Silence, shame, and outdated policies still shape the profession—but we rise anyway.  

Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

In a stirring Pride Month episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Liz Mason, CPA, and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, confront what it really means to belong in a profession still wrestling with how to talk about identity.

“Bringing your whole self to work is still a radical act,” says Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation.

For much of his career, it was one he avoided.

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Both Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, and Shimamoto spent years hiding parts of themselves to navigate professional expectations. For Mason, that meant letting assumptions stand unchecked. “It was easier not to correct people,” she says. “Because the stakes were too high.”