Ellen Somekawa is a third generation Japanese American from Minneapolis. There she was an activist in the Asian American student movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and the movement for indigenous land rights in the Black Hills.

Ellen received her MA in history at Penn where her research focused on Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in Philadelphia. She was active in the Asian American Student Alliance, a group that successfully fought to get Penn to change the offensive name of the "Oriental" Studies Department and to initiate the beginnings of its Asian American Studies program.

Ellen joined Asian Americans United in 1988 -- which assisted her in her process of flunking out of the Ph.D. Program at Penn.

Over the past 20 years, Ellen has played many roles at AAU including directing the summer youth program, serving on the board of directors, and working on campaigns as an active member. She worked on campaigns such as pushing the justice system to respond to a racially motivated murder; mobilizing community opposition to the closure of a library serving an Asian and African American neighborhood, halting the proposed stadium construction that threatened to close off the only side of Chinatown not already blocked off by corporate development, and most recently the campaign to create a public institution in Chinatown, our own school, the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School. In 1996, Ellen became the Executive Director of Asian Americans United.