Shin Inouye

Director of Communications

Shin Inouye is the Director of Communications at Democracy Forward.

He most recently served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Communications & Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education, a position he was appointed to as part of the Biden-Harris Administration. As the leader delegated to perform the duties and functions of the Assistant Secretary, he spearheaded efforts on the rollout of the revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and work on student debt relief, as well as the Secretary’s Raise the Bar initiative.

Inouye joined the Department from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education Fund, where he last served as the Executive Vice President of Communications. Previously, Inouye served for eight years as an appointee in the Obama-Biden Administration. He was the Press Secretary and Acting Senior Advisor for Intergovernmental and External Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Before that, he was the Director of Specialty Media in the White House Office of Communications. At the White House, he championed, secured, and staffed first in-person interview with a sitting U.S. President by an LGBTQ+ outlet, the Advocate. Inouye was also a spokesperson for the Obama-Biden Presidential Inaugural Committee, and the Constituency Communications Coordinator at the 2008 Obama for America presidential campaign. Before the Obama campaign, Inouye was the Communications Director for Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-8). Before his experience on the Hill, Inouye was the Senior Legislative Communications Associate at the Washington Legislative Office of the American Civil Liberties Union. Inouye first started at the ACLU as a legislative/communications assistant.  With more than 20 years of public and non-profit experience, Inouye has been recognized as one of 25 “LGBTI next generation leader(s) to watch” by Out in National Security and the Atlantic Council (June 2019), and one of “40 Asian American Pacific Islander National Security & Foreign Policy Next Generation Leaders” by New America and the Diversity in National Security Network (May 2019).

Inouye earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the Johns Hopkins University, with departmental honors.