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Miki is the Founder and CEO of Education Incubator, a nonprofit dedicated to creating opportunities for kids and community to design and implement unique place-based, solution-oriented initiatives based on the core value of Innovation With Aloha (IWA). EI also works with organizations to (re)design their company culture, vision, and approaches in ALOHA, through a process we call Aloha x Design. Miki has worked in education for over 20 years as a teacher, administrator, curriculum developer, and researcher. Her work is anchored at the intersections of education and innovation, with a sharp focus on placing youth at the center of transforming society’s challenges into opportunities for learning and invention, elevating the role of traditional and cultural knowledge and practice to the forefront of healing our communities. She calls upon the wisdom of her teachers, Pono Shim, Nainoa Thompson, and Herb Lee Jr, amongst others who have informed her work and worldview. Born and raised on Maui, Miki graduated from H.P. Baldwin High School, earned a B.S.E. in Biosystems Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and a Ph.D. in education at Stanford University. She has been accompanied on her path for 13 years by her daughter Mayumi.