Master Tech Keiko Ishikawa is a civilian from Terra. Daughter of Hiro Ishikawa, a Japanese national, she has many close ties to her family and her past, and spent her early years living with and assisting her elderly grandmother. Her Obachan was a talented calligraphy artist, and she learned many of her traditional values from her. She eventually took a few basic courses in Terran schools, but fell in love with a ComStar acolyte, eventually marrying him and taking a position as a civilian botanist aboard their Invader-Class JumpShip.

The couple were happy enough, but raiders hit their JumpShip near the Taurian Concordat, and during the assault she gave birth, prematurely, to her daughter, Molly. Her engineer husband died in the attack, and she was able to get passage for her and her daughter to the nearest large port, Heroditus. Keiko has been busy trying to make ends meet in the years since, but had struggled with her lack of noteworthy experience outside ComStar’s vaunted service, working various temp positions and sometimes doing gardening for select clients.

When Keiko saw a permanent position teaching full-time, she leapt at the chance to get away from living hand-to-mouth, and potentially get her daughter away from the influences of Heroditus culture and “base” citizens. She works hard at presenting informational and entertaining classes for her few students in the unit, and has expanded her classes to tutor a handful of adults (mostly techs and dependents) in advanced writing and language studies. She has very quickly become a focal point for the social activities of the support crews, the unit dependents and their families.

In addition to her formal education at the Kyoto University in botanical and mineralogy studies, Keiko is a noted woodwind clarinet player, and is very up-to-date with fashions and protocol used in various nations of the Inner Sphere and the Periphery. She has developed a close relationship with Doctor Carolyn Lamb, and the two often work together in organizing teaching lessons and the school curriculum, though Lamb’s position with the Dire Dingoes often limits her free time. She has also found help from Doctor (Major) Delphine Young, who often spends her free time instructing on medical electives with advanced students.

Establishing the new series of schools in the * Iron Dingoes Autonomous District (IDAD), and establishing the Dingoes technical college * The “War Dogs” College of Military Sciences, has dominated her free time. With her daughter gaining independence, she sees this as a real goal to devote herself towards in the coming years.