Staff & Board

Daughter of George Nakashima and co-owner of George Nakashima Woodworkers. Born in Seattle and incarcerated in Minidoka, Idaho in 1942, Mira moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania in 1943, and attended New Hope-Solebury and Solebury School. Graduating cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, she received a Masters in Architecture from Waseda University in Tokyo in 1966, married one of her classmates, Tetsu Amagasu, and has four children: Satoru, Maria, Shanti and Misha, plus seven grandchildren. Mira returned to New Hope in 1970, began working part-time at Nakashima’s, and took over as creative director of the woodworking operation when her father, George, died in 1990. She has been a member of the Foundation since its inception in 1984 and is now married to Jonathan Yarnall.

Born in Germantown of Quaker background, Jon attended Germantown Friends School and Earlham College, where he majored in Political Science. He started as an assistant to the late master carpenter Robert Lovett, then apprenticed to the Austrian-trained Adam Martini in the Chair Department, where he has worked since 1974, and married Mira in 1985. He is a student of mysticism from Quakerism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Japanese Zen and Tibetan Buddhism to Sri Aurobindo, George’s guru.

John received his BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design in 1984 from Rochester Institute of Technology. He taught woodworking at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Penland School of Crafts. He worked for Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers in Maine, for over 18 years as designer, where he was awarded design patents and innovation design awards. In 2008, John began as General Manager of George Nakashima Woodworkers, and continues to create his own works while focusing on the process of making traditional forms. John earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from LaSalle’s Nonprofit Center and is a Board Officer for the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia.

Having met Nakashima in 1975, Miriam has been involved in the consecration of the Altar of Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the installation of the Peace Table in Auroville, from where she led three global connections. She facilitated the Nakashima room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and brought Madame Ban Ki Moon and UN diplomatic women to the campus. She worked to start the Tools for Peace workshop program at the Foundation. She was also able to help coordinate the 3rd Peace Award to Steven Rockefeller which his son graciously received for him. Miriam is a best selling author, certified Reiki Master Teacher, healing intuitive, speaker and founder of The Wellness Agenda LLC. With a MAT from Brown University, she has notably taught at The MMA, the UN and the US Department of Labor.

Irene Etkin Goldman first met George Nakashima in 1989 when she led a group of visiting artists from Russia to meet with him at his studio. Nakashima spoke of his dream to surround the globe with tables of peace. He asked if she would join in the dream, finding a place for peace tables in Russia and beyond. Believing that Art plays an important role in peacemaking, she was honored to have become his friend, and to continue working on realizing his vision.

Among other organizations, Irene also has a long association with the Coalition for Peace Action as an activist, board member and chair emerita. She was honored nationally as one of “100 Women Peacemakers – Five Generations”; she was also inducted into the Douglass Society of Douglass College, Rutgers University “For outstanding achievements in the areas of human rights and activism”.

After a corporate career in broadcasting and publishing, Katherine was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and started her own firm in strategic planning and marketing. She is the Executive Director of Einstein’s Alley, a non-profit corporation focused on expanding technology and entrepreneurship in New Jersey. Throughout her career and free time, she has focused on building organizations that promote diversity and inclusion. She also enjoys serving on the boards of several non-profits.