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David Henry
Hwang is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist, best
known as the author of M. Butterfly, which ran for two
years on Broadway, won the 1988 Tony©, Drama Desk, John Gassner,
and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize. The play also enjoyed a one-year run on London's
West End and has been produced in over three dozen countries to
date. He is currently represented on Broadway and National Tour
as co-author of the book for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida,
winner of four 2000 Tony© Awards and for his reworking of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, which opened
in Fall 2002 to overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from
audiences. Mr. Hwang's other plays include FOB
(1981 OBIE Award), The Dance & the Railroad (1982 Drama
Desk Nomination and Pulitzer finalist; CINE Golden Eagle Award),
Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), The
House of Sleeping Beauties (1983), The Sound of a Voice
(1983), Bondage (1992), Face Value (1993),
Trying to Find Chinatown (1996), Golden Child (1997
OBIE Award and three 1998 Tony© Nominations).
Iris Chang
is author of the highly acclaimed book, The Rape of Nanking:
The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. A journalism
graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana, she worked
briefly as a reporter in Chicago before winning a graduate
fellowship to the writing seminars program at The Johns Hopkins
University. She is the recipient of the John T. and Catherine
D. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International
Cooperation award, as well as major grants from the National
Science Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, and the
Harry Truman Library. Chang's youth combined with her
eloquence (she's 31 years old) has made her a literary superstar
to a new generation of politically conscious Asian-Americans.
Her forthcoming book, The Chinese in America, will test
her potential to become the widest-read chronicler of Asian
American history since Ronald Takaki.
Frank H. Wu
joined the faculty of the Howard University School of Law, in
Washington, D.C., in 1995. The first Asian American law
professor at Howard, one of the leading predominantly black
colleges/universities, he was tenured in 2000. He is a visiting
professor at University of Michigan in the 2002-03 academic year
and is also teaching a course at Columbia University.Professor
Wu’s Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White was
published by Basic Books in January 2002. His co-authored
textbook, Race, Rights and Reparation: Law and the Japanese
American Internment, was published in May 2001 by Aspen.
His more than 200 articles have appeared on a professional
basis in such periodicals as the Washington Post, L.A.
Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Christian Science
Monitor, Detroit Free Press, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal &
Constitution, Columbus Dispatch, Chronicle of Higher Education,
National Law Journal, Legal Times, and Asian
Week. Black Issues in Higher Education named him
among “Up and Coming” scholars in its 1999 anniversary issue.
His media appearances include the Oprah Winfrey show, Now
with Bill Moyers, Lehrer Newshour, O’Reilly Factor
on Fox, Book Notes with Brian Lamb, Talk Back Live
on CNN, BET, MS-NBC, BBC Radio, National Public Radio, and Voice
of America. He is committed to public service, having been
appointed by Mayor Anthony Williams as Chair of the D.C. Human
Rights Commission, a position he then held from 2001 to 2002. He
volunteers as a hearing committee chair for the D.C. Court of
Appeals Board of Professional Responsibility, which adjudicates
attorney discipline cases.
Zhang
Hongtu is an artist who has changed
the way we look at traditional Chinese images such as Mao Zedong
and Shan Shui (pronounced shawn shway, meaning "mountain and
water"). Born and raised in China in Mao's era, he has
internalized the images he has grown up with and reworked
them in many different forms as a means of self- discovery and
liberation from his past. Mr. Zhang is currently recreating
the traditional images of Shan Shui from the Song, Yuan, Ming
and Qing using the Impressionist style.
Julie Huang is a vice president and group director at Cohn & Wolfe Public Relations. She has developed PR strategies for private and publicly-traded emerging healthcare companies. Before joining Cohn & Wolfe, Ms. Huang was a vice president at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide where she managed communication programs for technology, financial, and healthcare clients. Her client work was honored with a Silver Anvil by the Public Relations Society of America for Best Investor Relations Program of the Year. She was also included in the documentary film, e-dreams, which chronicled the rise of Kozmo.com, one of her former clients. Prior to Edelman, Ms. Huang was a corporate finance associate at Warburg Dillon Read, the banking division of UBS PaineWebber. She focused on initial and secondary public offerings, private placements, and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Huang started her Wall Street career as a summer associate in the Public Finance Department of Credit Suisse First Boston. Ms. Huang holds a M.B.A. from Yale School of Management and an M.P.H. from Yale School of Medicine. She received her B.A. cum laude in sociology with honors from Brooklyn College. She is the past president of the New York Chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals.
Valerie W. Cheung
is an account manager at Noble Communications Group. She
currently oversees partnership marketing for a national youth
outreach campaign for the CDC (Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention). Over the years, she has worked closely with many
groups in the Asian Pacific American community – grassroots
theater ensembles, non-profit organizations, ethnic media, and
political groups. Ms. Cheung was the director of strategic
marketing for the Asian Professional Exchange (APEX) from
1999-2002. She recently sat on the dinner benefit committee for
the Chinatown YMCA in New York and is currently the public
relations chair of the National Association of Asian American
Professionals, a professional membership organization composed
of more than 25 chapters nationwide.
A proud native of Southern
California, Valerie graduated from UCLA with a major in
sociology and a minor in Asian American Studies. She currently
resides in New York City.
S. B. Woo
is a Shanghai born Chinese American who taught physics at the
University of Delaware up until 1985, when he ran for the
lieutenant governor of Delaware and won a four-year term. Woo
realized that in order for Chinese Americans like himself to
have more political clout, they must be willing to step into the
foreground of the political arena. More recently, Woo is noted
for leading the 80-20 Initiative, which is a national political
committee aimed at mobilizing an Asian American bloc vote for
presidential elections. 80-20 was formed in the aftermath of the
1996 fund-raising scandal where several donors of Chinese
ancestry were linked with trading political contributions for
White House access. The purpose of the committee is to regain
(or perhaps acquire for the first time) political
acknowledgement of the presence of the Asian community, which
had been tarnished by the scandal. Woo continues to work toward
this end and strives to attain true equality for Asian
Americans.
John Liu
is the first Asian Pacific American legislator in New York
City. He was elected to the New York City Council by the people
of northeast Queens (Auburndale, Flushing, Fresh Meadows and
Whitestone) and is currently Chair of the Council's
Transportation Committee and a member of the committees on
Education, Consumer Affairs, Contracts, Oversight &
Investigation, and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment. An active
community leader, John Liu has dedicated his life to public
service. As President of the North Flushing Civic Association,
Member of Queens Community Board 7, and Vice President of the
Queens Civic Congress, John fought for greater community
participation in citywide development issues. As Council Member,
John's mission is to hold City Hall accountable and help restore
public trust in our democracy.
Daphne Kwok
has been at the forefront of advocacy for the Asian Pacific
American community for over 15 years. In April 2001, Ms. Kwok
became the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American
Institute for Congressional Studies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan,
educational organization seeking to build a politically
empowered Asian Pacific American (APA) community. From 1990 to
2001, Ms. Kwok served as the Executive Director of the
Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc. (OCA), a non-profit,
civil rights organization. Her responsibilities included
coordinating programs and services for 45 chapters, 37 college
affiliates and representing over 10,000 members; monitoring
issues pertaining to the Asian American community. Since
January 2000, Ms. Kwok has been appointed by Secretary Bill
Richardson and Secretary Spencer Abraham to serve on the
Secretary of Energy's Advisory Council. Ms. Kwok continues to
serve on the governing or advisory boards of a wide range of APA
groups. Her views have been featured on national radio and TV
programs as well as in major newspapers and magazines. Honors
include The Women at the Top of the Game Award in 2001, being
named one of A Magazine’s One Hundred Most Influential Asian
Americans of the Past Decade, World Journal’s Top 100 North
American Chinese, a member of the 1999 American Swiss
Foundation’s Young Leaders Conference in Vevey, Switzerland, one
of 10 delegates selected for the 1997 National Women's
Leadership Group to travel to Israel hosted by the American
Jewish Committee, and the Presidential Classroom's 25th
Anniversary Outstanding Alumni Award.
Charles Lai
is currently the
director of Programs and Planning at the Asian American
Federation. He is responsible for the implementation of the
Federation’s 9/11 Relief, Recovery and Rebuilding Initiative.
The Initiative is a citywide recovery and planning effort to
address the impacts of the September 11th tragedy on
New York’s Asian American communities. This includes directing
cash assistance and services to surviving families and affected
individuals; advocating for the implementation of policy changes
that meet the needs of the Chinatown/Chinese/Asian American
communities; and proposing plans to strengthen and revitalize
Chinatown’s economy and its physical infrastructure.
Additionally, this expanded unit incorporates financial and
management assistance, program development, and organizational
capacity enhancement services to the Federation’s 36 member
agencies and other affiliated organizations.
Prior to joining the Federation as a senior member of its staff, Mr. Lai
was executive director of Chinatown Manpower Project, one of the
City’s premiere vocational training/workforce development
agencies. He is co-founder, former executive director, and
presently a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Museum of
Chinese in the Americas (formerly the New
York Chinatown History Project), a 22 year-old organization
documenting and disseminating the history of Chinese in the
Americas. Mr. Lai holds a bachelors degree from Princeton
University, a masters in Public Administration from
Columbia
University’s School of
International and Public
Affairs. He has also pursued graduate studies at Hunter College
School of Social Work.
Nancy Chen
is a professor of anthropology at the University of California
Santa Cruz. She focuses primarily on the medical aspects of her
field studying transglobal healing practices, health
institutions, and the importance of mental health to social
welfare in Asia. She is also
committed to the study of visual anthropology, which includes
using ethnographic film history and visual theory to
contextualize cultural representations. She has conducted
fieldwork in mainland China with comparative research in Taiwan,
Japan, and the United States as well as
published papers on topics such as the state of the society in
post-Mao China.
Virginia Lou
Ng was elected in 1998 and served three years as the OCA
(Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc.) New Jersey Chapter
President. She has brought the awareness of community issues to
the chapter. Among some of the programs that she has introduced
is a yearly food drive, and feeding over 120 people at a
homeless food shelter. In the summer of 2000, she held a
fundraiser luncheon for Dr. Wen Ho Lee raising over $5,000 for
his defense fund. In the fall of 2001, she initiated the first
New Jersey Asian American Career Fair, drawing over 400
participants in a 5-hour time period. She currently serves as
the Commissioner on the Bergen County NJ Human Relations
Commission (1998 to present) as their Vice Chair. In 2001, she
was asked to serve on the Governors Asian American Advisory
Council. In addition, she is the recipient of the 2000 United
States Volunteer Census Award; the 2001 Asian American Heritage
Council Community Volunteer Award and recently received the 2003
New Jersey Asian American Law Enforcement Officers Association
Volunteer Activist Award.
Steve Chung
is a '94 University of Michigan graduate in political science
and '00 graduate of Harvard Law School. After graduating from
law school, he clerked for a federal judge for a year and went
on to work for a large law firm, also for one year. He recently
started a new job at a small media and communications firm that
focuses on First Amendment/publishing work. Through his various
internships and jobs, Steve participated in many formal and
informal discussions about diversity in the workplace, the
extent of the problem and possible solutions.
Mabel Tso
is a member of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education
Fund (AALDEF), which is the first legal rights organization on
the East Coast serving Asian Americans.
Gary Okihiro
is director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
and professor of international and public affairs at Columbia
University. He is author of several books in U.S. and African
history, most recently of The Columbia Guide To Asian
American History (2001), and Common Ground: Reimagining
American History (2001). He is the recipient of the lifetime
achievement award from the American Studies Association, and is
a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies.
Erik Lu
is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania,
Class of 2003. Erik is a double major in biology and Asian and
Middle Eastern studies. He is a Philadelphia native and
currently works at the Kirby Center for Molecular Ophthalmology
at Stellar-Chance laboratories researching transgenic frog rod
cells. In the Taiwanese American community, his experience
includes bidding for Upenn ITASA, heading its events committee,
and hosting reputable guest speakers. He has done resident
advising at Taiwanese American Conference (TAC) where he was
also co-professor in the reality “Bowl Cut” workshop.
Xiaobo Lü is the director of the East Asian Institute at Columbia
University. His areas of specialty include Chinese politics and
political economy, comparative political corruption and
governance, and the politics of development in East Asia. He
has numerous published works, including Taxation without
Representation in Rural China: State Capacity, Peasants and
Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the
Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Lu received his BA at the
Sichuan Institute of Foreign Studies, and his PhD in foreign
affairs from the University of California at Berkley. |