Mayumi Uejima-Carr says she has Amazon algorithms to thank, in part, for her current job. Its reading recommendation of "Connecting the World With 20 Yen" by Masa Kogure, a book about social entrepreneurialism and the NPO Table For Two, was just the push she needed to set her on a new path.

Back in 2010, Uejima-Carr moved from Kobe to California, even though she was seven months pregnant with her first child at the time.

"I wonder why I did that?" she recalls laughing.