Aerica Shimizu Banks
Aerica Shimizu Banks is an award-winning tech policy expert, inclusion innovator, and artist. She is the founder of Shiso, a consultancy that applies an intersectional equity lens to create systems and frameworks to elevate and restore equity in our institutions. Named to the 2021 Root 100, a 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, and a 2017 Washingtonian Magazine Tech Titan, Aerica has focused her career on resourcing, supporting, and centering marginalized creatives, innovators, and activists. Aerica is also a singer-songwriter and member of the art collective The Color Curtain Project. She is co-curating with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center an album called Bravespace, a compilation of music composed and performed by Asian American women and non-binary artists seeking to reclaim spiritual practices that have been commodified by the West. She holds an MS in Environmental Policy from Oxford University and a BA in Environmental Studies and Public Affairs from Seattle University.