Short answers, pulled from the story.
Michiyo Yasuda was a Japanese animator and colour designer who ran Studio Ghibli's colour department from its founding in June 1985 until her retirement. She decided the colours of nearly every Studio Ghibli production in consultation with director Hayao Miyazaki, shaping the visual mood of films including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro.
Yasuda provided colour designs for almost the entire Studio Ghibli catalogue, including Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013).
Yes. Yasuda provided the colour designs for Spirited Away, the Hayao Miyazaki film that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It is among the most celebrated films in her filmography.
Yasuda joined Toei Doga in April 1958, immediately after graduating from high school. She started in the ink and paint section of the finishing department, working as a tracer, and went on to a career spanning five decades.
Yasuda decided colours in consultation with Miyazaki, allowing the historically available materials and dyes of each film's time period to guide her choices. She also based her colour selections on the mood of each film, the emotional quality of individual scenes, and the personality of each character.
Michiyo Yasuda died on the 5th of October, 2016, at the age of 77. In 2011 she had received an Animation Lifetime Achievement Award from the Japanese Movie Critics Awards.