Who is APEN?

Ayesha is a first-generation Pakistani American raised in the Bay Area. Her early childhood experiences in Pakistan led her to become involved in a number of non-profit organizations providing resources to communities in need both locally and globally. Ayesha went on to receive a degree in Political Science from UC Riverside and continued to combat inequity by leading cultural competency education workshops and building multi-cultural coalitions. Through her community organizing and outreach work, she was awarded the Sumi Harada API Leadership Award and went on to be a Ronald O. Loveridge Policy Fellow. Ayesha is excited for her role as the State Organizer where she can use her strengths in community outreach, education, and organizing in conjunction with her knowledge of statewide policy. In her free time, you can find her propagating houseplants, volunteering as a counselor for Exhale, or taking a hike.

Elle is a second generation Taiwanese American who studied public policy and environmental justice during their undergraduate degree. They began their career through the Capital Fellows Program working for the Senate Public Safety Committee and Senator Nancy Skinner. Elle served as a Senior Legislative Aide for Assemblymember Mark Stone spearheading bills including AB 376 (2020) establishing a Student Loan Bill of Rights, AB 1766 (2022) expanding CA ID eligibility to 1.7 mil undocumented residents, and AB 1577 (2022) authorizing legislative staff to collectively bargain. They bring several years of experience as lead budget staffer and have served on two LGBTQ+ nonprofit boards. Elle completed their MSc in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics. Outside of work, you can find Elle attending book launches and film festivals, soaking up the California sun, and celebrating queer joy.

Connie is a second generation Korean-American who hails from the Midwest. As a movement lawyer, she is passionate about democratizing access to the law and the power to govern. Prior to joining APEN, Connie was the Richmond Staff Attorney and Justice Catalyst Legal Fellow at Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). She also served as a member of the statewide Environmental Justice Advisory Committee for the 2022 Update to the AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan. Connie brings a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to the climate justice movement after working in local government, direct services, and community organizing groups to improve health care and social safety net programs on the East Coast. As a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholar from middle school through graduate school, she completed her M.Sc. in Gender, Policy, and Inequalities at the London School of Economics and received her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Connie lives in San Francisco with her partner and her rescue pup, Nala. Outside of work, she is a part of the National Lawyers Guild SF-Bay Area Chapter and Legal Solidarity Bay Area.

Marie is a second generation diasporic Korean mama, researcher, and radio producer. She has worked on shows like Making Contact, Upfront, Hard Knock Radio, and Apex Express. She has put her research and communications skills to work, supporting workers and communities organizing both inside and outside of NGOs and unions. She likes cooking, swimming, and audio stories for children.

Raised by a Filipino immigrant family in the working class town of Pittsburg (no “h”), CA, Christine acts from the deep belief that we are stronger together and can go farther together than we ever could alone. She is Co-Director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), organizing with immigrants and refugees for a healthy environment and thriving economy for all communities. For over 20 years, Christine strategized, organized, and built coalitions across environmental health and justice, workers rights, and economic and racial justice issues. Previously, she was Executive Director at the Center for Story-based Strategy, training 2,000+ people and working with 200+ groups to reinvigorate narrative strategies for social justice. Christine is an ordained priest of the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen, and trains in Oakland, CA and Kalihi Valley, HI. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics from Stanford University, with a focus on language and power.

Raised in Sacramento, Isa is a Mexican-American writer, editor, shower-singer and older sister. Isa learned to plan actions and build coalitions as a student organizer with her campus’s fossil fuel divestment campaign. After college, Isa worked as the statewide Communications Manager with the California Environmental Justice Alliance. Isa has trained and completed fellowships with the Sunrise Movement, 350.org, ReFrame, and the Center for Story-based Strategy. She credits her belief in storytelling and love of a good yard-sale to her grandmother, who never let a good story (or bargain) pass her by.

Caitlyn has 6 years of experience supporting a diverse group of residents living in Chinatown public housing. She worked closely with elders, people with disabilities, and families. She is passionate about serving non-English speaking low-income community members.

Jing Jing was born in TaiShan, GuangDong, China. She immigrated to the United States when she was 13. She speaks fluently in TaiShanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and English. She graduated last year with a Social Welfare degree from UC Berkeley. Jing Jing’s role at APEN as a community organizer helps fight for social and environmental justice. Previously, Jing Jing has also participated in APEN Action, a program designed to help organize and educate API voters.  As a community organizer, she hopes to first educate herself, then bring her knowledge about grassroots organizing to the community and learn from the community. She wants to help generate power in the Asian community into having greater influence in where they live and work.

Vivian Yi Huang is honored to work at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) alongside immigrant and refugee community members to build power and create the world of love and justice we envision.   Being from a Chinese immigrant family, she was raised in a culture of loving your people, living in the world of possibility, and the importance of making ideas tangible.  Over the past 11 years and now as a Co-Director, Vivian has played a leadership role in strengthening APEN’s organizing and leadership development, advancing our collective strategy for just transition and systemic change, catalyzing innovative models, and deepening our embodiment of feminisms and shared power.

Prior to working at APEN, Vivian spent a decade working on policy, legislative, and budget campaigns, including model policies to improve health care interpretation, $25 million for health disparities in cancer, and a successful effort to support immigrant parents that made a conservative “top bills to kill list.”  She has also been a facilitator, trainer, and teacher with the Women’s Policy Institute, School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), and San Francisco State University Department of Public Health.

Vivian finds joy in dance parties with her threenager and doggy, somatics and healing, masterpieces by Wong Kar Wai and Octavia Butler, and cake, ice cream, or best of all, the combination.

Tim Huey grew up in Walnut Creek, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has always believed in, “knowing where he comes from” and how it affects the present and future of his family and community. His family roots come from Guangdong in southern China, to San Francisco, with migrant stops in Chiapas, Mexico, and Vancouver, Canada.

After attending St. Mary’s College of California, Tim worked in Washington, DC before returning to the Bay Area to work at the Asian Law Caucus and EBAYC, the East Bay Asian Youth Center in Oakland. He has done a variety of work within immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, voter engagement, development, film festival operations, site-specific dance. Most recently Tim was a manager at the Palestinian restaurant Reem’s California’s throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Tim lives in Oakland, where he enjoys dance, soccer and volleyball in community.

Born and raised in LA County, Emma was introduced to political work through her family’s involvement in the reparations movement for Japanese Americans. She previously worked for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson’s office where she advocated for racial equity language to be incorporated into the Home Together 2026 Community Plan and collaborated with community groups to pass policies like the Alameda County Eviction Moratorium. Building off local policy experience, she is focused on political education for APEN members and using policy as a way to work toward healthy and regenerative communities.

Roko’s grant work is deeply informed by her lived experience as a child of immigrants, a trauma survivor, and as a former dancer/choreographer. As a teacher, Roko has taught dance and improvisation in a wide range of communities, from SF State University and Bryn Mawr College to women at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison and classical dancers in Cambodia. Her publications include Belonging and Solo: a danceworkbook, and she was a contributor to Contemporary Directions in Asian American Dance edited by Dr. Yutian Wong. Roko also served as co-curator for the Performing Diaspora Festival in San Francisco, and hosted the symposium panel, Body Destroyed/Body Remembered: Genocide, Civil War and Performance. In the nonprofit space, Roko was a founding board member of the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia’s Chinatown and, in the Bay Area, worked as a programmer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and a grants strategist for STAND! For Families Free of Violence and Girls Inc. of Alameda County. Roko believes that everyone has the right to thrive with the people and in the places they love. And she loves going on girl+dog adventures with her pup Luca!

sky@apen4ej.org

Sky was born in Guangzhou and immigrated to America with his family in 2006. Oakland is the first city he settled down in and he has been living in Oakland for more than 10 years. He started volunteering at Oakland Asian Branch Library since high school. After he met APEN staff at Laney College, he started joining APEN’s meetings and doing volunteer work with APEN. He previously was voted as a member of the Oakland Leaders Committee, so he got more opportunities to join council meetings and meet with governors for different campaigns. After he graduated from UCSD with a degree in Computer Science, he came back to the Bay Area and tried to find some ways to improve the community he has lived for a long time. That is the reason he is joining APEN. He hopes to talk to more residents in the Oakland community, and understand how they want their community to be improved, so that we can work together to achieve our goal.

Linna was born and raised in Guangzhou, China. She first discovered her passion for environmental justice for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) people when she became a canvasser with APEN to help educate AAPI voters and activate their power. As an immigrant, she speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English, and strives to bring her knowledge of Asian culture to influence AAPI civic and electoral engagement. After she graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Economics, she worked for Oakland District 2 Councilmember’s office as a Chinatown community liaison. Currently, Linna’s role at APEN is Senior Oakland Community Organizer, focusing on Anti-Displacement work and Housing Justice as well as Energy Democracy and Climate Justice Initiatives. She hopes to work towards APEN’s vision of building healthy, fair and just community.

Maria brings over 25 years of administrative and operations experience to her role at APEN and is proud to support the organization’s organizing work for a Just Transition.

Scott is a mixed-race Filipino community & tenant organizer living on Huichin Ohlone Land.  A co-founder of Books for Days, Maji News, Project Kalahati, and the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Resource Center, his work is dedicated to building power, resources, and networks for collective action. Scott has given talks at SOMARTS, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. His projects have been supported by Southern Exposure, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program.

Amee is a second-generation South Asian American born and raised on the East Coast. Her personal experiences have supported her awareness of how inequalities in the workplace, as well as the built and natural environment, influence community health. Through her role at APEN, she offers an environmental justice and health equity lens to climate and energy policy in California. She previously worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on research and advocacy addressing the environmental and occupational health impacts of extreme heat due to climate change. Amee graduated with an MS in Environmental Health Sciences from UC Berkeley School of Public Health. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and camping.

Faraz Rizvi is a writer and activist based out of Southern California. He studied Political Science at UC Riverside and began organizing through electoral work in the Inland Empire and conducting research with the Center for Working Class Politics. With a background in communications and environmental justice, he previously served at the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) and currently serves as Campaign and Policy Manager for APEN.

shina@apen4ej.org

Shina has a deep commitment to environmental justice as the intersection of human rights, equity, health, and ecological sanity. She experienced the link between environmental health and poverty at a young age between visiting family in the Philippines and growing up in the shadow of a Los Angeles area oil refinery. Shina began work with human rights campaigns while pursuing undergraduate degrees in International Studies and Political Science at Long Beach State and focused on climate disaster relief and food justice. At APEN, Shina has served as Executive Assistant, building and supporting sustainable infrastructure for the organization. As Policy Coordinator, she organized our member leaders to pass and implement policies for community resistance and resilience in Oakland, Richmond, and with statewide partners. She now connects leaders and host site partners to build a network of community-based climate resilience hubs.

Sandy was born in Thailand and came to the United States at the age of 3 months. Her family is from Laos and her native tribe and language is called Mien. Sandy comes from a big family. She has a mother, 5 sisters, 2 brothers, 13 nieces and nephews, and 2 children.

Sandy grew up in Richmond, California. At the age of 14, Sandy was introduced to environmental justice and organizing through APEN’s youth program Asian Youth Advocates (AYA). Sandy’s been with APEN for 15 years, and has played a variety of roles such as, Youth Advocate, General Support Associate, Youth Organizer, LOP (Laotian Organizing Project) Community Leader, and currently is Community Organizer. Her passion is to organize and empower Asians to fight for their rights. For work, Sandy organizes the community, for play, she organizes her family, she is a true organizer!

Seng has been a youth organizer in California’s immigrant communities since 2007, most recently with the Young Men’s Empowerment Program at Khmer Girls In Action. He has previously served as a youth organizer for Youth Together around issues of educational justice across racial, ethnic and generational lines and with a grassroots organization called Serve the People, an organization dedicated to the liberation of Asian Pacific Islander communities through organizing. In the 1980s Seng’s parents fled the Khmer genocide and settled in the Bay Area. It is from this history—the struggles and sacrifices of his ancestors—that paves his path today. At the heart of his life and work are three principles: community, love, liberation.

Clio’s first direct action experience was as a fourth grader in Brooklyn, NY when they and a few friends tied themselves with jump rope to a jungle gym to prevent outdoor access from being restricted. Since then, they’ve been obsessed with the idea that groups of people can act together to change the way our world works.

More recently, Clio has been active in movements for queer liberation, climate justice, and worker and community power for almost ten years. Professionally, they have worked with the California Trade Justice Coalition, the Working Families Party, 350.org, and digital communications firm Trilogy Interactive, and they have participated in organizing trainings led by People’s Action, Ruckus Society, Re:Power, Center for Story-Based Strategy, and many other movement organizations. They like to garden, cook, play drums, write poems, and hang out with their big queer found family.

Kenneth joined as APEN staff in April 2015. He never, in his wildest dreams, thought he would be working for a non-profit transformative organization. He grew up with a capitalist mindset and really didn’t know about environmental justice movement until he started coming to APEN. At the invitation of his peers, he was able to realize how extractive our economy is with the current system. Before he was hired, Kenneth started out as an APEN volunteer and became a member shortly after. As an immigrant from Hong Kong, he is passionate about connecting with the Chinese community, and he enjoys spending time with seniors for they are full of wisdom and advice that we can all learn and benefit from.

Raised in the East Bay, Maggie serves as the State Political Director to advance a vision for statewide powerbuilding centered on justice. Prior to joining APEN, Maggie worked with labor and community leaders across the country on local and national campaigns to build electoral power for Asian immigrants and working people. In her free time, Maggie loves to be by the ocean, read science fiction, and host dinner parties with her friends and family.

Chiravann is a first generation Cambodian American from Oakland, California. After working with youth organizations like AYPAL and Forward Together throughout high school, she began to see the power and resilience of Asian/Pacific Islander communities. Through youth organizing, she became exposed to environmental justice work through conducting interviews with nail salons about healthier work conditions and facilitating community workshops on climate justice. Before graduating from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Asian American Studies and Sociology, she coordinated a 3-year mentorship for low-income Oakland and Richmond high school students and served as Executive Director for REACH!, the Asian/Pacific Islander Recruitment and Retention Center on campus. As she continues to (re)discover her own roots coming from an immigrant refugee background, she is grateful to come full circle back to environmental justice and have the opportunity to bring her leadership to APEN.

Ashley’s identity is colored by her Vietnamese heritage and upbringing in Santa Ana, California. Growing up, she saw how housing insecurity and food apartheid afflicted many people in her life; over time, she realized that these issues were often symptoms of larger, oppressive structures at work, and were not unique to her community. Rather, they were shared experiences for immigrants and working-class communities of color everywhere. Still, it’s her friends and family’s defiant resilience amidst these struggles that drives her deep passion for environmental justice and community building. She’s worked with organizations like Women’s Earth Alliance and OC Environmental Justice, addressing environmental issues at the intersection of race, class, and gender. She joins APEN as the Development Associate to support the growth of their funding strategies and is honored to be part of their ongoing work towards a Just Transition.

In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and recreating her ba ngoai’s homecooked dishes.

Alvina Wong is the Campaign & Organizing Director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. In her role, she fights the displacement of low-income and working-class Asian immigrants and refugees while building their leadership to fight for environmental justice. Leading her team in intergenerational organizing towards community governance and power at the neighborhood, city, and regional levels, she has led campaigns to stop evictions of SRO tenants and win major community benefits. Alvina began organizing in the Chinese immigrant community as an Eva Lowe Fellow at Chinese Progressive Association, SF and prior to this, spent eight years developing and organizing young people around education access and youth incarceration issues.

As the Richmond Organizing Director, Megan Zapanta draws on her experience in worker, youth and community organizing to build a strong team. Raised in the border city of San Diego in a mixed-race Filipino family, Megan is committed to justice for migrants and working class people, here and in our homelands. Megan joined APEN staff in 2011 and has played several roles including individual donor fundraising, event planning, social media and youth organizing. Outside of work, Megan plays soccer and organizes with Leftwing Fútbol Club and is an active member GABRIELA Oakland, a progressive Filipino women’s organization.

Allistair joined Common Counsel Foundation in 2016. As Director of Strategy and Asset- Building, he directs philanthropic services for Common Counsel’s clients, supports donors in aligning their philanthropic practices with social justice grantmaking, and bridges relationships in the philanthropic field. Allistair has over a decade of experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and social justice fields. His skills lie at the intersection of organizational development, strategic implementation, participatory philanthropy, and transformational fundraising. Previous roles for Allistair include Membership & Communications Manager at Justice Funders, former Executive Director at Asian American Resource Workshop, and Associate Director of Programs and Servicesat Philanthropy Massachusetts. He also holds extensive experience in progressive philanthropy, having served in leadership and grantmaking roles for Haymarket People’s Fund, Funding Exchange, New England Foundation for the Arts, Access Strategies Fund, and Saffron Circle Giving Circle. Allistair currently serves as Vice Chair for Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Secretary for Filipinos Advocating for Justice, and member leader of the local chapter of Resource Generation. Additionally, he serves as Co-Chair of the Integrated Rural Strategies Group at Neighborhood Funders Group as well as the Local Engagement Chapter of Exponent Philanthropy. Allistair originally hails from Towson, MD, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Health and Biology from Tufts University.

Aysha is an attorney who accelerates justice movements through policy and philanthropy.  She currently leads the Policy Fund at the San Francisco Foundation, which builds the capacity of local governments and nonprofits to address the Bay Area’s interconnected challenges of housing, transportation, and economic opportunity.

Aysha recently served as Health Equity Lead and Senior Attorney for ChangeLab Solutions, helping local leaders use policy to improve community health for marginalized people and places. She was recognized for this work as one of the de Beaumont Foundation’s “40 under 40 in Public Health.” She recently concluded a Fulcrum Fellowship at the Center for Community Investment, where she produced groundbreaking research for ChangeLab on the civil rights of health, as well as the equitable enforcement of public health policy. Aysha previously worked as Economic Equity Policy Counsel at the Greenlining Institute, where she partnered with a diverse coalition to build wealth in communities of color.

Aysha’s other philanthropic work has included leading three donor collaboratives in voter justice and democratic integrity; economic and worker justice; and climate justice. She also served on the founding Advisory Boards of the Women & Climate Fund and the Collective Future Fund.

Ron Chang is the Assistant Scout Executive for the Pacific Skyline Council, Boy Scouts of America, serving over 4,000 youth and their families on the San Francisco Peninsula.  The Boy Scouts of America is one of the nation’s premier youth leadership development programs in the country, providing a values-based, outdoor-oriented leadership development program for boys and girls and young men and women from age 5 through 21.

Ron has worked in the non-profit arena for the past 15 years, after transitioning from a long and successful career in finance, management, and business development.

Ron has advocated on behalf of the AAPI Community for many years. He previously served on the board of Cameron House, a social services benefit agency in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He is currently a board member and former National President of Pi Alpha Phi Greek Fraternity, Inc. Pi Alpha Phi is the oldest, active Asian American interest Greek fraternity in the United States. Started at UC Berkeley in 1929, Pi Alpha Phi currently has 23 chapters across the country, over 500 active members, and thousands of alumni worldwide.

Ron lives in San Mateo with his wife, Yvonne, and their son, Mitchell.

Angie is executive director of Skyline Foundation. In her role, she collaborates with the board, supports the team, and aligns the foundation’s efforts to shift systems toward a more equitable and just future. Most recently, she was director of programs at the Libra Foundation where she oversaw programs and communications. Previously she held leadership and grantmaking roles at multiple foundations and led a national funder collaborative. Angie has a Master’s of Public Policy from UC Berkeley and an AB in environmental science and public policy from Harvard University.

Stephanie Chen serves as Senior Policy Counsel for MCE, a local government agency formed to address climate change through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and local job creation in Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, and Solano Counties. Prior to joining MCE, Stephanie led the Energy Equity team at The Greenlining Institute, a racial justice advocacy organization dedicated to building economic opportunity in California’s communities of color. Stephanie’s work has driven investments in solar, energy efficiency, and other clean technologies into environmental justice communities, and promoted meaningful employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for people of Color in California’s clean energy economy.

Stephanie is a member of the state’s Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group, which works with the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission to ensure that clean energy policies benefit environmental justice communities. Additionally, Stephanie serves on the board of directors for Vote Solar, and has previously served on the boards of directors for Rising Sun Energy Center and the Conference of California Public Utility Counsel. Stephanie holds a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Bio coming soon!

Justin has served as a state-level legislative and regulatory advocate over the last decade in California, and is currently the Policy Consultant at Everyday Impact Consulting based in Sacramento. Over the years, he has advised multi-sectoral statewide coalitions as well as local initiatives in the Bay Area, and most recently worked for a member of the State Assembly. Justin’s career in policy and advocacy are rooted in the community organizing work that preceded it, and up until recently, he was an appointee to the Alameda County Public Health Commission.

Justin is a proud alum of UC Riverside, and obtained a Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley. Justin also served in the Peace Corps where he met his wife, Colleen, and they live with their daughter in East Oakland.