Iosefa Aina

Upon graduation, Sefa was hired by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center as an Academic and Organizational Advisor, as well as an Instructor.  The course that Sefa taught primarily was a service learning course titled, "Asian Pacific American Leadership Development Project".  Other courses that he's taught include "Pacific Islander Experience" and "Pacific Islander Education + Retention".  Currently, Sefa is the Associate Director of the Asian American Resource Center at Pomona College.  Sefa continues to work with students, and helps to develop leadership and accountability to issues of social justice and access for marginalized communities. 

In the community, Sefa has been active on the advisory boards of the Pacific Islander PIPELINE Project, NHPI (Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander) Alliance for Health, PICCN (Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network) Samoan Community Advisory Board, and The AIGA (All Islands Getting Along) Foundation.  Sefa is also a founding member of NPIEN (National Pacific Islander Educators Network), as well as the UCLA PIER (Pacific Islander Education + Retention) Project.  The PIER Project does outreach and mentoring to Pacific Islander high school youth at Carson HS and Hawthorne HS in Los Angeles.

Sefa is the 8^th of 9 kids, and the first to graduate from college.  Sefa is married with 3 beautiful kids Marina (6), Marcus (4), Malie (3), as well as the guardian for 5 other nephews and nieces Sitofa (20), Tita (19), Rosey (17), Ben (16), and Armani (3).

Nicholas Centino

Nicholas grew up in a multi-racial household on California's central coast. While attending the University of California at Santa Barbara he became active in organizing for the recruitment and retention of under-represented students. After proudly working to assist student of color activists as the Student of Color Campus Diversity Project Director for the United States Student Association Foundation, Nicholas has returned to Santa Barbara, were he currently advocates for the consumer rights of immigrant communities.

Jason Chan

Jason Chan is the Program Officer for Scholar Development of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF). He is responsible for developing and implementing programs and initiatives in the areas of scholar and alumni relations, academic empowerment, and leadership development. Prior to APIASF, Jason was pursuing a Masters of Education in College Student Personnel at the University of Maryland-College Park. During this graduate studies, he also worked extensively with the undergraduate population, serving as an advisor to members of the University Student Judiciary, the Asian American Student Union, and several other student organizations. In addition, he facilitated numerous diversity-related programs and leadership trainings, and co-taught an undergraduate course on leadership within the context of the Asian Pacific American experience. Prior to graduate school, Jason worked at City Year, a national non-profit community service organization, first as an AmeriCorps volunteer and later as a full-time staff member. During his time there, he taught diversity curricula to Boston public school students, performed physical service projects throughout the city, supervised a team of ten full-time volunteers, and developed new systems and processes that enhanced City Year's recruitment and admissions functions. Jason has presented workshops for various college student conferences, including the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) conference, the National Asian American Student Conference (NAASCon), and the American Association of University Women (AAUW)'s National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Jason received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and in Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a member of ACPA: College Student Educators International and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).

Yoojin Janice Lee

Yoojin Janice Lee has fourteen years of leadership, social justice and community building experience.    As a consultant, she offers training and coaching on leadership development for social change, building healthy teams and community organizing.  She was formerly Executive Director & Lead Organizer of the Boston-area Youth Organizing Project, where she worked in partnership with low-income youth from communities of color and immigrant communities to gain justice in their schools and neighborhoods.  She also worked at Call to Renewal, a national coalition of churches working to overcome poverty and was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs in New York City.  She holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and graduated from Smith College, where she was student government president.  Born in Pusan, Korea, she grew up in northern New Jersey and Queens, NY.  For the last eight years, has made her home in the Boston-area, where she is part of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church and worships with an Episcopalian monastic community.  Yoojin loves nature, running, and reading, is a growing photographer/visual artist, and joyfully talks to strangers.

Jeanette Moy

Jeanette is the fourth generation to be born outside of China - and the first to be born in the US.   While she originates from Queens, NY, her parents and grandparents are from Trinidad & Tobago.   

Jeanette's work centers on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) youth, combating domestic violence and empowering the Asian American community. She is currently serves as the Vice Chair of APIAVote, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of AAPIs in the electoral and public policy processes at the national, state and local levels.  She is a founding board member of APIAVote, and helps drive its communications, organizational goals and strategy.  She was first inspired to work with APIAVote national campaign on youth civic involvement with over 2,000 students in 2004. She works with the Asian American Action Fund Young Professionals (AAA Fund), a DC-based Political Action Committee, and non profits such as the New York Asian Women Center and OCA.   Jeanette served as the Deputy Director of APIA Outreach and a consultant for the Women's Outreach 2004 Kerry/Edwards campaign.

As an undergraduate, Jeanette chartered Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority at the University of Rochester.   She served for five years on its National Board, and is currently advisor to its national board and chapter at the University of Pennsylvania.   She spearheaded the establishment of the National APIA Pan Hellenic Association (also known as NAPA and formerly known as the APIAVote Greek Alliance), linking 13 Greek-lettered societies.   She currently serves as an advisor.

Jeanette graduated from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.   She is employed as a Product Manager at Wellpoint.

Giles Li is a Chinese American performer and educator from Boston. In 2002, he founded the Boston Progress Arts Collective, an organization promoting the use of arts as a tool for education and organizing in Boston's Asian American communities. He also serves as Arts Coordinator for the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. He also serves on the board of the Asian American Resource Workshop and is involved with many other community groups both locally and nationally, including the APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, the Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth, and the Chinese Progressive Association.

He is a nationally-recognized spoken word performer with almost a decade's worth of experience , having shared the stage with legendary performers like Louis Reyes Rivera, Willie Perdomo, and Pharoahe Monch, as well as with activists and community leaders, such as Mel King, Helen Zia, and The Honorable Norman Mineta. Giles is currently a part of the API spoken word and hip hop revue "Beats Rhymes and Rice" with Bao Phi and Kiwi. Please visit gilesli.com for more information.

Dharma Naik

Dharma Naik is the Coordinator for Asian Pacific American Student Involvement and Advocacy at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Through this capacity Dharma works with over 30 APIA Greek and non-Greek student organizations.  Born and raised in England, Dharma has significant experience working in Admissions, Student Life, and Multicultural Involvement and with teaching at both public and private universities. Dharma graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park [B.A., Sociology; Certificate in Asian American Studies; M.A., Counseling and Personnel Services (CSP)]. Most recently, Dharma coordinated special programs/events and visitor services for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Maryland. Her academic research interests include student involvement and racial identity development of APIA, specifically South Asian American college students.

Bindi Patel

Bindi Patel currently works at the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs, at New York University, as the newest Program Administrator focusing primarily on programming related to student success.  Her work is focused on a campus-wide mentoring programming for first and second year students, the commuter student population, programs that geared towards academic retention and she also advises the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar Chapter at NYU.  Most recently she was with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program/APIA developing the scholarship application and review process, alumni programs, and outreach strategies.  Bindi graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in International Relations and Supply Chain Management.

Brian Redondo

Brian Redondo is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.  During his undergraduate years, he worked on a variety of students of color issues including advocating for increased resources to campus cultural centers and the implementation of a diversity requirement to the curriculum.  He also spear-headed a voter registration drive among Asian American students and a campus letter-writing campaign for Filipino WWII veterans' equity.  In his senior year, he co-chaired the East Coast Asian American Student Union 2005 Conference "Impact: Our Own Making."  He is currently work at the Asian American  Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).

Yen Ling Shek

Yen Ling Shek is the Coordinator of the Multicultural Leadership Center at California State University - Fullerton. At Fullerton, she is responsible for diversity trainings, multicultural leadership development, cultural programming, and advising. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Yen Ling is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she advocated for student affairs professionals to work with the Asian Pacific American and Latino community, worked in coalition with other progressive organizations, and started the Asian/Asian Pacific American Alumni Network (AAPAAN) and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. After doing event planning and communications work for Leadership Washington, she moved to Philadelphia to work at the University of Pennsylvania's Greenfield Intercultural Center and Pan-Asian American Community House doing programming, leadership development, mentoring, and student advising. Yen Ling then left for the University of Maryland, College Park to get her master's in College Student Personnel and taught social justice issues, conducted dialogues on women of color/white women, worked in academic affairs, and planned social justice programs. Her thesis was on "The Relationships of Racial Identity and Gender-Role Conflict on Self-Esteem of Asian American Undergraduate Men."

Yen Ling has served on the board and been active in community organizations focused on Chinatown youth, APA women's health,  and at-risk youth. She has led workshops on organizational development, coalition building, student activism, leadership skills, and diversity for the Naitonal Young Leaders Conference, East Coast Asian American Student Union, and National Asian American Student Conference. She currently serves on the boards of AAPAAN at UVA and the Asian Pacific American Network of College Student Educators International.

Nicholas Sakurai

Nick Sakurai is in his fourth year as an APIA U facilitator and consultant. When not training for OCA, Nick works full-time at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Ally Resource Center at American University and is also completing a masters degree in International Training and Education. Prior to his current job, Nick spent two years working at the United States Student Association (USSA) Foundation as the Director of the LGBT Student Empowerment Project, representing LGBT college student interests in national coalitions on immigration, hate crimes, marriage, and transgender issues. During his tenure, Nick organized the first ever LGBT Student of Color National Summit, a unique gathering drawing 50 students from across the country. Prior to working for USSA, he did extensive work as a student activist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he co-founded an LGBT student of color organization and organized several educational panels of APIA LGBT students. While earning his B.A. at UIUC, Nick also worked to secure funding to hire two new full-time professionals in the campus LGBT office and helped build a multi-campus network that successfully fought for domestic partner health care benefits in the University of Illinois system.

Connie Rose Tingson- Gatuz

In her seventh year working with APIA U, Connie Rose serves as the APIA U Lead Facilitator.  Connie is the Director for the Center for Personalized Instruction and Project Director for the federally funded Student Support Services TRiO program at Madonna University.  She currently serves as Principle Investigator of a research project for APIA U funded by State Farm Insurance.  She is also a Doctoral Candidate in the Higher Education Administration Program at Michigan State University.  She earned her Bachelors degree in Political Science and her Masters degree in College and University Administration.  While at the University of Michigan she served as Assistant Director in the Office of New Student Programs, directed a university-wide mentorship program, and advised various Asian American student organizations including an API first-year mentoring program and the pan APIA council on campus.  While at Michigan State, she created and developed APIA serving initiatives such as Mentoring Asian Americans with Promise, Asian Caucus of East, and the Philippine American Student Society.  Connie has served as a Reader for four years for the Gates Millennium Scholarship (GMS) Program, consulted with Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) on various APIA scholarships, served as the Midwest Association for Filipino Americans (MAFA) organizing committee Advisor for three years and served on the Board of Advisors for the Midwest Asian American Student Union (MAASU). Over the last fifteen years, she has served as a trainer and facilitator on leadership development, mentorship, and program organization.