Manami grew up in an extended family near Mt. Fuji in Japan. She is the oldest of four children, and her grandmothers were always around. This experience taught her caregiving and passion in senior care.

She came to Portland as a student after obtaining a bachelor degree in English in Japan. Then she got married and decided to stay in Portland. To establish a career in healthcare, she went back to school when her children were preschoolers. She completed pre-nursing programs at Portland Community College, and then obtained the Bachelor’s degree in nursing at Oregon Health and Science University in 2000. After several years of bedside nursing experience, she obtained the master’s degree in nursing with family practitioner at Oregon Health and Science University in 2008. Then she completed the post-master certificate in geriatrics at Oregon Health and Science University in 2009. She had worked night shifts while attending graduate school and taking care of children. She is licensed in both Oregon and Washington, and nationally certified family and geriatric nurse practitioner.

     Her main interest remained geriatric although she had worked in various clinical specialties as a staff nurse and nurse practitioner. She felt that experiencing various acuities and specialties would make her a better clinician.

Her nursing experiences include long term care, acute care, ICU (Oregon Health and Science University where Renee worked), and research. Her nurse practitioner experiences include hematology/oncology, geriatric medicine, family medicine, and hospital medicine. She had worked as a hospitalist nurse practitioner in a major hospital in Vancouver, Washington, since 2019. She recently cut back the hospitalist job to part-time to take care of her husband who is a stage 4 head and neck cancer survivor. She joined Agewell Geriatrics for the passion in senior care and flexible schedule that allows her to balance between work and caregiving. She will continue to work as a hospitalist while she can.

She does not feel that hospitals are the best options for geriatric patients, especially those with dementia. Although hospitals are absolutely necessary in some cases, many chronic and some acute conditions can be managed outside the hospitals while patients can remain in the comfort of their homes. She has learned the benefit and limitation of hospital medicine by working as a hospitalist.

     Manami is also interested in healthy aging. She is an avid figure skater, and practices several times a week. She hopes to continue to jump and spin when she is 80 year old. She also enjoys running, cooking, growing organic Asian cucumbers in the summer, and spending time with her family. She has kept her husband well enough to stay home over 15 years post cancer treatment.