As Vice President and Chief Creative Officer at RAA, Aki provides vision and oversees creative direction and output, including providing guidance and feedback on projects, and ensuring that the company’s design work aligns with the practice's brand, objectives, and principles. She is a lead voice of planning and design inside and outside the firm, articulating its vision, sharing the work, and promoting holistic thinking about making public spaces for learning. RAA is the world’s largest multidisciplinary design studio for museums and narrative environments. Aki's current work at RAA includes leading the exhibition design for the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, IL; the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA; the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Smith Hamilton Historic Site & Museum in Lancaster, PA; the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH; The Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama; and advising the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum in Liverpool, UK. Her most recently opened project included the creative direction for the exhibition design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C and the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. Aki brings thoughtful and responsive design leadership to the development of national and international cultural institutions, from content-and artifact-rich museum environments to brand development for large and small organizations. Her passion and experience is dedicated to the development of national and international cultural institutions, with a focus on issues- and mission-based projects. Her past work includes art direction for the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii; the Mandela Day installation at New York’s Grand Central Terminal; and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; all of which have won major design awards. Aki is co-founder of BIPOC Directors Collective, an initiative by Directors of Color for fellow and future Directors of Color. She is also a founding member and Creative Director for Ripple Effect, a New Orleans based environmental education start-up dedicated to K-12 education about socio-ecological issues of climate change. Aki holds a BFA in Communications Design with highest honors from Pratt Institute.