PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
PRIMARY ROLE
Director | Bold Insight, Chicago, USA (Based in Paris) | 7/2022–Present
Design and lead global UX research programs for Fortune-10 clients.
ACADEMIC & ADVISORY AFFILIATIONS
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow | The Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, University of Western Australia | 9/2025–Present
Research collaboration on linguistic diversity, translation, language policy, and cross-cultural communication in technology contexts.
Board Member | EPIC People | 6/2025–Present
Appointed to EPIC’s governing board representing 12k+ research practitioners using social science and humanities expertise to create value for people and business.
Translator (JP–EN) | Freelance, Paris | 2014–Present
Selected industry clients: Mori Building Co., Ltd, Wakuden Group, NTT (Expo 2025), Toyota, Muji. Selected academic: Bloomsbury Academic, Journal of Religion in Japan (Brill), International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Government of Japan.
Senior Fellow / Speakers’ Excellence Committee | AI for Developing Countries Forum | 1/2025–Present
Invitation-only fellowship at one of the world’s largest AI organizations (8,000+ members, 150+ countries) working in partnership with the UN. Collaborate on research initiatives and vet speakers.
Program Advisory Group | Innovation Policy Ignition Programme (IPIP), Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge | 12/2025–Present
Cohort mentor and strategic input and guidance on program development for regional innovation ecosystems.
Associate Member | Sociotechnical Innovation and User Experience (STEIN-UX), School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London | 12/2025–Present
Interdisciplinary research group examining human-centered, ethical, and globally relevant digital futures.
PREVIOUS ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Lecturer & Flanders Research Foundation (FWO) Postdoctoral Fellow | Japanology and Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, Belgium | 2018–2022
Visiting Lecturer | International Master’s Program (IMAP) in Japanese Humanities, Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University, Japan | 2018–19
Visiting Researcher (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow) | International Master’s Program (IMAP) in Japanese Humanities, Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University, Japan | 2016–18
Assistant Professor of Japanese Religions and Buddhist Studies | International Master’s Program (IMAP) in Japanese Humanities, Faculty of Humanities, Kyushu University, Japan | 2015–16
Visiting Researcher | Otani University/Kyoto Women’s University, Japan | 2013–14
Visiting Lecturer/Assistant Director of Japanese Art History and Pilgrimage Exploration Seminar | University of Washington, Seattle, USA | 2010
EDUCATION
PhD, Asian Languages & Cultures / Japanese Buddhism | UCLA | 2015
MA, International Studies / Comparative Religion | University of Washington | 2008
BA, Political Science / Asian Studies | Colorado State University | 2004
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
(selected 2025)
• Nov 2025 The Future of Being Human: HCI Symposium 2025, MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Panelist: Data’s Many Lives.
• Nov 2025 The Human Factor of AI Implementation, SBS, Zurich, Switzerland. Event Co-Organizer and Panel Moderator: Belonging or Breaking Apart.
• Nov 2025 IBM TechXchange Dev Day - Open Source in Data and AI, Lausanne, Switzerland. Panelist and Speaker.
• Oct 2025 22nd UX Masterclass, Bangalore, India. Speaker: Mind the AI Gaps in UX Research.
• Sep 2025 21st EPIC conference, Helsinki, Finland. Salon Co-Host: Interactive AI & Cultural Complexity.
• Jun 2025 GUACfest — Google UX for All Conference. Keynote Speaker: Build for Everyone with a Multidimensional Mindset.
• Apr 2025 UXinsight Festival, Leiden, Netherlands. Speaker: Lost in Translation.
• Jan 2025 AI for Developing Countries Forum, UN Geneva, Switzerland. Panel Moderator: Data Rights, Reconstruction, and Distribution.
SERVICE & LEADERSHIP
UCLA Alumni Mentor. Vice Chair of Working Group III on Cultural Integration and Local Innovation at AI for Developing Countries Forum. Conference organizer, peer reviewer, and proceedings editor for various industry organizations.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
INDUSTRY
• (in press) “A new framework for studying non-deterministic LLM interactions.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, 2025.
• 2024 “Decolonizing LLMs: An Ethnographic Framework for AI in African Contexts.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings.
ACADEMIA
• (in press) Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. Ed. Aike P. Rots et al. University of Hawai‘i Press.
• (forthcoming) “Sacred Battlegrounds: Manufacturing Tradition and Gender Exclusion in Japanese Sumo.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies.
• 2024 “Confraternities.” In The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions, ed. Jolyon B. Thomas and Matthew D. McMullen. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture; University of Hawai‘i Press.
• 2022 Translation: Andō, "Reading D. T. Suzuki Anew." The Eastern Buddhist 2/1: 17–34.
• 2021 “Japan’s Sacred Sumo and the Exclusion of Women: The Olympic Male Sumo Wrestler (Part 1).” Religions 12/9, 749.
• 2021 “Cultural Heritage.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions, ed. Erica Baffelli, Andrea Castiglioni, and Fabio Rambelli, 19–25. Bloomsbury Academic.
• 2020 “World Cultural Heritage and Women’s Exclusion from Sacred Sites in Japan.” In Sacred Heritage in Japan, ed. Aike P. Rots and Mark Teeuwen, 65–86. Routledge.
• 2020 Translation: Niki, “The Description of Mountains in the Minoodera engi.” In Defining Shugendō: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion, ed. Andrea Castiglioni et al. Bloomsbury Academic.
• 2019 Translation: Igata, “Demon Roof Tiles: A Study of the Dazaifu Type Onigawara Style I-A.” Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University (JAH-Q).
• 2018 Translation: Satō, “The Sea and Food Offerings for the Kami (shinsen).” In The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religiosity, ed. Fabio Rambelli. Bloomsbury Academic.
• 2018 Translation: Kadoya, “On a Kami Image in the Reikiki ‘Shintaizu’ Section.” Japanese Religions 42/1–2.
• 2018 Translation: Itō, “‘Shintō’ in the Muromachi Period.” Japanese Religions 42/1–2.
• 2018 Translation: Uejima, “Kami and Buddhism in the Nō Miwa: Rethinking the Study of the Amalgamation of Kami and Buddhas (shinbutsu shūgō).” Japanese Religions 42/1–2.