April 13, 2020
The Palos Verdes Art Center Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Daniela Saxa-Kaneko has been named the Art Center’s Executive Director, effective immediately. Ms. Saxa-Kaneko’s history of exemplary service to PVAC has been extraordinary and her allegiance, passion, and loyalty have been evident from the beginning of her appointment as Interim Executive Director, as well as in her previous Membership Coordinator role. We are indebted to her leadership and look forward to a sustainable, fruitful future under her steady guidance.
Daniela Saxa-Kaneko is a graduate of Whittier Law School, has a legal master’s degree from the Strauss Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law, bachelor degrees from USC and Woodbury University and extensive administrative experience, both in the nonprofit and the private sector.
Before joining PVAC, she served as Executive Director of Loew Vision Rehabilitation Institute, where she helped build a comprehensive vision rehabilitation clinic from the ground up. She is also an accomplished facilitator, who managed the mediation program of the Disability Rights Legal Center, and served as a contract mediator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Orange County Human Relations Council and the Los Angeles County Office of Affirmative Action Compliance.
Prior to joining the Disability Mediation Center, Ms. Saxa Kaneko practiced civil rights and human rights law at the law firm of Fleishman and Fisher and in her own private practice. She is also a multifaceted artist who worked in the fashion industry before the inequities in that field inspired her to pursue law and mediation.
Ms. Saxa Kaneko joined PVAC in the fall of 2016 as Membership Coordinator, has since then also taken on the Art Center’s human resources functions, worked on the Raffle and intermittently managed its gift shop. As she is also a long-time member, former student and member of two affiliated artist groups, she brings to her new position a unique and comprehensive understanding of all the Art Center’s constituencies and the complex issues we face at this time.