An inspiring event featuring women in community service.

Women are using their gifts to bring positive change to their communities. 

                       Five accomplished Japan and Tennessee connected women share their perspectives on community leadership and giving back.

Keynote Speaker

Tracy Kornet is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning lead news anchor,  host, and writer at the Nashville NBC affiliate, WSMV-TV. 

As a French and International Relations major at Vanderbilt University,  Tracy spent intermittent semesters working in Japan as Cinderella at Tokyo  Disneyland and singing backup for the Japanese pop star, ANRI.

Tracy earned her MBA in 2022, which reignited her passion for  international affairs and was honored to join the U.S.-Japan Council as  a  Council Leader earlier this year.

  Awarded Best News Anchor multiple times by the Tennessee Associated  Press, Tracy is a passionate non-profit board member, emcee/speaker, and  community volunteer. A proud member of the 2018 class of Leadership  Nashville, Tracy serves on the state board of Habitat for Humanity and the  Advisory Board for UpRise Nashville, a career training program helping pull  people out of poverty through education and job placement. She is a former  co-chair and long-time board member of the Sexual Assault Center of  Nashville.

Tracy's almost 30-year television career started in Lexington, Kentucky.  She spent six years in Phoenix and eight in Dallas/Fort Worth before returning  to Nashville in 2014, where she's enjoyed multiple career highlights, including  interviewing three U.S. presidents and field anchoring the 2020 Presidential  debate at Belmont University.

A wife and mother of three grown children, Tracy's husband Frank played  basketball for the Vanderbilt Commodores and the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, and  their 7’2” son Luke, also a Vandy grad, now plays with the Boston Celtics.

Introductory Remarks

Global companies, particularly those based in Japan, look to Masami Izumida Tyson for guidance when doing business in the U.S.  market. As leader of  Womble Bond Dickinson’s Japan Practice, Masami  provides Japanese  businesses with a wide range of corporate and economic  development  counsel, including helping clients with understanding the  process of setting up  operations in the U.S., as well as structuring and  negotiating complex  contracts and general corporate matters in either  Japanese or English.

In addition to her legal guidance, Japanese companies rely on Masami as  a trusted business advisor. Masami, a native of Yokohama, Japan, uses her  deep understanding of both U.S. and Japanese business cultures and her  extensive experience with the Japanese business community to help business  leaders operate successfully in the U.S. She also provides this same level of  legal, business and cultural guidance to U.S. clients wanting to do business in  Japan. 

Masami is the former Global Director of Foreign Direct Investment and  Trade for the State of Tennessee. There, she liaised with international,  diplomatic, and economic offices, maintained strategic oversight for all  overseas teams facilitating economic development in Tennessee, provided  support to companies located in Tennessee, and advised state leadership on  matters relating to foreign affairs. 

Prior to her time with the State of Tennessee, Masami served in several  in-house counsel roles, including Senior Counsel for Nissan North America. At  Nissan, she completed marketing deals with large sponsors and contracts r  relating to advanced technology, such as autonomous driving, electric vehicles  (EV) and more. Her in-house experience also includes closing a number of  large corporate transactions with Japanese Fortune 500 companies.

Yurina Yoshikawa is the Director of Education at The Porch. 

Yurina holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and her writing has  appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, Lit Hub, The Japan Times, and elsewhere.  She was the winner of the 2020 Tennessee True Stories Contest and a 2021  recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission. 

Yurina serves on the boards of two local nonprofits - the Nashville  Philharmonic Orchestra and API Middle Tennessee. She hosts and curates the  virtual book club for the Japan-America Society of Tennessee that focuses on  contemporary Japanese novels translated into English. She is also  an associate of the U.S.-Japan Council where she is a co-organizer of their  Artists & Creatives group. 

Yurina has lived in Tokyo, Palo Alto, and New York before settling down in  Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and two sons. For  more information, visit www.yurinayoshikawa.com.

Lyndi Berrones returned to her home state of Tennessee in 2017 to work  for the Department of Economic and Community Development. Lyndi started  as a statewide recruitment director and is now the department’s regional  director for Greater Nashville. She spends her days creating jobs for  Tennesseans by recruiting new companies to her thirteen-county region and  helping existing companies expand. Lyndi has directly assisted in the creation  of more than 30,000 new direct jobs and $6 billion in new capital investment  for the State across various industry sectors from headquarters and I.T. to  heavy manufacturing and distribution/logistics with wins under her belt to  include Oracle, LG Chem, In-N-Out Burgers, Nashville Record Pressing, New  Balance  Athletics, Chick-Fil-A Supply, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and others.

Prior to joining TNECD, Lyndi lived and worked in Santiago, Chile and then  served as the economic development director for Miami-Dade County until  2016. She received the prestigious Excellence in Economic Development  Award in 2019 and TEDC’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2021 and was just recently awarded Nashville  Business Journal’s Women of Influence in 2022 and the Governor’s Excellence in Service Award in 2023. 

Lyndi holds a master’s degree in international business from the  University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business and an executive  certificate from Harvard Business School. In her free time, she serves as the  head cheerleading coach for the Hermitage Seahawks recreational league.

 

Sarah Lingo has worked in Nashville and Tennessee politics for the  majority of her career, including with former Tennessee Governor Phil  Bredesen in his Administration working for the Tennessee Department of  Mental Health and on his 2018 bid for U.S. Senate and with former Nashville  Mayor David Briley. 

Sarah completed a two-year service in the United States Peace Corps,  serving in Thailand from 2012-2014, and was the head of Corporate  Sponsorships at Nashville Zoo for three years before joining Sister Cities of  Nashville. She currently runs the international non-profit Sister Cities of  Nashville, which offers global and cultural opportunities to Nashvillians of all  ages and backgrounds to connect with citizens and organizations across the  world. 

Originally from Ohio, Sarah moved to Nashville in 2004, and it has been  her home since.