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Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD, chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF), is the daughter of former incarcerees, the late Dr. William I. Higuchi and the late Setsuko Saito Higuchi. Her American born parents were children when they were incarcerated at Heart Mountain during WWII. Shirley’s pursuit of law stemmed from her feelings of discomfort toward how the U.S. judicial system treated her parents. It was not until her mother was on her deathbed in 2005 that Shirley would aspire to take on her mother’s dream of “having something built there.” She was elected Chair of the Board in 2009 and her proudest moment was unveiling the Foundation’s world-class, Smithsonian-affilate Interpretive Center in August, 2011 alongside journalist Tom Brokaw, the late Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Alan K. Simpson and the late Secretary Norman Mineta. Her next proudest moment was when the Foundation opened the Mineta Simpson Institute in July 2024 which was expertly guided by her vision.
In 2014, Shirley was profiled in the documentary, “The Legacy of Heart Mountain” a film that emphasized: “The more who know, hopefully, will rise to defend future attacks on civil liberties and personal freedom.” The film won four Emmy Awards, the Radio Television Digital News Association Unity Award, and two Edward R. Murrow Awards.
Under her leadership, she led HMWF in the creation of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium which brought together more than 60 representatives from organizations interested in the incarceration including the 10 major WWII confinement sites that incarcerated over 120,000 individuals of Japanese descent.
Furthermore, Shirley wrote a book on the history of the incarceration through the lens of several dynamic characters whose lives passed through Heart Mountain spanning pre-WWII to the present day. The book, Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in October of 2020 and is available in the Heart Mountain online shop here. The book was also translated to Japanese with the help of former students of her father.
In addition to her work with Heart Mountain, Shirley currently presides as the first Asian American President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, a voluntary bar established in 1871, and formerly an attorney with the American Psychological Association (APA) where she retired from in 2025.
She continues to be an active member of the legal community and sits on the Board of the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.
In 2003, she served as the first Asian American President of the mandatory DC Bar.
In 2008, Shirley was appointed to the Judicial Tenure and Disabilities Commission for a 6-year term where she was responsible for reviewing misconduct, evaluating reappointments, and conducting fitness reviews of the District’s judges. Shirley was appointed by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) to the Federal Law Enforcement Nominating Commission, where she recommended judicial applicants for the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
In December 2024, Shirley was awarded the BADC’s Lawyer of the Year award. She retired from the American Psychological Association as the Associate Chief of Professional Practice for Justice, Legal & State Advocacy in 2024.
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