In 1995, Cobi was asked to sit on a panel with Lorraine Gordon from the Village Vanguard, writer Leslie Gourse, and singer-organist Sarah McLawler to address the issues facing women in jazz, hoping to attract women artists to come and complain, and vent about how underrepresented women jazz artists were. Out of that panel, International Women in Jazz was born. Cobi served as President for the first three years, Chairwoman of the Board for the next three, and on the advisory board. She also served on the boards of the Flushing Council of Culture and the Arts, Japanese American Association of New York, Asian American Arts Alliance and the advisory board of Y'all of New York. For seven years, she provided Asian American groups for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, when they do their cherry blossom festival every year, and for Arts Connection, winning prestigious awards from the Kennedy Center, the Government of Japan, and Jazz Foundation of America's first Lifetime Achievement Award, and in..
Also known as: Cobi Narita