Gary Shigenaka is a third-generation Japanese American born and raised in Lake Forest, Illinois.  During World War II, Gary's father, other relatives, and over 100,000 other Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated and incarcerated in internment camps. Following the war, Gary's father and mother moved to Chicago's suburbs, where Gary grew up.  Gary studied oceanography at the University of Washington, graduating in 1976.  He worked briefly as a field technician for what was at the time the Washington Department of Fisheries before becoming an observer aboard a Japanese crab factory ship operating in the Bering Sea. Gary then worked as a researcher and then crew member on the NOAA Fisheries ship, the Miller Freeman. He then returned to school, earning a master's degree from the University of Washington's School of Marine Affairs.  Gary was awarded a Sea Grant Fellowship in Washington, DC, where he worked for one year on a nationwide coastal environmental monitoring program.  Following the fellowship, Gary returned to Seattle and a position at NOAA that led him eventually to be deployed to the Exxon Valdez spill and involved in its cleanup and assessment for many years. Before retiring at the end of 2020, Gary continued to serve as a senior biologist on the Office of Response & Restoration's scientific support team.