Paul Tokunaga

Third-generation Japanese American .  Grew up in San Jose, California.  Married to Margaret in 1977; Sam born in 1983.  Family resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Education: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, B.S. Journalism, 1973.  New College Berkeley, Master of Christian Studies, 1989.

Employed by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship since 1973 in a variety of leadership and management roles, including Southeast Regional Director, National Asian American Ministry Coordinator and Associate Dean for Leadership Development.

Currently, he serves as Vice-President, Director of Strategic Ministries, overseeing Greek, Nursing, International Students, Arts Students, Evangelism, Staff Development and Training and new ministries.
Paul is a co-author of Following Jesus Without Dishonoring Your Parents (1998), editor/co-author of Faith on the Edge (1999), author of The Power of Friendship (2002) and Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders (2003) all published by InterVarsity Press. He also edited Developing Asian American Leaders (1998), an in-house handbook for InterVarsity staff working with Asian American student leaders.  He has written many articles for Christian and secular publications.

Paul speaks regularly at conferences for adults and young professionals as well as for college students. He was a featured speaker at Urbana ’90.  A large part of his ministry in recent years has been consulting with senior and middle management in the development of Asian American and multiethnic ministry.

He is the founder/director of The Daniel Project, a 15-month intensive leadership development program to prepare Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans for senior leadership positions in InterVarsity.  He has also served on advisory councils for several Christian and secular organizations.  Paul was a founding board member of the Southeast Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League.  He is a registered conflict resolution court neutral for the Georgia and Florida legal systems.

Interests: fifteenth season as outfielder for Atlanta Astros of the Greater Atlanta Men’s Senior Baseball League, movies, American history between 1945-1955, Asian American history.  Paul tried out for the Atlanta Braves during the strike of 1995 but was persuaded to keep his day job.