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Long-time philanthropy leader Roger Nozaki has joined the United States-Japan Foundation as a senior advisor to support USJF leadership and staff on initiatives, including their work to advance the social sector in Japan.
"We are thrilled to be able to tap into Roger's deep expertise as we deepen our focus on boosting philanthropy in Japan," said USJF president Jacob M. Schlesinger. "Roger is the rare person who can bridge the social impact ecosystems in our two countries – and we look forward to working with him to expand that field."
“I am thrilled by the United States-Japan Foundation’s commitment to support and strengthen the social sector in Japan,” said Nozaki, “and the opportunity for mutual exchange and learning with the U.S. It’s a privilege to work with the foundation and their partners to explore new ideas and approaches to advance these goals.”
Over his career, Nozaki has designed, implemented, advised, and taught strategies for social impact and innovation across corporate, government, nonprofit, philanthropy/family office, and academic sectors. He has developed and led strategies that leveraged a range of resources and partnerships for impact, with focuses from local community to regional, national, and global levels.
From 2016-2025, Nozaki served as Vice President for Strategy & Programs at the Barr Foundation, where he was a member of the executive team and oversaw grantmaking strategies, initiatives, and learning and evaluation. In those years, the foundation grew its board and roughly doubled its staff and grantmaking, leading to nearly $3 billion in assets and $130 million in grantmaking in 2025, while building an approach that was widely recognized for being values-driven, highly strategic, and centered on grantees and communities. Since leaving Barr, he established Peninsula Field Strategies, a social impact strategy consultancy.
Before joining Barr, Nozaki served as a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Education, working with the Department and the White House to advance equity, innovation, and quality outcomes in higher education. At Brown University, he served as an academic dean, directed the public service center, oversaw the study abroad program and career center, and co-taught a course on the theory and practice of philanthropy. Prior to Brown, he worked for the Hitachi Foundation, which the company had established to explore and exemplify what corporate citizenship meant for a Japanese multinational operating in the U.S., and held several roles at the GE Foundation, including as executive director.
Nozaki was selected as a member of the 2025 Japanese American Leadership Delegation (JALD), sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and U.S.-Japan Council (USJC). He is a Council Leader at USJC and has served on many boards and committees, including the 2022 Independent Sector CEO search committee, the Independent Sector board and committees, the Council on Foundations Corporate Committee, the Connecticut College President’s Leadership Council, and the Institute for College Access and Success board. He chaired the board of Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) and served as one of the leads for a 2014 TOMODACHI grant it received to advance learning and exchange between Japanese and U.S. universities on social entrepreneurship and innovation.
Nozaki is one of two sons of post-war immigrants from Japan and grew up in the Midwest. His father and paternal grandparents were involved in educational and business exchange between the U.S. and Japan, dating back to the Japanese government’s support of his grandparents’ study in Chicago in 1922-23. He holds degrees from Princeton and Brown Universities, with additional graduate coursework at Georgetown University.
The United States-Japan Foundation was established in 1980 with the mission of improving relations between the two countries. It has since given out more than $100 million in grants and oversees the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program with a network of 500 fellows from the two countries.
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