Speakers

Dr. Juliann Anesi

Juliann Anesi is an Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at the University of California – Los Angeles. Her research interests include disability and indigeneity, educational policies, and decolonial feminisms. As a community educator and activist, she has also worked with non-profit organizations and schools in American Sāmoa, California, Hawai ́i, New York and Sāmoa.

Digital textbook project: Writing disability and ethnic studies | Saturday

Dr. Tracy Lachica Buenavista

Tracy Lachica Buenavista (she/her/isuna) is Professor of Asian American Studies and a core faculty member of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is the co-principal investigator and co-founder of the CSUN DREAM Center, Asian American Studies Pathways Project, Ethnic Studies Education Pathways Project, and the Faculty of Color Wellness Collective; and serves as a member of the Project Rebound Community Advisory Committee. In her research she utilizes critical race theory to examine how race, (im)migration, militarism, and carcerality shape the educational access, retention, and experiences of People of Color. She is co-editor of Education at War: The Fight for Students of Color in America’s Public Schools, “White” Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies, Navigating the Great Recession: Immigrant Families’ Stories of Resilience, and the forthcoming First-Generation Faculty of Color Narratives: Reflections on Research, Teaching, and Service.

California’s High School Ethnic Studies Requirement: Addressing Unanswered Questions and Challenges | Friday

Taelani Camacho

Taelani Camacho, MA serves on the CSU San Marcos Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Equity in Action for Students and is a Program Coordinator for Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC).

Teaching with Chamorro Values to Transform the Classroom | Saturday

Dr. Jennifer Cao

Dr. Jennifer Cao is currently the Associate Director of the UCI Science Project. She designs and facilitates professional learning experiences to support educators as transformative leaders in order to build their capacity through empowering learning experiences.

Unveiling Data To Be Seen and Heard: Looking at Data Through an AAPI Lens | Friday

Dr. Stephanie Cariaga

Stephanie Cariaga has served the greater Los Angeles community for 17 years as a high school and middle school literacy teacher, founding member of the People’s Education Movement, and current Assistant Professor in teacher education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Rooted in radical feminist ways of centering the body, wholeness, and justice, her teaching and research examine the intersection between trauma/healing-informed pedagogies, critical literacy, and critical teacher sustainability. She is inspired by her best teachers and her children Laila and Catalino.

STAY ANGRY: Pedagogical Pathways towards Liberatory Belonging Across AAPI Communities and Beyond | Friday Opening Keynote

Bernice Chao

Bernice Chao is an AAPI activist and thought leader within the advertising community. She brings years of experience as an integrated creative leader, helping tell the story of some of today’s most influential Fortune 500 brands. She is the co-founder of the 4,000-member non-profit organization Asians in Advertising, which enriches the community through events, scholarships, and mentorship programming.

Bernice recently co-authored the award winning book The Visibility Mindset, an essential guide for helping the AAPI community find success in the workplace. Bernice was named the 2023 She Runs It Mother of the Year and, in 2022, was inducted into the AAF Hall of Achievement. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Matt, and two children.

Embracing the Visibility Mindset for AAPI and Allies | Friday

Emy Chen

Emy Chen (she/her(s)) is a sophomore in McCallum High School in Austin, Texas. She is committed to moving Ethnic Studies forward in K-12 schools and created a set of slides on AAPI leaders (https://tinyurl.com/31slidesAAPI) as well as through her blog, https://catalystforchange.edublogs.org/.

Centering AAPI Resistance and Solidarity in the Mathematics Curriculum | Saturday 

Lauryn Chew

Lauryn Chew (she/her) is a freshman at Northwood High School. As a fourth generation Cantonese American, she is interested in learning about how and why various subgroups of the Asian American community navigate and overcome issues they face through a socioeconomic, political, and gender lens. In her free time, Lauryn enjoys spending time with her family and playing piano and clarinet.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Abigail Chun

Abigail Chun (she/her/ella) is a multiracial, Yonsei storyteller and descendent of Gila River incarcerees. She serves as a Content/Curriculum Assistant for the AAPI Multimedia Textbook, a transformational narrative change project of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Prior to her current position, Abigail graduated from Brown University with a BA with honors in American Studies, magna cum laude. During her time at Brown, Abigail served as a research assistant with the Gila River Digitization Project under Koji Lau-Ozawa and a writing/editorial fellow with Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Abigail was a 2020 and 2021 Teaching Fellow with GenerationTeach and an American Sign Language (ASL) teaching assistant under Timothy Riker.

Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink | An Asian American Story of Cultivating Belonging and Well-Being | Friday Closing Keynote

Nancy Chung

Nancy Chung is a fun-loving fifth grade teacher and content creator from Orange County, California in her 26th year of teaching. Also known as FancyNancyin5th on Instagram and TikTok, Nancy is passionate about sharing her ideas on creative projects, highly-engaging lessons, building meaningful relationships, and setting up classrooms that spark discovery and inclusion.

Cultivate Community & Celebrate Diversity with Our Young Learners | Saturday 

Dr. Nicole Gilbertson

Dr. Nicole Gilbertson creates opportunities for educators to learn and collaborate with one another as the Director of the UCI Teacher Academy. She received her Ph.D. in history with an emphasis on modern Europe and world history, while at the same time earning a secondary teaching credential in history-social science, and has led professional development in Southern California for the last 15 years. Dr. Gilbertson values the partnerships and community that have emerged and continue to grow through the Teaching for Justice conference.

Research and Practice: Teacher Self-Efficacy in Teaching Asian American Studies in K-12 | Friday 

Stacey Lee Gobir

Stacey Lee Gobir serves as the Director of Resilience-Informed Skills Education (RISE) Program at Pepperdine University. She is a first-generation Korean-American, first-generation college student, and a double alumna of Pepperdine’s Seaver College and Caruso School of Law’s Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution. Stacey has held numerous positions as a higher education practitioner in nearly a decade of service including experiences in Housing & Residence Life, the Office of Student Accessibility, and Health & Wellness. Some of her favorite life and work experiences include serving local villages and living on a medical mission in Fiji for a summer, volunteering with the Los Angeles Superior Courts as a civil harassment mediator, and supporting veteran and nontraditional students at Stanford University.

Stories of Resilience: How to Advocate for Self and Others to Promote AAPI Well-Being | Saturday 

Dr. William Gow

Will Gow (he/him) is a Sacramento-based educator, community historian, and documentary filmmaker. He currently serves as the co-chair of Outreach and Advocacy for OCA Asian American Advocates AANHPI K-12 Curriculum Project. He is an Assistant Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at CSU Sacramento.

California’s High School Ethnic Studies Requirement: Addressing Unanswered Questions and Challenges | Friday

Victoria Gray

Victoria Gray teaches Ethnic Studies, English, and AP Human Geography in LA Unified School District. She completed her undergraduate degree in History and English, with a minor in Art History at UC Santa Barbara, and is in the process of receiving her Masters in History at CSU Long Beach. Victoria was born in Taiwan and raised in the San Gabriel Valley.

Teaching Resistance and Autonomy: Looking at Methods of Resistance in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement | Saturday

Eunice Ho

Eunice Ho (she/her) is an Ethnic Studies teacher based in Orange County who practices humanizing, healing-centered, praxis-driven, and place-based critical pedagogy. She is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She received her BA in Ethnic Studies from UCSD and her M.Ed with an Emphasis in Ethnic Studies from UCLA’s Teacher Education Program and has designed curriculum for various organizations and initiatives including USC One Archives and the UCLA Asian American Digital Textbook Project.

Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink | An Asian American Story of Cultivating Belonging and Well-Being | Friday Closing Keynote

A Pedagogy of Love: Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach | Saturday

Rachel Hsieh

Rachel is an elementary educator based in Oregon. She believes strongly in centering student voice in the classroom and learning alongside her students. Rachel teaches from an instructional equity framework and uses picture books to help launch critical conversations with students.

Centering APPI Stories in an Interdisciplinary Way | Friday

Josie Huang

I am a public radio reporter at LAist 89.3 (formerly KPCC, Southern California Public Radio) focused on covering Asian American communities in the region.

A reporter’s storytelling techniques for the classroom | Friday 

Ryan Itchon

I am a High School Counselor at Portola High School. I have spent 8 years as a counselor, and I have also served as a UC Irvine Admissions Reader and private college consultant.

Pressure to Perform: Addressing the impact of the Model Minority Myth on our AAPI High School Students | Saturday 

Dr. Wenli Jen

Dr. Wenli Jen is a consultant for Integral Prudence Solutions with 20 years of experience in education, health and business. She is the National Compliance Officer for Chinese American Citizens Alliance and local office of communications lead for the Los Angeles Lodge. Dr. Jen is also a Professor in public health, as well as Asian American and Ethnic Studies California State University, Dominguez Hills. She also teaches Psychology at University of the West.

Research and Practice: Teacher Self-Efficacy in Teaching Asian American Studies in K-12 | Friday 

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura

Naomi Ostwald Kawamura is the Executive Director of DENSHO, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. Naomi holds a Master’s degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD Candidate in Curriculum & Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia.

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project | Friday 

Naehee Kwun

I am a teacher educator at UCI CalTeach, a math teacher for 15 years, and founder of Mathing for Equity. My mission is bringing mathematics to students as a tool with which they can be critical thinkers and change agents in their communities.

Research and Practice: Teacher Self-Efficacy in Teaching Asian American Studies in K-12 | Friday
Centering APPI Stories in an Interdisciplinary Way | Friday 

Dylan Lam

Dylan Lam is currently a sophomore at Polytechnic High School. She enjoys music and painting, competing in squash, and teaching kids squash at outside LA courts. She has also started teaching introduction to abacus at a local library. Dylan joined the Asian American studies because she feels hearing stories and sharing that with the larger community is such a crucial step in understanding the history of Asian heritage and history.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Jessalin Lam

Jessalin Lam is VP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Digitas Health. She is the Co-Founder of Asians in Advertising, a global non-profit organization that focuses on community and networking, professional development opportunities, and visibility to spotlight the Asian community. Jessalin is also the co-author of The Visibility Mindset: How Asian American Leaders Create Opportunities and Push Past Barriers. She has been recognized as a 2022 ADCOLOR Leaders, 2022 Asian Hustle Network Top 50 Unsung Heroes, 2021 Nancy Hill Award Recipient, and 2018 Ad Club of NY Women Fellowship.

Embracing the Visibility Mindset for AAPI and Allies| Friday 

Sienna Lam

Sienna Lam is a senior at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California. She enjoys creative writing, art, and piano. She is interested in learning how to use these various creative media to share her experiences and highlight Asian American stories. For her, AAPI belonging is characterized by resilience, trust, and celebration of Asian identity.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Tanya Lancaster

Tanya Lancaster, MA serves as a Paraprofessional and Substitute Teacher for the Juvenile Court and Community Schools with the San Diego County Office of Education.

Teaching with Chamorro Values to Transform the Classroom | Saturday

Dr. Kelley Le

Dr. Kelley Le is currently leading the Environmental and Climate Literacy Projects (ECCLPs) effort as the initiative’s executive director. She also currently leads the UCI Science Project that supports K–12 science educators and leaders to reimagine science education for the 21st century.

Unveiling Data To Be Seen and Heard: Looking at Data Through an AAPI Lens | Friday

Maya Lê

Maya Lê, Creator of MaistoryBook, is an elementary school teacher, artist, and curriculum developer. Passionate about equality and diversity in children’s literature, she inspires a new generation of readers through her interactive read aloud YouTube videos, reviews of children’s books on Instagram, book-inspired crafts, and live Community Storytime events.

Curating AAPI-Centered Classroom Libraries | Friday

Courtney Lee

Courtney Lee is a Northwood High School freshman with both mainland and Hong Kong ancestors. Her interest in her identity was piqued by the 2019 Hong Kong protests, prompting her to rethink society’s and human nature’s foundations. This piqued her interest in enrolling in the AAYL program.

Courtney is delighted to attend the Photovoice Program and benefit from its challenging and rewarding educational experiences, which encourage innovative thought and leadership growth. She is motivated by her enthusiasm for research and assisting people. She is excited to work with like-minded people to better grasp the complicated issues that affect the AAPI community.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Darlene Lee

Darlene Lee (she/her/hers) is a faculty advisor for the UCLA Teacher Education Program Ethnic Studies Pathway and Curriculum Developer for the UCLA Asian American Studies Multimedia Textbook Project.

K-12 Ethnic Studies Curriculum: The power of language, solidarity, and visibility in highlighting experiences of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II | Friday

Linn Lee

Linn Lee (she/her/hers) is a Curriculum Specialist for Social Science and Ethnic Studies in the Santa Ana Unified School District. She has a Masters in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has taught U.S. History for over 20 years in high school. She has been committed to strengthening and creating an authentic Ethnic Studies program at the state level and within Santa Ana Unified School District. She served on the original California Department of Education Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Committee in 2018.

A Pedagogy of Love: Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach | Saturday

Madyson Chung Lee

Madyson Chung Lee is a senior at Portola High School. She currently serves as a student board member for Irvine Unified School District. Her passions like in civic engagement, student advocacy, and AAPI women/gender issues.

Pressure to Perform: Addressing the impact of the Model Minority Myth on our AAPI High School Students | Saturday

Freda Lin

Freda Lin is the Co-Director of YURI Education Project, a business that brings Asian American stories to schools through professional learning and curriculum development. She began this work as an undergraduate student activist leader for Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. This led her to become a middle and high school history and leadership teacher in Chicago and San Francisco Bay Area schools. After leaving the teaching field, she consulted with the Center for Asian American Media and UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project, and served as the Education Program Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.

Colonialism in Early America: An Asian American Studies Perspective | Friday

Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan

Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan is the inaugural Director of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Center at San Diego State University and the Co-Executive Director of The Asian American Education Project. Previously, she directed the Liberal Studies Major, led teaching credential programs, taught teacher education courses, and taught in K-8 classrooms. She is also an award-winning author with over 400+ publications.

The Fight to Belong: Teaching APIDA Histories – Past and Present| Saturday 

Levalasi Loi-On

Levalasi Loi-On (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at Cañada College in Redwood City, CA. She is grateful for the spaces that have nurtured her growth as a mixed Samoan mother and is passionate about building community and storytelling that centers Pacific Islanders in the diaspora.

Pacific Islander History & Belonging | Friday 

Ellie Lian

Ellie Lian is a Chinese American high school senior residing in Orange County, California. She is incredibly passionate about legislation and policy, specifically regarding educational equity and racial justice which she channels into a number of statewide to grassroots initiatives. One of her biggest motivators is working towards increased youth empowerment and ensuring that all student voices are being honored in any decision-making matter that concerns them. Outside of her work in student organizing, you can find her thrifting, painting, reading, or watching films!

Pressure to Perform: Addressing the impact of the Model Minority Myth on our AAPI High School Students | Saturday 

Dr. Joey Liu

Joey Liu (she/her/hers) is a twelfth year K-12 teacher. Her focus is on teaching and learning as communion—an authentic, collective, spiritual, and humanizing return to rituals of belonging and community. Other interests include relationships to land, spoken word, visual media, sustainability, and authentic collaboration with youth. Her research focuses on community-grown schools, with an emphasis on land/place-based and decolonizing ways of learning and being. She acknowledges her scholarship is immensely indebted to the Indigenous and Black Teachers (young and old, within and without academia) who have granted her knowledge and experience.

A Pedagogy of Love: Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach | Saturday

Dr. Jose Paolo Magcalas

Jose Paolo Magcalas (he/him/his) is a tenured-track assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He currently teaches courses in Ethnic Studies and Urban Learning. Prior to his professorship, Paolo developed and taught the first Ethnic Studies course at Loara High School in Anaheim. He also advised the Halo-Halo (Filipinx Club) at Loara. He is the son of Filipina/o immigrants. Paolo is also an elected official. He is the first Filipino-American to be elected to the Anaheim Elementary School District, Board of Trustees. He was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. He represents Trustee Area 3 (the southwest region of Anaheim and Garden Grove).

A Pedagogy of Love: Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach | Saturday

Samip Mallick

Samip Mallick is the co-founder and executive director of SAADA, which he has guided from its inception in 2008 to its place today as a national leader in community-based storytelling. Mallick’s background includes degrees in computer science and library and information sciences and work related to international migration and South Asia for the Social Science Research Council and University of Chicago. Mallick currently serves on the Library of Congress Connecting Communities Digital Initiative advisory board. He also previously served as an archival consultant for the Ford Foundation’s Reclaiming the Border Narrative initiative and on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs.

Our Stories: An Introduction to South Asian America | Friday

Dr. Marika Manos

Dr. Marika Manos is the History/Social Science Manager at Orange County Department of Education and has an extensive background as a curriculum developer, teacher leader, and educational researcher. In her current work, she develops training and events focused on history, social science, civics, and culturally-sustaining pedagogies. Dr. Manos leads three statewide model curriculum projects centering on Southeast Asian communities.

Developing AAPI Model Curricula With Critical Care | Saturday

Dr. Gwendolyn Mink

Gwendolyn Mink writes about U.S. poverty policy, gender issues, and American politics. She was Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Smith College before becoming an independent scholar. She is the author and editor of many books, most recently coauthor with Judy Tzu-Chun Wu of 𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠：𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑠𝑦 𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑘，𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 (NYU Press, 2022).

Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink | An Asian American Story of Cultivating Belonging and Well-Being | Friday Closing Keynote

Sulynn Miao

Sulynn Miao (she/her) is a proud daughter of immigrants from Tianjin, China who grew up in Washington State and now resides on the unceded land of the Lisjan Ohlone people also known as Oakland, California. She is the Curriculum and Content Manager for Immigrant History Initiative (IHI), an organization that seeks to empower Asian Americans, build empathy for multiple generations of immigrant communities, and foster solidarity to address hate and intolerance. With IHI, Sulynn designs curriculum, educational resources, and professional development for educators to teach the stories of the Asian diaspora and bring Asian American histories into the classroom.

Gender and Intersectionality | Friday

Charles Joseph Montesa

Make Us Visible is a bipartisan grassroots coalition of parents, students, teachers, and neighbors advocating for the inclusion of Asian American history in K-12 classrooms. Charles serves as the Interim State Director of the MUV CA chapter. He specializes in grassroots digital communications and community building and affected causes ranging from digital inclusion to education, housing, veterans, and AAPI advocacy. He holds an MPA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, where he specialized in social change management and leadership.

Activating Your Community| Friday

Anusha Nadkarni

Anusha Nadkarni is a senior at Bloomington High School in Bloomington, Illinois, and the proud daughter of two Indian-American immigrants. She has developed over 7 inclusive lesson plans, 2 anti-racist educator workbooks, and 3 culturally responsive webinars as the Chair of Diversify Our Narrative’s National Curriculum Council, and worked with OCA National to oversee the development and review of 30 K-12 lesson plans centering the AANHPI community. Anusha represented the State of Illinois as a delegate to the 2023 United States Senate Youth Program, and believes that equitable education systems are integral to fostering empathetic, justice-driven communities. Anusha will be attending Stanford University in the fall, and plans to continue her work in education reform and equity work there.

OCA K-12 Curriculum Project: A New Resource for Teaching About the AANHPI Experience| Friday

Andrea Kim Neighbors

Andrea Kim Neighbors (she/her/hers) serves as the Head of Education for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC). She collaborates with educators and Asian American and Pacific Islander community members, and content specialists on the development of APAC’s National Education Program. Before joining APAC, Andrea was Manager of Community Partnerships at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and Tour Manager at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, WA, designing customized museum experiences to best fit the needs of local educators. Andrea is a Professorial Lecturer in the Museum Studies department at George Washington University and serves as a board member of the Museum Education Roundtable.

Storytelling Through Portraiture| Friday

Jasmine Nguyen

Jasmine Nguyen is the cofounder and co-CEO of Diversify Our Narrative, a student led coalition of approximately 1000+ students internationally fighting for a diverse and inclusive K-12 curricula through local policy advocacy and curriculum development. She is a junior at Stanford University double majoring in Political Science and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, both with a Justice and Policy specialization. She has prior experience in speaking as a panelist, leading workshops, and delivering speeches with organizations such as the EmpowHERment Conference and the Women of Color Conference. Her work pushing for the passing of California’s AB101 through Diversify Our Narrative has been mentioned in TIME Magazine

California’s High School Ethnic Studies Requirement: Addressing Unanswered Questions and Challenges | Friday

Mary Nguyen

Mary Nguyen (she/her) is the program coordinator for the Asian American Youth Leaders Program-a collective of AAPI High School students across Los Angeles and Orange counties who are learning to contribute to the social dialogue in developing just and equitable solutions to social challenges and needs in the AAPI community.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Virginia Nguyen

Virginia Nguyen is a high school history teacher and cofounder of Educate to Empower. She is committed to fostering school communities that center student voice, belonging, and empowerment. In addition to being a teacher and district leader, Virginia impacts teachers across the nation by facilitating workshops, publishing articles, and speaking at events advocating for equity and justice in education.

California’s High School Ethnic Studies Requirement: Addressing Unanswered Questions and Challenges | Friday
Cultivating Belonging in Our Communities | Saturday Opening Keynote

Ting-Yi Oei

Education Director for the 1882 Foundation. Social Studies teacher and High School Administrator for 35 years mostly in Virginia. Former Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea, Fulbright Exchange Teacher in Scotland, and Curriculum Consultant with an emphasis on bringing in the little-known or forgotten stories into the curriculum.

OCA K-12 Curriculum Project: A New Resource for Teaching About the AANHPI Experience | Friday

Glory Parel

Glory Parel is a freshman at Northwood High School she has always been interested in asian studies since she has always been curious about understanding and connecting with her heritage. She believes that belonging to the AAPI community is finding a group of people that relate on a cultural level and have similar experiences to you coming together and acting like a haven for each-other.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Alex Senar

Alex Senar is a Filipino American Principal at Royal Oak Middle School, in Covina, California. He is passionate about making a difference in the lives his students.

Be the Bridge | Saturday

Seema Shah

Seema Shah (she/her/hers), Director of Training for OC Human Relations, has over two decades of intergroup facilitation experience. Her current work focuses on curriculum and program development centered on partnering with organizations and communities to build inclusivity and equity. Using a facilitative approach, Seema aims to engage communities in dialogue on often difficult but necessary conversations to expand our collective understanding, motivation and desire towards a community of belonging for all.

AAPI Affinity Circle – Our Belonging and Wellbeing | Saturday

Arjit Singh

I am a Junior in high school with a strong math and science background. I am driven by my passion for leadership and service and hold leadership positions in the student body and extracurricular clubs. I have been deeply involved in Hope Squad and other school spirit activities since Freshman year.

Pressure to Perform: Addressing the impact of the Model Minority Myth on our AAPI High School Students | Saturday

Dr. Theresa Suarez

Theresa Suarez, Ph.D. serves as the Chair of the APIDA Initiative and Community Partnerships at CSU San Marcos, and is the Principal Investigator of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Equity in Action Grant funded by the CSU Student Success Network.

Teaching with Chamorro Values to Transform the Classroom | Saturday

Phuc To

Phuc To (they/she) is a queer photographer and a doctoral student in Ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego. Their research lies at the intersection of Critical Refugee Studies, Critical Gender Studies, and ongoing critiques of the Non-profit Industrial Complex. Phuc is invested in non-traditional forms of knowledge production and liberatory models of education. Phuc received an M.A. in Asian American Studies and B.S. in Biology from the University of California, Irvine. Before joining UCSD, they worked with various AAPI community-based non-profit organizations in Orange County to provide resources and support to the AAPI communities during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roundtable Discussion: Asian American Youth Leaders PhotoVoice Project – What is Love in the Time of Hate? | Saturday Closing Keynote

Dr. Karen Umemoto

Karen Umemoto, Ph.D. is Professor of Urban Planning and Asian American Studies and serves as the Helen and Morgan Chu Chair and Director 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. Born and raised in Los Angeles, a major concern has been racial conflict and youth violence. Her research on racialized gang violence led to The Truce: Lessons from an LA Gang War. While a professor at the University of Hawaii for 22 years, she worked on community development and efforts to end youth incarceration. Her work with the University of Hawaii Asian and Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center informed her co-authored publication, Jacked Up and Unjust: Pacific Islander Teens Confront Violent Legacies. She is currently Co-Director and Co-Editor of the AAPI Multimedia Textbook Project.

California’s High School Ethnic Studies Requirement: Addressing Unanswered Questions and Challenges | Friday

Dr. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu is a professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She also serves as faculty director of the Humanities Center and Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public Engagement. She is the inaugural director of the Center for Liberation, Anti-Racism, and Belonging (C-LAB).

Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink | An Asian American Story of Cultivating Belonging and Well-Being | Friday Closing Keynote

April Van Ligten

Director of Youth and Education Programs for OC Human Relations, April Van Ligten (she/her), has over 15 years of experience in education ranging from educational advocacy for foster youth and families and special education in public schools to supporting school implementation of restorative justice practices. April’s varied experiences in education have strengthened her passion for social justice and work with youth to cultivate their power.

AAPI Affinity Circle – Our Belonging and Wellbeing | Saturday

Dr. Thuy Vo Dang

Thuy Vo Dang is a Professor of Information Studies and oral historian at the University of California, Los Angeles where she also co-directs the UCLA Community Archives Lab. Formerly the Curator for the University of California, Irvine’s Southeast Asian Archive and director of Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project, Thuy’s work centers voices on the margins of history. She is coauthor of A People’s Guide to Orange County (University of California Press, 2022) and Vietnamese in Orange County (Arcadia Publishing, 2015) and serves as a board member for Arts Orange County and the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association.

Research and Practice: Teacher Self-Efficacy in Teaching Asian American Studies in K-12 | Friday 

Staci Yamanishi

Cultivate Community & Celebrate Diversity with Our Young Learners | Saturday 

Dr. Cathery Yeh

Cathery Yeh (she/her/hers) is a parent, bilingual educator, and assistant professor of STEM education and the Center for Asian American Studies core faculty at the University of Texas, Austin. She is also the co-founder of @miseducAsian, a space created to amplify justice-oriented APIDA educators to catalyze educational change.

Centering AAPI Resistance and Solidarity in the Mathematics Curriculum | Saturday

Stacy Yung

Stacy Yung, cofounder of Educate to Empower, is a former middle school history teacher who currently supports educators as a thought leader, mentor, and curriculum developer. With over 15 years of experience in K-12 education, Stacy has organized and spoken at conferences focused on topics such as culturally responsive teaching, social justice, and student-centered learning. She is dedicated to supporting educators in their efforts to create inclusive and empowering classroom and school communities.

Research and Practice: Teacher Self-Efficacy in Teaching Asian American Studies in K-12 | Friday 
Cultivating Belonging in Our Communities | Saturday Opening Keynote