means something to you and is worthwhile is crucial. Equally important is working with people you like. If you have the combination of people you enjoy working with and a cause that is important to you, then that is the key to self-sustaining, resilient work.

Additionally, working in a system that isn’t going to drain the life out of you. We are very lucky in the division that resilience and burnout are things we are proactively trying to work on and make better.

Finish this sentence: “When people look at me, they would never guess that I…”

Played basketball – and hate watermelon!