Yuko Kodama

Yuko Kodama (she/her) moved to Seattle in 1995 and was introduced to the South End working as a Seattle City intern and Sound Transit Community liaison for Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley. She met with neighborhood groups, service organizations, small business owners, and knocked on doors along MLK Jr. Way and Rainier Avenue to speak with residents. She came to love the people, diverse culture, and amazing foods in Southeast Seattle. Yuko is also passionate about the critical role community media plays in our information landscape. She’s dedicated over 30 years to uplifting the voices of diverse lived experiences as an award-winning journalist, and most recently, as KBCS-FM news director. She’s covered topics like equitable access to transportation and health services, and how people organize to support and protect one another. Her work has been featured on NPR’s "All Things Considered" and "National Native News," as well as on JWAVE Radio (Tokyo) and ZIP FM (Nagoya) in Japan. Yuko loves Emerald™ stories that connect us to each other and our humanity. For her, landing at the Emerald™ is coming home to the community she loves.