Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, California State Assembly

Al Muratsuchi is a California Assemblymember representing the 66th Assembly District, located in the South Bay of Los Angeles County. A longtime South Bay resident, husband, and father, and a former Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice and a former Torrance School Board member, Al's priorities are jobs, education, health care, the environment, public safety, and veterans.

As Chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace, Al wrote job-creating laws like Assembly Bill 777 and co-authored AB 2389 to support South Bay aerospace leaders like SpaceX and Northrop Grumman to grow and create thousands of local jobs.

A champion for the environment, Al wrote AB 1775 and AB 342 to fight the Trump administration's plan to frack and drill for oil offshore and in our national parks. Al also fought to make the Torrance Refinery and other oil refineries safer with his bills AB 1645, AB 1646, AB 1647, and AB 1649. For his work, Al received the Green Leadership Award from Environment California in 2018 and the Environmental Justice Champion Award from the California Environmental Justice Alliance in 2020.

Al is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and the UCLA School of Law.

Anna Lau, UCLA

Dr. Anna Lau is Professor of Psychology and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence in the Division of Life Sciences. Her research spans across the areas of racial/ethnic disparities in children’s mental health services, cultural variation in risk and protective factors for child psychopathology, and the community implementation and adaptation of evidence-based practices for immigrant and minoritized youth and families. Dr. Lau has authored over 150 research publications and her ongoing research is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.  She is a Fellow of the Asian American Psychological Association, from which she received the Distinguished Contributions to Research Award in 2017.  Dr. Lau is the President of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (American Psychological Association, Division 53) for 2022.  Dr. Lau trains doctoral students in delivery of evidence-based psychotherapy for youth, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Psychological Assessment, Asian American Mental Health, and the Psychology of Diversity. She is dedicated to inclusive excellence in higher education and has served on the University of California, Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools.

Astghik Hairapetian, UCLA

Astghik Hairapetian is the Law Fellow at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. As a student at UCLA Law, she was the Research Assistant to Professor Hiroshi Motomura for his project The New Migration Law, which looks at the future of immigration law and policy. She also participated in the Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic and the International Human Rights Field Experience Clinic in Honduras. In her second and third years at UCLA Law, Astghik acted as Chief Comments Editor of the Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. She interned at the ACLU SoCal Immigrants' Rights Project, the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, and the Center for Justice and International Law. Astghik has been published in the UCLA Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, and the Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review. Most recently, she clerked for the Honorable Rolando Olvera in the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division. Astghik earned a J.D. from UCLA Law with specializations in Critical Race Studies and International and Comparative Law, and a B.A. in International Relations and Spanish from the University of British Columbia.

Belinda Chen, UCLA

Belinda Chen, M.A. is a clinical psychology doctoral student advised by Dr. Anna Lau in the Culture and Race/Ethnicity in Youth Mental Health Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research examines racial/ethnic disparities in youth mental health and ways to increase access to evidence-based mental health services for minoritized youth and their families. Belinda has published in numerous peer-reviewed psychology journals and her ongoing research is supported by the National Science Foundation. She has received training in and delivered evidence-based psychotherapies to youth and adults in the greater Los Angeles community at the UCLA Psychology Clinic, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Billy Taing, API Rise

Formerly incarcerated in the California state prison system for more than two decades, Billy Taing serves as Co-director of API RISE. The journey to this role required him to navigate early childhood as a refugee from Cambodia at the age of three, when his mother and older brother fled the Khmer Rouge because of their Chinese lineage.Then, like so many immigrant youth, he joined a gang where he thought he found belonging and acceptance. A terrible decision led to a life sentence in prison, an order for deportation, and separation from his family until the age of 41. As his life purpose came into focus, his spiritual training deepened, and his desire to serve grew - Billy successfully petitioned and received a full and unconditional pardon, a set aside of the deportation order, and an acceptance into a union-wage apprenticeship program to be an electrician. For many reasons, he chose to leave the union apprenticeship to serve his brothers and sisters in the API community. Billy is also the co-founder of the Black and API Solidarity group.

Carol Kim, Shasta Advisory

A public affairs executive whose career spans across corporate, healthcare, and government sectors, Carol is Founder and Principal of Shasta Advisory, LLC advising CEOs and startup founders requiring launch, strategic market positioning, and policy navigation.

Carol was a Vice President at Health Net, a $7B managed care company in California, leading government relations, corporate giving, and public affairs statewide. During her tenure, she managed a portfolio of $170M in community and infrastructure investments and strategically invested over $40M within three years to increase health coverage, support workforce development, expand telemedicine, and finance Federally Qualified Health Centers and senior assisted homes.

Prior to Health Net, Carol served as Health Deputy to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. She also served as a policy adviser to US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Carol serves as board member and advisor on the California Insurance Guarantee Association, Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Commission, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles, Community Foundation of the Valleys, and Optum Startup Studio. Carol received a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of California, Irvine.

Chancee Martorell, Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC)

Born in Thailand and raised in Los Angeles, Chancee Martorell studied political science and public law at UCLA where she received her B.A. and her M.A. in Urban Planning, specializing in Urban Regional Development/Third World Development.  She also studied Humanities at Chiang Mai University in Northern Thailand.  She was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Social Work by Pacific Oaks College.

Martorell is the Founder and Executive Director of the Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC), a non-profit community-based organization established in 1994.  She has been a community development practitioner and human rights defender for almost 30 years.  Providing culturally sensitive social and legal services, engaging in broad-based community development,  advocating for immigrant/workers'/human rights, winning the designation of Thai Town to revitalize a neglected neighborhood through cultural tourism and creative placemaking, Thai CDC developed over one hundred units of affordable housing, started hundreds of Thai-owned businesses, created thousands of jobs, operates farmers' markets and COVID vaccination and testing clinics to address food insecurity and health care access, provides rental counseling and eviction defense, and aids victims of labor and sex trafficking and exploited workers winning millions of dollars in redress, restitution and back wages.

Cindy Sangalang, UCLA

Cindy C. Sangalang, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor of Social Welfare and Asian American Studies at UCLA. Drawing on theory and knowledge across disciplines, her research examines how race, migration, and culture intersect to shape health outcomes and inequities for migrant and refugee communities, especially for Asian Americans. Currently, she is leading a study in partnership with Filipino American community organizers to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related stress and violence on Filipino American essential workers and their families.

Dan Mayeda, UCLA

Daniel M. Mayeda is the Associate Director of the Documentary Film Legal Clinic of the UCLA School of Law, where he trains and supervises law students to provide pro bono legal services to independent filmmakers. He also practices entertainment and media industry litigation for the national law firm of Ballard Spahr.

Dan has been a longtime advocate for accurate and sensitive depictions of Asian Americans in the media. Since 2000, Dan has helped lead a national multi-ethnic coalition of civil rights and media activism groups to persuade the four major television networks to increase diversity on screen and behind the scenes. He is Chair Emeritus of the Asian American Media Alliance, and has served on the national Diversity Advisory Council for Comcast Corporation. For 27 years, Dan was a Board Member of East West Players, the nation's longest running theatre of color and the largest producer of Asian American artistic works.

Dan serves as Co-Chair of the Los Angeles County Citizens Redistricting Commission, which used 2020 Census data to draw new boundaries for the five supervisorial districts for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Aside from big city mayors, each Supervisor is the most powerful local elected official in the United States in terms of population represented (about two million each), resources controlled, and in some cases geographic territory covered. This is the first time that a fully independent Commission undertook the decennial redistricting process for Los Angeles County.

Darlene Lee, UCLA Teacher Education Project

Darlene Lee is a partner, mother, daughter, friend, teacher and teacher educator. Darlene received her M.Ed. from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. A former teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, she now serves as a faculty advisor in the Teacher Education Program and leads the ethnic studies pathway. She has published and presented on various topics including innovations in ethnic studies teacher education, ethnic studies pedagogy, and ethnic studies teacher development. She is the lead curriculum developer for the Yuri Kochiyama Project for the Digital Textbook Series in the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and also currently serves on the UC system-wide Ethnic Studies Implementation work group to develop and implement UC A-G criteria for high school ethnic studies.

David Ryu, Asian Pacific American Leadership Foundation

David Ryu is a former Los Angeles City Councilmember, ethics reformer, and community mental health & immigrant rights advocate, with decades of experience in the City & County of Los Angeles.

A life-long public servant who entered public service to fight income inequality, educational disparities, and weaknesses in our social safety nets, he was elected in 2015 to become only the second Asian American to serve on the Los Angeles City Council and first on Council leadership. His signature achievements were the passage of "Opportunity LA" the nation's largest Children's Savings Account program for every child enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District and LA County Office of Education; AND his landmark campaign finance reform laws that barred developer campaign donations and expanded oversight in City Hall to create stronger checks on of pay-to-play corruption.

Today he serves as Chief Strategy & Advancement Officer at Kedren Acute Psychiatric Hospital & Community Health Center and President/CEO of the Asian Pacific American Leadership Foundation. Previously, Ryu served as Senior Deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, was a dispute resolution mediator in South Central & East LA, a Neighborhood Councilmember, and immigration rights activist.

David K. Yoo, UCLA

David K. Yoo is Vice Provost of the Institute of American Cultures, and Professor of Asian American Studies " History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Yoo has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar (Korea) and a recipient of fellowships from the American Council on Education, the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, and the Huntington Library. He has also been awarded the UCLA James C. Williamson Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize. He has worked with many Asian American community-based organizations, including the Korean American Scholarship Foundation, the Little Tokyo Service Center as well as organizing in the city of Pomona, CA.

Derek Hsieh, LA County Dept of Mental Health

Derek K. Hsieh, LCSW, Ph.D. is the Mental Health Clinical Program Head of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Long Beach Asian Pacific Islander Family Mental Health Center. In addition to serving the mental health needs of the AAPI communities in LA County, for many years he managed the Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams (PMRT) that respond to mental health crises in the community, and provided consultation and assistance to law enforcement agencies in crisis negotiation with barricaded suspects and hostage situations in Los Angeles County. He is passionate about training mental health professionals about suicide, and is an authorized AMSR (Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk) trainer for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC). He has provided Clergy Academy Trainings in the Chinese faith-based communities and facilitates the Clergy Roundtable Meetings to promote interfaith and mental health dialogue. He served on national and international deployments with the Red Cross and Tzu Chi Foundation to provide disaster mental health services, and has published many peer-reviewed articles in psychiatry, psychology, and social work, on topics related to adolescent antisocial behavior, diagnosis, and clinical judgment.

Doreena Wong, Asian Resources, Inc.

Doreena Wong, Esq., is the Policy Director at Asian Resources, Inc, (ARI) focusing on advocacy to increase access to healthcare programs and to advance policy changes, including data disaggregation practices, to transform the current healthcare system to be more responsive to the health needs of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, communities of color, immigrants and limited-English proficient populations.

Before coming to ARI, Doreena was the Director of the Health Access Project at Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice) - Southern California, where she worked on promoting access to affordable, culturally and linguistically competent health care for vulnerable populations through outreach, education, and advocacy. She has over 30 years of experience as a civil rights attorney, with expertise in health care, language access and voting rights while working at: 1) the National Health Law Program, 2) a Los Angeles civil rights firm specializing in race discrimination cases, 3) Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, 4) the ACLU of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, and 5) the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 1987 as a second career after having worked as a health care professional for nine years.

Elizabeth Kerr, Committee of 100

Elizabeth Kerr is the Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Committee of 100. She leads the organization's work in Washington, DC, and oversees its public policy research.

Liz has worked at the intersection of business, public policy, and politics for more than 15 years. Prior to joining Committee of 100, she served in senior communications and legislative roles for three members of Congress and in the Michigan Senate. Between assignments on the Hill, Liz spent five years at Business Forward, a trade association and research foundation that helps build business support for progressive policy change. First as Director of Policy and Communications and then as Executive Director, Liz led the organization's public affairs campaigns and built its research foundation. Her work has primarily focused on economic policy, including international trade, immigration reform, health care reform, financial services, the federal budget, and action to curb climate change.

Liz holds a BA in Economics and a BMA in Oboe Performance from the University of Michigan and an MBA with honors from Georgetown. She lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, with her partner Rob and dog Chloe.

Eric Estuar Reyes, CSU Fullerton

Eric Estuar Reyes, Ph.D. Chair and associate professor of the Department of Asian American Studies at California State University at Fullerton, Dr. Reyes has been at Fullerton since 2005. Dr. Reyes received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Brown University in 2004 and his M.A. in Urban Planning at UCLA in 1993. Between degrees, he provided organizational development support for community-based organizations that provide HIV/AIDS services for Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has published articles in Amerasia, Journal of Asian American Studies, and Social Text and co-authored an essay with Eric C. Wat in the recently published anthology, Q & A: Queer in Asian America. His scholarly and creative activities focus on a sense of belonging and community through a lens of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity and urban space. Past and current studies in visual art and urban space continue to inform his current research and his work as a practicing ceramic artist. He has shown pieces in shows and galleries in both Taipei, Taiwan and Southern California.

Estella Owoimaha-Church, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)

Estella is the first-generation of her family born on Tongva Land (for now known as Los Angeles). While identifying as an Angeleno, deeply connected to the lands that raised her, Estella's roots burrow deep beyond the asphalt of South Central L.A.. Her maternal grandparents are from the villages of Satufia of Savai'i and Saleilua of Upolu, Samoa; her paternal grandparents are from Calabar, Cross River, Nigeria. She transitions into the role of Executive Director at Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) post nearly two decades of service as an educator. Estella was the first Samoan to be named a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2018 and awarded California Theatre Teacher of 2020. As a Black-Pacific Islander (PI), mother to a Black-PI child, and eldest sister of two Black-PI young men, she holds dear her responsibility to serve generations of past, present, and future. So long as she is capable, Estella will advocate for all those who look like her, step up as co-conspirator for others in the margins, and forge clear paths for young people where there once were none.

Assemblymember Evan Low, California State Assembly

Evan Low represents District 26 in the California State Assembly after first being elected in 2014. At the time, Assemblymember Low was the youngest Asian American legislator ever elected to the Assembly. District 26 includes Burbank, Cupertino, Fruitdale, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.

In 2015, he launched the California Legislative Technology & Innovation Caucus, with a statewide goal to ensure California remains the global leader in technology and innovation. Assemblymember Low is also Chair of the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and a Member of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.

Assemblymember Low was born and raised in Silicon Valley, and these roots inspired him to pursue a career in service. His work in the community and deep understanding of issues concerning residents led him to run for a seat on the Campbell City Council in 2006. His election victory made him the first Asian American to serve on the City Council. In 2010, Assemblymember Low made history again as the youngest openly LGBTQ+ mayor in the country at age 26.

Assemblymember Low earned degrees from De Anza and San Jose State University. He went on to graduate from Harvard University's Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program.

Glenn Masuda, Asian Pacific Family Center

Dr. Glenn I. Masuda is a native of Los Angeles, CA. He received his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Southern California. His Masters and Doctorate degrees were earned at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He is currently a licensed Psychologist in the state of California.

He is currently the Senior Clinical Director at the Pacific Clinics - Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead, California, where he has been working since its opening in 1986. He was formerly the Program Director of the Child, Youth and Family Services. He specializes in adolescent psychology, family therapy, community interventions, as well as diversity competency training. Dr. Masuda is also a founding faculty member of the Pacific Clinics Training Institute.

Dr. Masuda has also served as a part-time core faculty member (Associate Professor) in the Multi-Cultural Community Psychology emphasis area at the California School of Professional Psychology, at Alliant International University, Los Angeles Campus. He has taught classes since 1990 in Professional Development, Ethnic Minority Mental Health, Community Psychology, Interventions with Multicultural Adolescents and the Intercultural Laboratory, which focuses on developing cross-cultural competency skills. He has provided numerous training seminars to mental health, education, law enforcement, medical and journalism professionals.

Grace Moss, Warner Bros. Discovery

Grace Moss is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Warner Bros. Discovery. In this role, she helps oversee the enterprise's efforts to expand the pool of historically-excluded talent and break down barriers through a comprehensive suite of pipeline programs and extensive engagements with prestigious film festivals and creative conferences. Prior to Warner Bros. Discovery, Grace served as the Head of Talent Development & Inclusion for NBC Entertainment, where she spearheaded multiple programs that focused on cultivating and showcasing talented writers and directors of diverse backgrounds. Before coming to NBC, Grace was a Development Executive at the Style Network, and prior to that a freelance reality Producer and Director. Her leadership training includes the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Athlete Training Program, Comcast's Know Your Value initiative and Harvard Business School's Leadership Consortium. Grace graduated from UCLA with a BA English and Minor in Asian American Studies.

Hiroshi Motomura, UCLA

Hiroshi Motomura is the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. Hiroshi is the author of Immigration Outside the Law (Oxford 2014), Americans in Waiting (Oxford 2006), plus many articles on immigration and citizenship, and the co-author of the pioneering law school casebook, Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy (West 9th ed. 2021). Hiroshi received UCLA Law's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021 and the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014, and he is one of 26 U.S. law professors profiled in What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard 2013). He received the Professor Chris Kando Iijima Teacher and Mentor Award from the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF) in 2013. Hiroshi is a founding director of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) and was a director of the National Immigration Law Center from 2011 through 2020. He has testified in Congress, served on the ABA Commission on Immigration, and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2018. Hiroshi is now writing a book with the working title, Ethical Borders: Toward a Fair, Realistic, and Sustainable Immigration Policy.

Jacqueline Chun, The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation

Jacqueline Chun has dedicated over 20 years to the non-profit sector, seeking to make positive changes that improve the health and well-being of all, especially those who have been historically disadvantaged and underserved. Jacqueline has held positions in the philanthropic and non-profit sectors and is currently the Chief Programs & Operations Officer at The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation. She is responsible for managing the Foundation's strategic grantmaking and daily operations. Jacqueline regularly participates in strategic public private partnership committees, all of which strive to advance healthier communities, achieve equitable access to education, housing, and services, and promote community-driven solutions. She currently sits on the Boards of Grand Performances, the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment, and Partners for Children South LA. Jacqueline lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Janan (Ben) T. Raju, U.S. Small Business Administration

Ben Raju serves as the Director of Program Management for the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Field Operation. During his career, Mr. Raju has represented the SBA in various capacities throughout the United States, including Director of the Office Continuing Operations and Risk Management, District Director in Los Angeles and Nevada, as well as Deputy District Director in Los Angeles, Assistant District Director of Lender Relations, and as Public Information Officer with SBA's Office of Disaster Assistance where he was responsible for communicating the agency's Disaster Loan Program for the Western United States and U.S. Pacific Territories. Mr. Raju also serves as a National Co-Chair for the Regional Network of the White House Initiative for Asian Americans Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI.) With over 300 individuals from more than 20 agencies, in all 10 Federal Regions, the Regional Network is designed to provide a whole-of-government approach in tackling issues in the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community.

Janine Sun Rogers, UCLA

Janine Sun Rogers is a PhD student in Theater and Performance Studies at University of California, Los Angeles with research interests in transpacific militarism, tourism, and new media in Asian American and Pacific Islander performance. Her writing can be found at Theatre Bay Area, The News Lens, The Documentarian, Westwind Journal, and Variable West.

Jennifer "Jae" Pi'ilani Requiro, AEG Worldwide

Jennifer "Jae" Pi'ilani Requiro is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for AEG Worldwide. In this role, she develops, implements, and drives the DEI strategy for AEG. In 2016, Jae wrote the Foreword to a best-selling business book on diversity and inclusion called "Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace, and The Will to Change."

Jae also volunteers on the national non-profit board of directors for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) as well on the Sociology Advisory Committee at UCLA. She is an expert panelist with the Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks through The Centre for Global Inclusion. Outside the office, Jae lived her passion as an owner and Sensei of a karate studio in Southern California. The dojo's teaching philosophy focused on the principles of respect, discipline, and self-defense. Her dojo became known as a nurturing and safe space for students with special abilities to thrive. Jae earned a bachelor's degree in sociology with a specialization in stratification, race, and ethnicity and an emphasis in business administration from UCLA. In her spare time, Jae performs hula, paddles outrigger canoes and is a single mother to a college-aged daughter, her source of inspiration and perspiration.

Jennifer Chun, UCLA

Jennifer Jihye Chun is a labor sociologist whose research explores the interconnected worlds of gender, race, ethnicity, migration and labor under global capitalism. She is Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Department and Chair of International Development Studies at the International Institute at the University of California Los Angeles. She is the author of Organizing at the Margins: The Symbolic Politics of Labor in South Korea and the United States (Cornell/ILR Press, 2009), and numerous articles on informal and precarious work, labor and social movements, and care worker organizing, including recent articles published in the Journal of Asian Studies (2022), International Journal of Comparative Sociology (2020), Political Power and Social Theory (2019), and Critical Sociology (2018). Currently, she is writing a book about ritual, death and social protest in South Korea. A former grassroots organizer and long-time advocate of social and economic justice, she is actively involved in community-engaged teaching and research.

Jenny Bach, California for the AAPI Legislative Caucus

Jenny is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who started their lives in the United States with very humble beginnings. Her mom was a seamstress and her dad started out his life in this country as a farmworker to pay for his education. The journey of Jenny's parents is what drove her to dedicate her life to public service and community advocacy.

Throughout her career, Jenny has worked to connect underserved communities with government and nonprofit resources. Her past roles included serving in the California State Legislature in Senator Dr. Richard Pan's office and as a Consultant for the Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. In 2018, she joined Golden State Opportunity to work on building strategic partnerships on outreach and education efforts on public benefits to communities statewide. She advocated for the expansion of the California EITC.

In 2017, Jenny was elected as Secretary of the California Democratic Party, the first Young Democrat to serve in a Party officer position in over 20 years. She has consistently represented her community and youth diversity in the Party's leadership. Currently, she is a consultant, working in campaigns, events, and projects including nonprofit work with AANHPI organizations.

John Iino, Reed Smith

John Iino serves as Chief Diversity Officer of Reed Smith, one of the world's largest law firms. John was recently named one of the nation's Top 50 Chief Diversity Officers by the National Diversity Council. In 2010, John became the first Asian American to serve on Reed Smith's Senior Management Team and Executive Committee (Board of Directors). He was named among the top 500 "Most Influential People in LA" by the Los Angeles Business Journal, "One of the Nation's Most Influential Minority Attorneys" and received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Los Angeles Business Journal's Asian Business Awards, John serves on the USC Board of Trustees, the largest private employer in Los Angeles and is the Immediate Past President of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles and the National Board for 50/50 Women on Boards. He previously served as the Chair of the USC Gould School of Law Board of Councilors and as a member of the Board of Directors of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association. He is the creator and serves as host of the acclaimed podcast, "Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories."

Karen Umemoto, UCLA

Karen Umemoto, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Departments of Urban Planning and Asian American Studies and the Helen and Morgan Chu Chair of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. She received her M.A. from UCLA in Asian American Studies and Ph.D. from MIT in Urban Studies. She taught at the University of Hawaii for 22 years where she became chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning before returning to her alma mater. Professor Umemoto's research centers on issues of democracy, inclusion and collaboration in multicultural societies with a focus on US cities. Born and raised in Los Angeles, a major concern has been racial hate, conflict and violence. She has published The Truce: Lessons from an LA Gang War on racialized gang conflict and Jacked Up and Unjust: Pacific Islander Teens Confront Violent Legacies on youth violence in Hawaii'i. Her current project is the AAPI Multimedia Textbook, an online open access educational platform to bring Asian American stories into every classroom.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, AAPI Data

Karthick Ramakrishnan is professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, and is executive director of California 100, a transformative statewide initiative towards building an innovative, sustainable, and equitable shared vision and strategy for California's next century.

Ramakrishnan also founded the Center for Social Innovation at UC Riverside, and AAPI Data, a national publisher of demographic data and policy research on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). He has published many articles and 7 books, most recently, Citizenship Reimagined (Cambridge, 2020) and Framing Immigrants (Russell Sage, 2016), and written dozens of op-eds and appeared in nearly 3,000 news stories. Named to the Frederick Douglass 200, Ramakrishnan currently works on projects related to racial equity in philanthropy and regional development. He holds a BA in international relations from Brown University and a PhD in politics from Princeton.

Ramakrishnan is president of the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni, chairs the California Commission on APIA Affairs, and serves on the Board of The California Endowment and the U.S. Census Bureau's National Advisory Committee (NAC). Ramakrishnan also founded Census Legacies, and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, an official section journal of the American Political Science Association.

Kawika Liu, Imperial Health Holdings

Kawika Liu, M.D., Ph.D., JD is an internist/pediatrician/addiction medicine specialist, currently Chief Medical Officer at Imperial Health Holdings. Previously, he has been a medical director and provider at a rural health center, tribal health center, and FHQCs. Kawika received his MD from St George's University School of Medicne, his PhD and JD from University of Hawai'i, Manoa. Dr Liu has published in lung cancer and other health inequities in Native Hawaiians. His interests are population health, human rights-based approaches to health, particularly indigenous health, causation in public health, cancer, obesity, and asthma. He is the father of two daughters.

Kelani Silk, Marshallese Youth of Orange County

Kelani has worked with community-based organizations in Southern California for over 20 years, mostly focused on assisting with higher education, cultural education and preservation, health advocacy and data collection. She represented the Marshallese community at: The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans Policy Summit to shape and integrate Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) community voices and priorities, Washington DC; NHPI National Convening meeting with policymakers, Washington DC; The Stakeholder's Convening, Mainlanders for Education, Las Vegas, NV; NHPI National Census 2020; National NHPI Civic Engagement; WH OPE & WHIAANHPI AA and NHPI Stakeholder Briefing, Washington DC; WHIAANPI Briefing - 2022 Hunga Tonga Eruption and Tsunami, Washington DC; Asian Pacific Islander Moving Forward Food distribution/Resourcing Programs; SoCal NHPI COVID Response Team; Evening Talk Speaker, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles; Tapa/Jaki Blessing, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles; UCLA Youth Health Fair; PIFA and HBPIF.

In addition, Kelani has taught traditional weaving and dance workshops at the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum; is the current COVID-19 point of contact for RMI citizens residing in the Americas - US west coast; event coordinator for RMI dignitaries visiting Southern California; California Department of Human Services - COFA population, Medi-Cal and in language scribe; partnered in policy summit for language justice.

Kelani is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Marshallese Youth of Orange County (MYOC), Co-Founder and Co-Chair of National Marshallese Communities Coalition (NMCC); Board of Directors of Pacific Islanders Health Partnership (PIHP) and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Alliance (NHPIA). Kelani is an Entrepreneur working to continue the Marshallese crafts through her business, Ja'Nei Island Goods and Services. Kelani was born in Chicago, Illinois and is the daughter of Deaconess Neibaj and Deacon Jack Silk. Ms. Silk was brought up with a traditional Marshallese upbringing, descends from Ribit Clan with islands of origin: Ebon, RMI; Namdrik, RMI and Tarawa, Kiribati.

Kevin Escudero, Brown University

Kevin Escudero (PhD, UC Berkeley; MSL, Yale Law School) is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. Professor Escudero's research interests include comparative studies of race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity; U.S. empire and settler colonialism; immigration and citizenship; social movements; and law. His book, Organizing While Undocumented (New York University Press, 2020) examines undocumented Asian, Latinx, queer, and formerly undocumented activists' strategic use of an intersectional movement identity. It received Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Section's 2021 Asian American Book Award and was a Finalist for the Society for the Study of Social Problems' 2020 C. Wright Mills Award. He is currently at work on three research projects. The first is a book manuscript on immigrant and Indigenous activists' participation in Guam's decolonization movement. The second, "'Education, Not Deportation," focuses on immigrant students' experiences along the educational pipeline and into the U.S. workforce, paying particular attention to the role of legal status. The third, in collaboration with Keith L. Camacho (UCLA) and Maryann Heather (University of Auckland), compares Pasifika communities' responses to managing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kyeyoung Park, UCLA

Kyeyoung Park is Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of LA Rising: Korean Relations with Blacks and Latinos after Civil Unrest (Lexington Books, 2019). Her first book, The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City (Cornell University Press, 1997), was the winner of the Association for Asian American Studies’ Book Award. Her co-authored titles include Korean Americans Ethnic Relationship in (Multiethnic) Los Angeles, Cross the Pacific: The Lives of Korean Americans and their Socio-Political Engagement in the Global Age, Korean American Studies in the Global Age: Critical Literature Reviews in Search of New Theoretical Frameworks.

Lauren Higa, UCLA

Lauren Higa, MA, MSW, serves as the Content Coordinator for the AAPI Multimedia Textbook, an innovative narrative change project of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Prior to this role, Lauren earned her Master of Arts in Asian American Studies and Master of Social Work from UCLA. She also served as an Asian American Studies instructor for high school students in CSU Long Beach's Ethnic Studies Initiative program, which she considers a highlight of her young career. Lauren completed her undergraduate studies at UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Asian American Studies and Psychology, magna cum laude. She is a mixed, third-generation Filipina-Okinawan American who proudly hails from the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles.

Lilly Nhan, UCLA

Lilly Nhan is a doctoral student in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health. In her current research, she studies the social determinants of food insecurity at the individual, organizational, and community levels. She is also interested in utilizing research to improve the reach and implementation of federal nutrition assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Lilly received her MPH in Public Health Nutrition at UC Berkeley and BS in Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, and is also trained as a registered dietitian.

Lisa Fu, CA Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative

Lisa Fu is Executive Director of the CA Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, whose mission is to mobilize the nail salon workforce to transform the health, safety, and working conditions of the nail salon industry to build a healthy, sustainable, and equitable community. For over 14 years she has supported the growth of the organization, including launching the Leadership Development program for nail salon workers. As Executive Director since 2017, she has supported CHNSC's statewide organizing and civic engagement strategy and expansion. Prior to joining CHNSC, she was the National Organizing Director for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF). Lisa has worked closely with organizations across the country, including Khmer Girls in Action, Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment and Leadership, and Chinatown Community for Equitable Development. Lisa finds peace and energy at the ocean, and is raising her two children to live with love and compassion for the earth and all living beings. She was born and raised on the traditional lands of the Tongva people (also known as Los Angeles), and received her Master of Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Maggie Seay, UCLA

Maggie is currently pursuing a Master of Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs with a focus on environmental policy. She is interested in understanding how history and policy are embedded within our built and natural environments and the consequences of those connections on community relations, climate, and culture. Maggie works as a graduate student researcher in the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA analyzing hate crime data in LA County under Dr. Karen Umemoto. She is also a research fellow at the Luskin Center for History and Policy working on the History in the Streets project under the direction of Dr. Tawny Paul. Before graduate school, Maggie worked at a tech firm, a science festival, and a non-profit researching Huntington's disease. She holds an undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Colorado College.

Manjusha Kulkarni, AAPI Equity Alliance

Manjusha P. Kulkarni(Manju) is Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance (AAPI Equity), which serves and represents the 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County. In March 2020, Manju co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, the nation's leading aggregator of COVID-19-related hate incidents against AAPIs. In 2021, Manju was recognized by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential individuals and by Bloomberg/Business Week as one of the 50 individuals "with the ability to move markets or shape ideas and policies" with the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate, Cynthia Choi and Russell Jeung. Cynthia, Russell and Manju also were awarded the 2021 Webby Social Movement of the Year.

May Sudhinaraset, UCLA

Dr. May Sudhinaraset, PhD is an Associate Professor in Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at UCLA. Trained as a social epidemiologist from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her research focuses on understanding the social determinants of migrant, adolescent, and women's health both globally and in the US. Her work centers around three complementary streams of work: (1) social and cultural contexts of vulnerable adolescents and women; (2) global women's health and quality of service delivery; and (3) social policies and immigration in the US. Her global work includes women's experiences during childbirth, family planning, and abortion services, development of quality improvement interventions in Kenya and India, and large-scale maternal and child health evaluations in Myanmar. She currently is Principal Investigator of the BRAVE Study (Bridging communities Raising API Voices for health Equity), the first study to assess the health status and health care utilization of undocumented Asian and Pacific Islander young adults. Using community participatory approaches, this study explores the impact of social policies, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, on the social and health outcomes of undocumented young adults. She has collaborated with institutions and researchers in Myanmar, Kenya, India, Thailand and China.

May Wang, UCLA

Dr. May Wang is Professor of Community Health Sciences in the Fielding School of Public Health and Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Food Studies at UCLA. She teaches classes in Food Policy, Social Determinants of Nutrition and Health, and Program Planning and Evaluation. Her research has focused on the contributions of policies, systems and the environment to food security and health disparities, and on social and physical environmental influences on growth and development during childhood and adolescence. She is known for the use of systems science and participatory methods in the evaluation of community programs and policies, and has spent the last decade leading interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners on community-engaged translational research to address food insecurity and health disparities. Dr. Wang serves on several advisory and steering committees and boards of non-profit organizations including the LA County Food Equity Roundtable, Hunger Free America, The Pantry in Honolulu, and at UCLA: the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative, the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, the Asian American Studies Center, and the Asia Pacific Center.

Michael Tran, UCLA

Michael Tran is a co-author of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, lead Graduate Student Researcher with the Entertainment Media Research Initiative, and a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. In addition to his work in the Hollywood Diversity Report, his dissertation investigates the cultural politics of independent filmmakers of color.

Assemblymember Mike Fong, California State Assembly

Mike Fong was elected to the 49th District of the California State Assembly in February 2022. In the Assembly, Mike serves on the Appropriations; Banking and Finance; Privacy and Consumer Protection; Rules; and Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committees. His priorities include expanding access to quality higher education, healthcare, protecting the environment, ensuring public safety, and addressing homelessness.

Prior to joining the Assembly, Mike served as a Trustee of the Los Angeles Community College District. There, he pushed forward policies increasing student success, improving educational access and quality, and expanding workforce education and high-growth sector training programs at the nine community colleges across Los Angeles and surrounding cities.

A lifelong public servant, Mike has led teams in his various professional roles with the City of Los Angeles, working on issues such as housing access, civic engagement, youth employment, workforce development, and education. Most recently, he served as the Director of Policy and Government Relations for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.

Mike graduated from California State University at Northridge with a Master of Public Administration in Public Sector Management & Leadership and from University of California at Los Angeles with a B.S. in Psychobiology and a minor in Education.

Nancy Yap, Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE)

Nancy Yap is the Executive Director of the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE), a nonprofit organization that is committed to advancing the political and civic engagement of leaders in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community. Through this role at CAUSE, Nancy brings her experience working in Asian and Pacific Islander communities for over 20 years with a focus on strategic planning, community partnerships, curriculum design, programs facilitation, and executive leadership development.

Prior to CAUSE, she was the Vice President of Development at LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics). She also owned her own artist management business representing spoken word and hip-hop artists, including poets from the 2003 Tony Award-winning "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway."

Outside of CAUSE, she is actively involved in the Little Tokyo community as the President of the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council and the Co-Founder of two programs in Little Tokyo, Community Feeding Community, which raised over $200,000 for small businesses during Covid-19 closures, and Haunted Little Tokyo, which brings thousands of people to the neighborhood each year.

Natalie Masuoka, UCLA

Natalie Masuoka is Associate Professor of Political Science and Asian American Studies. Her research interests include racial and ethnic politics, immigration, political behavior and public opinion. Her first book, The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion and Immigration (co-authored with Jane Junn) examines how and why whites, blacks, Asian Americans and Latinos view immigration and immigrants in systematically different ways. This book was the winner of the 2014 Ralph Bunche Award by the American Political Science Association. Her second book, Multiracial Identity and Racial Politics in the United States, explores the rise of Americans who self-identify as mixed race or multiracial and the impact on politics. This book was recognized as the best book in political behavior by the Race, Ethnicity and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. Professor Masuoka received her Ph.D. and M.A. from University of California, Irvine and a B.A from CSU Long Beach. Before joining UCLA she taught at Tufts University and Duke University

Nathan Chan, UCLA

Nathan Chan is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University. He specializes in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics with a focus on Asian Americans. He has published numerous journals articles on the voter behavior of racial and ethnic minorities. He teaches courses in American Politics and Resarch Methods. He completed his Ph.D. in political science at UC Irvine. He is a proud Bruin, having completed his undergraduate at UCLA.

Ninez Ponce, UCLA

Ninez A. Ponce, MPP, PhD is Professor and Endowed Chair in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and Principal Investigator for the California Health Interview Survey. Her research contributes to the elimination of racial/ethnic/social disparities in health. Dr. Ponce is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors, National Center for Health Statistics. Her expertise has focused on setting guidance for health systems in the measurement and use of social determinants of health as tools to monitor health equity. She has received numerous awards from community organizations recognizing her work in community-engaged research. In 2019 Dr. Ponce and her team received the top prize in health services research -- the Academy Health Impact award for their contributions to population health measurement to inform public policies. She currently serves on the Data Disaggregation Subcommittee for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and has served as Associate Director at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. In 2019-20, Dr. Ponce received the Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship at UCLA.

Reverend Pausa Kaio Thompson, Claremont School of Theology

Paua Kaio "PK" THOMPSON is a Samoan clergy, activist and theologian which is secondary to his role as a husband to wife Meilyn, and father to their 3 daughters, Asenati, Fonoa, and A.J. He is an alum of the Kanana Fou Theological Seminary in American Samoa, and holds Masters degrees from Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York and Boston University in Massachusetts. He is currently a Ph.D. student with an emphasis on comparative theology and philosophy at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, CA. He is also senior pastor of the Dominguez Samoan Congregational Christian Church in Compton, CA. His scholarly work accentuates the theological discourse, indigenous culture and wisdom, and social justice issues of Samoa, and Samoans in diaspora. His pastoral ministry encourages people to be change agents in the world by invoking a more socially conscious ethic of Christian practice.

Paul Chang, US Department of Labor

Paul Chang is an adjunct professor at Cal State LA where he teaches Managing Intersectoral and Intergovernmental Relations this semester at their MPA program. Paul is also an adjunct professor at Vanguard University. He has over 25+ years of experience with the federal government, where he worked on many issues related to vulnerable workers. Growing up undocumented with his grandmother in Monterey Park, Paul is passionate about finding collaborative solutions to address the needs of the most vulnerable. Paul received his BA and MPA from Cal State LA and is pursuing his Ph.D. in Public Policy at Claremont Graduate University. He is the recipient of numerous government awards and community honors, including the 2019 Global Center for Women and Justice Diamond Award for his work on human trafficking.

Paul Ong, UCLA

Dr. Paul Ong is Research Professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge. He is trained as an economist and urban planner. His research focuses on how the urban spatial structure and spatial-transportation mismatch produce economic, educational, and environmental inequalities among ethnic and racial groups. He is a leading scholar on AAPI policy studies and founding editor of AAPI Nexus. Dr. Ong has served as an expert advisor for numerous governmental agencies, community and legal organizations, and foundations. He practices engaged scholarship and has won numerous awards for community engagement. His many publications include a recent book, Uneven Urbanscape: Spatial Structures and Ethnoracial Inequality (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Phal Sok, USC

Phal Sok is a formerly incarcerated community organizer, educator, and previous Soros Justice Fellow who came to the U.S. as an infant Cambodian refugee in 1981. After his father's death in 1998, he ended up in the legal system and was slated for prison at 17 years old. After serving 16 1/2 years, the prison system handed him to immigration enforcement. Eventually, ICE released him under a deportation order but rearrested him four months later to fly him overseas. On his own without legal representation, he stopped his flight, was brought back to California, and got released again right after the 2016 elections. He has since been a directly-impacted leader combating crimmigration. In 2018, he received a pardon from then Governor Brown with the support of UCLA's Criminal Defense Clinic and significant community pressure. Phal has since served on various boards and committees, including the California Violence Intervention and Prevention program where he helped distribute $30M in state funding. He has since been published in UCLA's online Law Review and is currently a member of the first-ever Community Advisory Board to USC's School of Social Work.

Renee Tajima-Pena, UCLA

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Pena has chronicled the Asian American experience as showrunner and series producer of Asian Americans, producer/director of Who Killed Vincent Chin and My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha, and co-founder of the May 19 Project (with Jeff Chang), Among her 20+ films on race, gender and social justice are Calavera Highway, Labor Women, and No Mas Bebes. Her films have screened at venues such as the Cannes Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Whitney Biennial, and she has been honored with two Peabody's, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the USA Broad Fellowship, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2005 she launched the Graduate Program in Social Documentation at the UC Santa Cruz and at UCLA she is professor of Asian American Studies, Director of the Center for EthnoCommunications and holds an endowed chair in Japanese American studies.

Richard Calvin Chang, UCLA

Richard Calvin Chang is a Native Hawaiian through his grandmother who hailed from the Grace family in Kailua-Kona. He co-founded and currently serves as the Data Analytics Director of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Policy Lab at UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research. Calvin has over a decade of experience managing successful health policy campaigns including bans on smoking in public outdoor areas and disaggregating health and racial profiling data for NHPIs. He co-authored demographic profiles of NHPIs in the U.S. and California as well as the first Policy Platform Blueprint for NHPIs in the United States. He is currently working on projects that address community organizations' need for accessible data by producing data tools and analysis, advocating for equitable data policies, and co-authoring the NHPI Data Policy Platform. He was appointed to the Census Bureau's National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations in 2021. He has earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California - San Diego, a J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, and an M.S. in Computational Analysis and Public Policy from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Richard Pan, Former California Senator

Dr. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, former UC Davis educator and former State Senator representing the Sacramento region. Dr. Pan is Immediate Past-Chair of the Asian American Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus (AAPILC) and was Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs and Co-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on the 2020 U.S. Census. As AAPILC Chair, Dr. Pan led passage of the $165 million API Equity Budget in 2021. Under his leadership, Rob Bonta was appointed as California Attorney General, three Asian American women were elected to the California legislature, and Asian Americans were appointed to the UC Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees.

Dr. Pan authored legislation to establish a state Racial Equity Commission; prohibit discrimination by business establishments on the basis of citizenship, primary language, and immigration status; and championed Medi-Cal coverage for all low-income undocumented Californians by 2024.

Prior to serving in the legislature, Dr. Pan was a UC Davis professor and Director of the Pediatric Residency Program. He cofounded and chaired Healthy Kids Health Future to provide health coverage to over 65,000 children, and he serves on the United Way California Capital Region Board.

Dr. Pan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, a Medical Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, State of California Department of Justice

On April 23, 2021, Rob Bonta was sworn in as the 34th Attorney General of the State of California, the first person of Filipino descent and the second Asian-American to occupy the position.

Attorney General Bonta's passion for justice was instilled in him by his parents, who served on the frontlines of some of America's most important social justice movements. Instilling in him the lessons they learned from the United Farm Workers and the civil rights movement, Attorney General Bonta's parents lit a fire inside him to fight against injustice - to stand up for those who are taken advantage of or harmed.

In the State Assembly, Attorney General Bonta enacted nation-leading reforms to inject more justice and fairness into government and institutions. As the People's Attorney, he sees seeking accountability from those who abuse their power and harm others as one of the most important functions of the job. In elected office, he has taken on powerful interests and advanced systemic change - pursuing corporate accountability, standing up for workers, punishing big polluters, and fighting racial injustice.

Prior to serving in the Assembly, Attorney General Bonta worked as a Deputy City Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco.

Robert Teranishi, UCLA

Robert Teranishi is Professor of Social Science and Comparative Education, the Morgan and Helen Chu Endowed Chair in Asian American Studies, and director for the Institute for Immigration, Globalization, and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research examines the causes and consequences of the stratification of college opportunities, with a particular interest on the impact of higher education practice and policy on the mobility of marginalized and vulnerable communities.

Teranishi's research has been influential to federal, state, and institution policy related to college access and completion. He has testified before Congress on minority serving institutions, the Higher Education Reauthorization Act, the College Cost Reduction and Affordability Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. His research has been referenced in U.S. Supreme Court cases on school desegregation and affirmative action in college admissions. In 2011, he was appointed by Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan to the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission. In 2015, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a member of the National Board for the Institute for Education Sciences. He has also served as a strategic planning and restructuring consultant for the Ford Foundation.

Romeo Hebron, Filipino Migrant Center

Romeo Hebron graduated with a B.A. in Organizational Communication from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). He has nine years of experience in workforce development, primarily working with low-income foster & probation youth and their families. In June 2019, he became the Executive Director of the Filipino Migrant Center (FMC) and continues to serve in this role. Prior to this, he was an FMC member and volunteer for eight years where he assisted with FMC's youth programs, fundraising efforts, and was a photographer/videographer for many of the organization's programs and events.

Since 2011, Romeo has been involved with various grassroots Filipino organizations where he held different leadership positions. He is passionate about community organizing and leadership development, especially around workers' rights and immigration issues as well as with youth and older adults. He currently sits on a Community Advisory Board with other AAPI nonprofit leaders to address various health issues within the AAPI community in Los Angeles County.

Sean Metzger, UCLA

Sean Metzger is a scholar who works at the intersections of several fields: visual culture (art, fashion, film, theater) as well as Asian American, Caribbean, Chinese, film, performance and sexuality studies. He has written two books. Chinese Looks: Fashion, Performance, Race (Indiana University Press, 2014) demonstrates how aesthetics, gender, politics, economics and race are interwoven through particular forms of dress in what Metzger calls the Sino/American interface from the late 19th through early 21st centuries. The Chinese Atlantic: Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization (Indiana University Press, 2020) complicates discourses of globalization through an examination of aesthetic objects and practices situated in cities from Shanghai to Cape Town. The Chinese Atlantic won the 2022 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Humanities & Cultural Studies: Interdisciplinary/Media Studies and the 2021 John W. Frick Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society for best book on theater and performance of/in the Americas. Metzger has published more than 75 articles and reviews in various print and online venues. He is currently the editor of Theatre Journal for which he curated special issues entitled Minor Asias (2020), AI (2021), Installation (2022) and Refugee Processing (forthcoming 2023).

Seyron Foo, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Seyron Foo leads the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's programmatic and advocacy goals on realizing a Los Angeles where homelessness can and should be rare, brief and non-recurring. Previously, Foo served as senior advocacy officer for the Foundation, managing advocacy strategies for the Homelessness, Foster Youth, and Opportunity Youth Initiatives. Prior to the Foundation, he oversaw public policy and government relations at Southern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy California, where he led initiatives that strengthened philanthropy's partnerships with state and local governments. He has experience in various government sectors, including the California Senate Majority Leader's Office and the City of Long Beach. He earned his master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs and his bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Stephanie Lomibao-Parra, Bank of America Charitable Foundation

Stephanie Lomibao is a member of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) team and serves as a program director for the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. As part of the enterprise program and strategy team, Stephanie helps deliver the bank's ESG philanthropic initiatives and integrate these programs across the company's global enterprise platforms including diversity, equity & inclusion, local market engagement, employee volunteerism and thought leadership. In her current leadership role as the community program owner for the Foundation's Leadership Pillar, Stephanie focuses on social progress and economic mobility needs facing individuals and families in the areas of financial stability, second chance workforce development, Bank of America's Signature Jobs Initiative and Better Money Habits Volunteer Champions. The portfolio of global grantees she manages includes partners that provide programs and services for returning citizens, opportunity youth, persons living with visible and non-visible disabilities, older adults, and other diverse communities.

Stephanie brings over 22 years of professional experience from the nonprofit, private, and public sectors, beginning her career at California State University Fullerton's University Advancement Foundation where she managed accounts payable, donor data, and development staff training.

In 2015, the Filipina Women's Network named Stephanie one of the Global 100 most influential Filipinas.

Stewart Kwoh, The Asian American Education Project

Stewart Kwoh is co-executive director of The Asian American Education Project. He also serves as president emeritus and founder of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, the nation's largest Asian American legal and civil rights organization. Stewart is a nationally recognized leader and expert in race relations, Asian American studies, philanthropies, civil rights, and legal services. He was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 1998, becoming the first Asian American attorney and human rights activist to receive this highly prestigious recognition, often referred as the "genius grant." Stewart earned his bachelor's degree from University of California, Los Angeles and his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law. He teaches at the university's Asian American Studies Department, and has been an instructor at UCLA School of Law. He is a past expert in residence at UC Berkeley School of Law, and has two honorary doctorates from Williams College and Suffolk School of Law. Kwoh has received numerous awards recognizing his efforts to build coalitions across communities of color, including recognition from: the L.A. City and County Human Relations Commissions, California Association of Human Relations Organizations, ACLU, Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles, the Martin Luther King Legacy Association.