Keith Kamisugi
Keith Kamisugi is the director of communications at the Equal Justice Society, a San Francisco-based legal strategy group founded by Eva Paterson to restore Constitutional safeguards against discrimination.
During his 15 years in PR and communications, Keith has also served as a spokesman and media relations manager for Verizon Communications, an account manager at a tech PR firm and an independent PR consultant. He previously managed IT for the Hawai’i governor’s office and worked as an aide in the Hawai’i state Senate.
Keith has presented on panels at dozens of conferences and trainings related to communications, social justice, the law, social media, nonprofits, journalism, media reform, and Asian American and people of color issues.
Currently on the boards of directors of Chinese for Affirmative Action, the San Francisco Japantown Foundation, and APIAVote, he also served on the boards of organizations such as the Asian Law Caucus, Chinatown CDC, and the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.
Keith has provided political counsel to numerous elected officials and candidates. He planned and managed political fundraisers for U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressman Mike Honda, and other federal, state and local officeholders and candidates. He currently staffs the Next America Fund PAC for attorney Dale Minami, who also tapped Keith to staff and help manage the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, founded in 1988 as one of the country’s first Asian American PACs.
He served on the steering committee of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders for Obama Leadership Council, was chairman of the Young Democrats of Hawai’i, and was part of Hawai’i’s delegation to the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
Born and raised in Hawai’i, Keith attended the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where he served as student body president and was the founding co-chair of the University of Hawai’i Student Caucus, the first systemwide student organization.
