The Japanese American Citizens League Pacific Southwest District will present Community Achievement Award to Professor Mitchell T. Maki, assistant professor in the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research and a respected scholar on the Japanese American redress movement.

In September, 1997, Maki, along with Dr. Harry Kitano and Megan Berthold, received a Civil Liberties Public Education Fund grant and coordinated the"Voices of Japanese American Redress Conference" held at UCLA. This conference brought together seventy of the high profile participants in the redress campaign to engage in discussions and an analysis of the movement.

Along with Kitano and Berthold, he authored "Achieving the Impossible Dream, How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress,"a detailed description of the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. In December, 2000 the book was a recipient of the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award which is given to books addressing the study of bigotry and human rights in North America.

He is also the author of numerous articles on the delivery of social services to ethnic minority populations. In 1998 Maki received the UCLA Department of Social Welfare's nomination for a university wide distinguished teaching award. He received his bachelor's degree in Public Affairs and his master's and doctorate degrees in Social Work from the University of Southern California. Maki is a licensed clinical social worker and has provided mental health services in various health and social service settings.

Also an active participant in the Asian and Pacific Islander American community in Los Angeles, Maki serves on the boards of the Asian American Drug Abuse Program, Inc, the Bruggermeyer Memorial Library in Monterey Park, and is also a member of the advisory board for the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program. Maki has served as the Vice President of the East Los Angeles chapter of the JACL and was an active member of the JACL PSWD's Civil Rights Caucus.