Glenn Inanaga Is New Face of BCA Leadership

At 50, He Becomes the First Generation X President

In 2022, Terri Omori broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to serve as BCA President in its 123-year history.

Now, four years later, Glenn Inanaga, who succeeds Steve Terusaki, is setting his own standards as the new BCA President — and represents a post-Baby Boomer shift in leadership. 

At age 50, Inanaga becomes the first Generation X person — born from 1965 to 1980 — to serve as BCA President. 

Inanaga, an attorney and member of the Orange County Buddhist Church, is half of a dynamic duo at the BCA — his wife is Michiko Miyaji Inanaga, the BCA’s Endowment Foundation Director of Development. 

She was part of the foundation’s core team that spearheaded the successful Dharma Forward campaign that raised more than its goal of $15 million. Dharma Forward will benefit the entire spectrum of BCA and Institute of Buddhist Education (IBS), from events, education, facilities, technology, temples and churches, Sangha members and ministers. 

“It does seem a little surreal,” Inanaga said about becoming BCA President. “It’s both exciting and challenging at the same time. It’s exciting because I think we are at a really important juncture for the BCA. This is an inflection point where we choose to grow, where we choose to take on more, where we choose to be more relevant in a world that needs us to pursue Buddhism, probably a lot more than ever before.

“When I think about this legacy of leadership, these are some pretty big shoes to fill,” he continued, referring to recent predecessors like Terusaki, Omori, Dr. Kent Matsuda, Rick Stambul and Ken Tanimoto. “All of these leaders have left their mark on the BCA in their own way.”

He is continuing the aggressive, proactive agenda and list of initiatives set by Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada and the BCA presidents who have all served under the tenure of Rev. Harada — Terusaki, Omori and Matsuda.

Inanaga said his top priority is growth, echoing the priority set by Rev. Harada.

“I would love to see us grow the number of members at the BCA to really turn around this decline,” he said. “The second thing is to just change the mindset. I think that being a leader with a Jodo Shinshu background allows for a sense of growth in your mindset to really engage in some of these challenging issues, and with leaders and the community around you.

“That sense of growth is important and it also shows up in welcoming new members to a temple,” he continued. “If you have a mindset of engagement or a mindset of growth, you’re happy to see new people come to temple. You engage with them, you introduce yourself.”

Other top goals include opening at least one or two new temples in the next two years, as well as the issue of sustainability.

“I want people to trust and feel confident in what the BCA is doing,” he said. “I think the conventional wisdom was, ‘Where does my assessment go?’ ‘What does it really do for me?’

“When you think about the work that was done for Dharma Forward, when you think about the work the Center for Buddhist Education (CBE) is doing, even these workshops that we’re planning, I think it’s really hard to not see the value that a national organization can bring to local temples,” he said.

“There are certain things that are done really, really well at a local temple that can never be replicated at the national level,” he continued. “But I also think it’s vice versa, too. A local temple isn’t going to create a new temple. Creating a strong national organization isn’t just about what we can do for our local temples. There’s got to be this core view about what a national organization can do for all of Jodo Shinshu.”

Inanaga, a native of La Palma and a Shin Nisei, traced his involvement in the BCA to his lifelong association with OCBC. 

“I was born and raised in Orange County, so I’ve been at the Orange County Buddhist Church for as long as I can remember,” he said. “It’s a really tight community.”

Inanaga said his family got involved with OCBC as a result of his late auntie, Mitzi Mutsuko Suruki, one of OCBC’s dedicated members. Suruki was able to sponsor his father, Yasuyuki Inanaga, to move from Japan to Orange County. His mother, Taeko Inanaga, is also a native of Japan.

As a child, Inanaga attended OCBC’s Japanese language school (his father was a teacher) and Dharma School, and became involved with Sangha Teens as a junior high school student. He became OCBC’s Jr. YBA President.

He decided to run for the Southern District’s Jr. YBL (Young Buddhist League) presidency — but ended up losing to a candidate by the name of Michiko Miyaji. 

“Was it a popularity contest? It was kind of a popularity contest,” he said, smiling.

That election loss marked the beginning of a winning relationship between the two. He later became the Southern District’s Sr. YBL Vice President.

Inanaga is an affable, friendly and astute individual with a lawyer’s attention to detail, and with the expertise, wisdom and knowledge of the BCA beyond his years. His BCA education began early as a student representative, honed through countless hours sitting, watching and learning in committee meetings with the help and support of several mentors along the way. 

“I think what was really helpful for me was that people wanted youth representation on their committees and I was obviously the youngest member attending the national board or the national council,” he said. 

“Sumi Tanabe asked me to join the BCA’s Evaluation and Planning Committee,” he said. “I had no idea what that was about. But she said, ‘You should come and hear more.’ And so I just sat and listened, and they were very nice. They never asked me hard-hitting questions. They let me listen and observe and make my own mistakes. I thought it was a really good opportunity to just be present for the conversation  I got to ask Sumi and other leaders my own questions on my own time. 

“Former BCA President Jim Usui asked me to co-chair the new Youth Advocacy Committee with Keith Sawada and to work with great mentors like Charlene Grinolds and Susan Bottari,” he continued. “That’s also what happened to me for the Bylaws and Legal Committee — I was asked to join by Rick Stambul, who became one of my mentors.

“It sounds very simple and easy when I describe it out loud, but it just took a bunch of twists and turns,” he said. “I’m really grateful for having people in my life who introduced me to different responsibilities or asked me to take on more, and they were really understanding about how I was able to do that.”

His BCA resume includes the following:

• President-elect (2024-2026)

• Vice President (2020-2024)

• Bylaws and Legal Committee chair (2026-2025) and member (2006-2025)

• Evaluation and Planning Committee ex-officio member (2016-2021) and member (2004-2007)

• Youth Advocacy Committee founding co-chair (2003-2006)

• Affiliated Organization Representative — WYBL President (2001-2002)

Inanaga also credited his wife’s family with sustaining and sparking his involvement with the BCA and Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. The Miyaji family counts 27 generations of ministers, now extending to his brother-in-law, IBS Dean Rev. Dr. Takashi Miyaji, the former Resident Minister at the Tacoma Buddhist Temple and the current part-time minister of the Southern Alameda County temples.

“When you marry into Michiko’s family, if you weren’t Buddhist before, you’re definitely going to be Buddhist after that,” he said. “We jokingly call it the ‘family business.’ Michiko’s grandfather (the late Rev. Kakue Miyaji, Kangaku) was a minister, her uncle (the late Rev. Akio Miyaji) was a minister, her father (BCA Minister Emeritus Rev. Nobuo Miyaji) is a minister, and her younger brother (Rev. Dr. Takashi Miyaji) is a minister. 

“Whenever we would have family events, the topics would be about Jodo Shinshu Buddhism or the BCA, and holidays meals are like seminars,” he continued. “It’s really hard to not have that ingrained into you. It’s almost like second nature and I was really lucky and fortunate to have that in my life.”

Professionally, Inanaga is chief administrative officer and general counsel for the Cherng Family Trust. Prior to that, he was with the Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. (2005-2016) and Vice President, Legal, from (2011-2016).

Inanaga received his bachelor’s degree in business economics and political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1998. He received his law degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law in 2001.

He and his wife Michiko are the parents of three children.

In addition, he has served a variety of roles with the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles, including as interim Finance Committee chair; board chair; vice chair, internal; and board member.

Looking back, Inanaga credited Bishop Rev. Harada, formerly the longtime Resident Minister at OCBC, as an influential figure who instilled Shin Buddhism values.

“I was also very lucky to have Rev. Harada as my minister for what was pretty much my entire youth period,” he said. “I think he did a great job of really tying together Buddhist principles with real-life examples. Even after I left OCBC to go to college, it was very natural for me to associate things that were happening in real life against things that I learned about Jodo Shinshu. I think that even if you don’t go to church, if you’re given the opportunity to do this association very early on in life, it just naturally shows up.”

Inanaga expressed gratitude to the entire BCA.

“I am very grateful for the work that everyone has put into making the BCA possible and creating those circumstances that allow me to be honored to be BCA President,” he said. “There are some challenges that the BCA is facing, but I’m really excited about the idea of creating a sense of growth, creating a sense of stability and sustainability, and to really push the organization to move forward and accomplish as much as we can in two years.”