Sandra S. Yamate is Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (“IILP”). IILP is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to creating a more diverse and inclusive legal profession through its research and programs. A lawyer by training, Ms. Yamate spent ten years as the Director of the ABA’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. She was the first Executive Director of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. Prior to that, she was a litigator in Chicago for ten years. Currently, Ms. Yamate serves on the boards of the National Association of Women Lawyers and the Chicago Bar Foundation, and is a member of the DEI Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and the President of the Harvard Law School Asian American Alumni Special Interest Group.

Ms. Yamate recently completed 9⅟₂ years’ service on the Board of Trustees for the National Judicial College, including a year as Board Chair and four years as Chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee. She helped found the Asian American Institute, the National Women’s Political Caucus of Metropolitan Chicago, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area (of which she is a past president), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Asian Americans for Inclusive Education. Ms. Yamate is a former co-chair of the Diversity Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. A former member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Board of Managers, and a past president of both the Japanese American Service Committee and the Harvard Law Society of Illinois, and a former board member of numerous civic and community organizations in the Chicago area.

Ms. Yamate has been honored and recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business “40 under 40,” and “Notable Leaders in DEI,” Chicago Sun Times “Neighborhood Hero,” National Asian Pacific American Bar Association“ Trailblazer” Award, Today’s Chicago Woman “One of 100 Women Making A Difference,” Chicago Department of Human Relations, Chicago Bar Association “Vanguard Award,” the University of Illinois “Asian American Alumni” Award, and the Asian American Bar Association “Hall of Fame” Award. She was honored with the Women’s Leadership Award of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the ACC Chicago Thurgood Marshall Award. She has also received the Ping Tom Memorial Pan-Asian American Award from the Asian American Coalition of Chicago, the highest award bestowed by the Asian American community in Chicago, and the Chicago Bar Association’s Justice John Paul Stevens Award, the highest award bestowed by the Chicago legal community.