Jessie Kawata

Jessie Kawata is a design director, co-founder, environmental advocate, part-time educator, TEDx speaker, and space exploration design pioneer whose work spans across our solar system.

Serving as Director of Design for Sustainability at Microsoft, Jessie led the charge in shaping the future of sustainable innovation and circular design across both hardware and software. Grounded in nature-inspired design principles, she collaborated with teams and executives to establish practices and drive sustainable paradigm shifts, propelling the company towards its ambitious 2030 goals of becoming carbon negative, achieving zero waste, becoming water positive, and preserving ecosystems. Previous to sustainability, Jessie’s valiant leadership in championing inclusive, equitable, and ethical design at Microsoft helped set new standards for how products and applications are created.

As one of the first designers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jessie established the inaugural product and industrial design team, collaborating with scientists and engineers to create spacecraft, robots, missions, and special projects that connect humanity to the far reaches of the Universe. Through her direct collaboration with NASA Administrators and lab directors, she also incorporated design thinking into the evolution of culture, strategy, and mission development, profoundly impacting the innovation fabric of interplanetary space exploration.

Jessie’s work has been recognized and shared across the globe by CNN, KCET, Google, Amazon, MIT, AIGA, MPR, and numerous other organizations. With an unwavering passion for blending design and science, Jessie continues to mentor, teach, and build projects that use design to improve the relationship we have with the planet and ourselves.