Bradford (BJ) Yamamoto, Jr.

I grew up in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, raised by my grandparents on the Big Island. Public schools shaped me. Community grounded me. And somewhere in fifth grade, when a trombone was placed in my hands, I found my voice. Music became everything to me. I took it seriously, getting good at playing the trombone and euphonium, and I had a simple, clear goal: I wanted to teach band. I wanted to give other kids what music had given me.

That desire to teach led me to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where I pursued music education and deepened my commitment to the craft. From there, I moved into classrooms, teaching band and orchestra in the public schools, living out the purpose I had carried since fifth grade. But beneath the surface, I was struggling. Mood swings and difficult interactions with the people around me shadowed those years in ways I could not yet explain.

It wasn't until I moved to California that everything came to a head. A mental breakdown led me to a diagnosis I had long needed: bipolar disorder. Later, a diagnosis of ADHD added another layer of understanding to a life that often felt like it was working against itself. What started then was a journey with mental disability that I still navigate today—one that has shaped my inner life, my work, and my understanding of what it means to persist.

The diagnosis shifted my perspective on the classroom. I wasn’t ready to go back to teaching. Not yet, and not in the same way. So, I pursued another passion. I returned to undergraduate studies at Cal State LA as a political science major, while continuing to develop as a musician and shifting my focus toward academic and civic engagement. That path led me to Claremont Graduate University, where I studied public policy with a focus on education policy, a field that allowed me to think deeply about the systems that influence learning, opportunity, and community.

It was there that I rediscovered my path. Not just to education as a subject, but to education as a conviction. The belief I had held since childhood: that education can shape individuals and change society, which became a clear, renewed focus and purpose.
With a clearer understanding of myself, I started to rebuild. I stepped into leadership and entrepreneurship, serving as Executive Director of a music education nonprofit, founding several private companies, including a data science startup, and developing a career at the crossroads of education, community, and innovation. I was always moving, always creating, always believing that education, in all its forms, could transform people's lives.

Then everything stopped.

A medication reaction caused acute kidney failure. I nearly died and woke up from a coma, unable to communicate, feeling like I was in a world suddenly unfamiliar because of my own body. The experience left me with a speech impediment that still affects how my tongue moves today. It also meant I could no longer play trombone or euphonium at a proficient level. The instruments that had defined me for decades were no longer fully mine.

I was also going through the end of a long-term relationship. Having lost much of what I had based my identity on, I had to reflect deeply on who I was and my purpose. Out of that stillness came clarity.

Alongside two colleagues, Kuʻulei Arceo and Rickey Badua, I co-founded AlohaMusic, a nonprofit dedicated to organizing all-state music events in Hawaiʻi. It was a return to my roots. A way to serve the community that raised me, through the art form that first gave me purpose. After years of loss and reinvention, I had finally found my way back to music.

Recently, I took a significant step in my lifelong pursuit of understanding. I am now a doctoral student in the PhD program in Education at Claremont Graduate University, where my research concentrates on education as a public good and the role that arts and music education play within it. I serve as a graduate assistant in the School of Educational Studies, and my days are filled with nonprofit management, coursework, and a growing research agenda that combines everything I have experienced and everything I believe.

The practitioner turned scholar. A lifelong learner living up to the title.

I believe education changes individuals. I believe it changes communities. I have seen it. I have experienced it. And I am not finished yet.