Japan offered sweet release from the immediate post-graduation pressures, and an enlightening contrast to the culture Kerri grew up with. “The interesting thing about Japan today is the preservation of the old, juxtaposed with this post industrial aesthetic. Within Tokyo for example, you can be surrounded by fluorescent lights and noise, and just round the corner be transported into a whole other world in a temple or a garden where it’s completely quiet.” Kerri was fascinated by, and quickly acclimatized to, the Japanese way of life. “Growing up as a bi-racial person I always thought ’I can navigate many different worlds‘. So, absolutely, going to some exotic place was exciting. I was never really worried about culture shock or feeling homesick or any of those things. And none of that happened.”
Kerri had only taken a year of Japanese at Yale, but felt a strong affinity for the language. “I think I was Japanese in previous lives.” She was complimented on her skills. “They told me, ‘Kerri, you’re a language sponge, your intonation, the way you speak, you get it. You are Japanese!’ I’m not fluent in Japanese, I can mimic very well, so for someone to say that to me, that was one of the biggest compliments ever.” Her communication skills allowed her insight into the people. “ The Japanese wear a veneer, they wear these masks. Obviously for an actress that’s very interesting. They wear this outer shell of politeness, of tradition, of packaging, and when you unpeel those layers you do get to the heart of who that person is. You have to be accepted into the culture to get to that heart.”
Soccer provided one cultural entry point. “A businessman taking my class also happened to be a soccer coach.” Kerri told him she was a player and he invited her to join a training session. “I went and played with his sons, and with their team and I was invited into their home. Once you’re accepted it’s just this consuming love. I had a friend who on my birthday – it’s part of a tradition – sent a card to my mother thanking my mother for my birth. That’s amazing. Those are the little moments in life where you say ‘this is why I am here, this is why I live and breathe.’”
Japan was more than a cultural experience. It helped Kerri find balance. “That year, my journal had quotes in it and one [from Herman Hesse] stuck with me: “Patience is the most difficult thing of all and the only thing that is worth learning.’ I needed to take a break from the whole college rat race and going on this track of life that you’re supposed to. It was the beginning of extreme self awareness and patience and really thinking about what I really wanted to do with my life.”
Kerri knew absolutely she had to forge a career in healthcare. The asthmatic little girl she once was grew up healthy, but then had to watch her mother suffer. “My Mom has battled many illnesses, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, she had scarlet fever, was in a coma, she died, came back to life, she’s always been this medical miracle to doctors. Her beloved grandmother and aunt, whom she refers to as her ‘creative guardian angels’, both died from sarcoidosis, an immune system disease. “Healthcare has always impacted my life in some way, shape or form.” She started out by working for the Medicare Rights Center in New York. She sought a non-profit that didn’t just have a healthcare focus, but one that also had a social mission.