After graduating from Jichi Medical University Graduate School of Medicine and completing his residency at Okinawa Chubu Hospital, Dr. Akira Shimabukuro served as a specialist in family medicine in the Sakishima Islands. There, he helped train medical personnel, establish transitional care pathways, and was involved in efforts to stabilize healthcare provision systems in medically underpopulated areas. He joined Health and Global Policy Institute in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that same period, he remotely attended graduate school at Harvard University in the United States, conducting research in the field of bottom-up policymaking with a focus on Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and social movement theory. During his time at Harvard University, he led a campaign on improving support for students’ mental health. This movement was a success and obtained over 300 signatures. In 2023, Dr. Shimabukuro founded Romie Health, a startup that provides trained companionship for addressing loneliness and physical inactivity among older adults. He is a graduate of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.