Dr Emi Kiyota

About this Speaker

Dr Emi Kiyota is the founder and director of Ibasho, an organization that facilitates the co-creation with elders of socially integrated, sustainable communities that value their elders. Dr. Kiyota holds a Ph.D. in architecture - Environment and Behavior Studies - from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Horticulture Therapy from Kansas State University. She is an environmental gerontologist and a consultant with over 20 years' experience in designing and implementing person-centered care in long-term care facilities and hospitals globally. She is an organizational culture change specialist, currently serves as a consultant to implement person-centered care practice in long term care facilities. She has published journal articles and book chapters in Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and the United States and has done pre-design programming for senior housing and addiction treatment centers in the United States and abroad. 

In addition to making a vast array of contributions to national and international initiatives focused on quality improvement in the built environment for long-term care and aging services, Emi holds great concern for the needs of elders in the developing world. Over the past several years, Emi has dedicated her energies to developing ageing valued community projects in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Ivory Coast. To this end, Emi has formed Ibasho, embodying the Japanese concept of “a place where one feels at home being one’s self” with a group of like-minded colleagues. Ibasho aims to create socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable communities that value their elders. With this vision, She has been involved in development for housing and services for elders in Japan, Nepal and Philippines. 

Her current focus is on creating socially integrated and resilient cities where elders are engaged and able to actively participate in their communities. She served on the board of directors of the Global Ageing Network. Dr. Kiyota has been awarded fellowships to investigate this topic, including the Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship for a one month residency on an ‘Innovative Response to Global Aging’ from the Rockefeller Foundation. She worked on developing her idea on creating a process for community planning that embraces and engages elders for the benefit of all. She‘s also been awarded the Atlantic Fellowship for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at University of California, San Francisco.