Our Executive Director
JakinDee Perez Kosaka
Executive Director
JakinDee Perez Kosaka is a Chamorrita, born on Guam and raised in the states and Germany, as the daughter of an Army veteran. She and her family has lived in Arizona since 2006. JakinDee serves as a Workforce Development Instructor for the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department, where she helps people improve their education, find employment, and prepare for advancement in their careers.
JakinDee spent over five years as an employment coach specializing in helping people with criminal backgrounds re-enter the workforce. She is a lifelong learner who enjoys sharing resources with others. When she isn’t working, she enjoys volunteering, mentoring and sharing scouting outdoor adventures with her family.
After serving as the Board Chair of Island Liaison from 2022 to 2026, JakinDee was appointed Interim Executive Director upon resignation of our founder and prior Executive Director, Claudia Kaercher.
Our Board Members
Xena Baza
Board Chair and Board Secretary
Xena Baza currently serves as Island Liaison's Board Chair and Board Secretary. She also chairs the Scholarship Committee. She was born to a Chamorro father and Mexican mother whom were both in the U.S. Army. She grew up in Japan for 12 years, mostly in Okinawa. After arriving to Arizona in 2014, she now considers herself a Phoenician. A proud Sun Devil, she graduated from ASU with a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Pacific American Studies and Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management. She began as an Intern with Island Liaison to complete her Masters capstone project on increasing nonprofit capacity. Xena is currently employed at the Arizona State University School of Technology for Public Health as the inaugural Director of the Public Health Technology Corps. In this role, she connects students will experiential learning opportunities with community and industry partners to produce technology-enabled solutions to public health issues.
Joni Pourchot
Board Treasurer
Joni Pourchot is the owner of Pourchot Accounting, LLC, which provides accounting services for non-profits and other small business in the greater Phoenix area and consults on non-profit governance. She has 20-plus years of non-profit accounting experience, including budgeting, audit preparation, business connections, and department supervision. Joni holds an MBA with accounting emphasis from the Keller School of Management of DeVry University and a bacherlor's degree in microbiology from Arizona State University. Joni also pursued a year of advanced study at Moody Bible Institute.
Merci J. Hernandez
Director of Culture
Born on Guam, Merci J. Hernandez has made Arizona her home for the past 20 years. An employee of the Judiciary, she serves as a Departmental Liaison with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and works closely with the Victim Advocacy Office. As a former member of the Maricopa County Diversity Council, Merci’s role with Island Liaison unknowingly began almost 15 years ago after a colleague requested a presentation featuring Guam and Micronesia for the City of Phoenix Diversity Program.
Our Founder
Claudia Kaercher
After over 10 years of being the face and heart of our organization, Aunty Claudia stepped down as Executive Director of Island Liaison on March 1, 2026. We would not be where we are today without her leadership, guidance, and wisdom. We honor Aunty Claudia as our founder and are grateful to walk the path that she paved for the Pacific Islander community in Arizona.
Claudia deLeon Guerrero Fajardo Kaercher is of Chamorro-Filipino descent from the Mariana Archipelago in Micronesia, a region in the Western Pacific. Claudia and her family lived on several islands in the region of Micronesia and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Tumon, Guam.
As an Arizona resident for over 40 years, Claudia has been an active and positive contributor to her Pacific Islander community. In 2012, Claudia founded Island Liaison (which became a nonprofit organization as of 2014) in Arizona which serves as a resource for providing awareness of available health and educational agencies, and other government services locally to Pacific Islanders.
Claudia is well recognized for her work in fostering better understanding of Pacific Islanders and have received several awards, including most recently from Triad West "2020 Positively Powerful Woman Award", Arizona Asian Chamber of Commerce ”2020 Person of the Year”, ASU "2015 Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion" award, and Arizona Aloha Festival’s “2011 Kokua" award, naming a few.