
Michael Aki
Senior Director, Design and UX
Pronouns: he/him
As the Senior Director, Design and UX, Mike is responsible for managing all design, art and photo, and production projects. He coordinates with the Curriculum team across subject areas and acts as the main point of contact for Design and UX.Â
Mike began his career in the creative industry in 1990, working for a variety of companies from printers to software developers. In 1996, he founded, led, and managed all aspects of his own multimedia agency. Over his career, he has acted as a Creative Director for an EdTech company, where he spearheaded the UI/UXD efforts for the company’s next-generation literacy program, and a Senior Creative Director, where he re-energized and grew domestic and international creative departments.Â
Some key points to Mike’s experience include:
- Successfully developing and launching various educational products through prototyping, creative implementation, to production for ESL/ELL, Math, Social Studies, and Literature. This included textbooks, Teacher and Student Editions, ancillaries and supplemental materials, as well as various digital components and offerings
- Successfully branding and rebranding work across B2B, B2C, and educational clients
- Growing department billings by over $4 million in a two-year period
- Reorganization of creative department; growing creative team’s output, quality, breadth of services, and internal job satisfaction, resulting in increased client satisfaction and revenue
Mike studied Liberal Arts at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, before transferring and attending the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was an Illustration major with a secondary concentration in Furniture Design.
Mike was the 1984 Hawaiʻi State Springboard Diving champion. He also used to dance the Hula. His Kumu Hula (Hula teacher) took him to dance Kahiko (ancient Hula) in front of the great-grandniece of King Kamehameha I!
Contact Mike at maki@csaedu.com

Pam Garner
Vice President,
Strategy

Lisa Panka
Vice President,
Program Development

Teresa Roberts
Vice President,
Human Resources and Operations

Ingrid Benson
Vice President,
Partnerships

Joanna Merrithey
Senior Director,
Content

Angelique Chavez
Director,
Project Management

Karen Veit
Director,
Math and Instructional Design

Ron Watson
Director,
Humanities and Assessment

Christine Ruiz
Director,
Science and SEL

Katie Delbridge
Director,
ELA

Chris Benson
Director,
Career & Technical Education (CTE)

Kimberly Gier
Director,
Alignment Services

Brian Kozlowski
Director,
Operations

Kim Fletcher
Director,
Marketing

Jennifer Gavigan
Associate Director,
Editorial Services

Amber Allen
Associate Director,
Business Development

Chelsea Hutto
Senior Project Manager

Cathy Castle
Project Manager

Andrea Stefanowicz
Project Manager

Eric Placek
Alignment Manager,
Humanities

Liz Howe
Alignment Manager

Bellamy Taylor-Pines
Alignment Manager

Via Baker
Resource Manager

Andrea Woudenberg-Harvey
Executive Editor,
ELA and SEL

Adam Barnes
Executive Editor,
Humanities and CTE

Amy Perry
Executive Editor,
Science

Junior Barros
Senior Multimedia Designer

Corrie Thompson
Senior Editor

Emily Baier
Senior Editor,
Math

Neelam Kulkarni
Senior Editor,
Math

Homer Ortega
Design and Production Manager

Olivia Quinn
Associate Project Manager

Kerri Killeen
Resource and Training Specialist