Sister Joanne (Jaruko) Doi was born in Los Angeles, CA, one of five children. During World War II, her father and grandfather were sent to Manzanar Relocation Camp in the California desert east of the Sierras.The St. Francis Xavier (Maryknoll) parish community serving primarily Japanese Catholics at that time was also interned there. They comprised part of the 10,000 people who lived in the camp. Her mother was sent to an internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
After the war, the Maryknoll parish and grade-school community was restored in Los Angeles, where Jaruko was nurtured in faith, education and culture. Jaruko graduated from the University of California at Davis with a bachelor's degree in environmental planning and management. She combined work as a graphic artist, administrative work at the Newman Center, and life in a lay Christian community prior to entering the Maryknoll Sisters in 1981.
Sister Jaruko was assigned to Peru in 1983 and served in the southern Andes Mountains doing pastoral work and economic development projects among indigenous people. With other groups in the diocese and Aymara artists, Sister Jaruko developed a grassroots silk-screening studio, a response to the need for popular education materials representative of the Andean and rural environment.
The Aymara people inspired Sister Jaruko to study and understand her own Japanese American faith history. In 1997, Sister Jaruko earned a master's degree in theology from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. Her thesis explored the "Dance of a Thousand Cranes: A Legacy of Suffering and Hope from the Maryknoll Japanese American Catholic Community."
In September 2005, Sister Jaruko received the Teaching Scholar Award. She completed her dissertation: "Bridge to Compassion: Theological Pilgrimage to Tule Lake and Manzanar" for a doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She also has also been teaching as an adjunct professor.
In addition, Sister Jaruko received her Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies in May 2007
