9 Outstanding Young API Leaders Selected for Helen Zia Fellowship for Social Change
Nine outstanding young API leaders have been selected for the Helen Zia Fellowship for Social Change. They are Wendy Chuah, Kenny Gong, Maggie Kong, Siddharth P. Kulkarni, Cynthia Liao, Carmina Ocampo, Chibo Shinagawa, Trangdai Glassey- Tranguyen, and Daniel Wu. Each were selected on the basis of their leadership potential, commitment to serving their API community, and interest in advancing social justice.
Together, they represent 7 colleges and universities in California (including City College of San Francisco, Mills College, Stanford University, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and University of Southern California) and 6 ethnic API groups (including Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. They include a refugee from Vietnam, a child of a garment worker, a San Francisco Youth Commissioner, a Ph.D. student in Ethnic Studies, and several current and former chairs of their school's API student associations. During their terms as fellows, they will be implementing campaigns to advance social justice issues on their respective campuses, serving as active participants in the statewide API Policy Summit in Sacramento, and strengthening their development as emerging API leaders for progressive change.
For the original fellowship announcement and application form, click here.
For bios of the 2008 Helen Zia Fellows, click here.
About Helen Zia
A second generation Chinese American, Helen Zia has been both an activist and a journalist throughout her life. She began her activism as a student in high school and college during the heyday of the civil rights, anti-war, and women's rights movements. A graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Zia was a member of the university's first graduating class of women. She quit medical school after completing two years, then worked as a construction laborer, an autoworker, and a community organizer, after which she discovered her life's work as a writer.
As a magazine writer, editor and investigative reporter, Zia's special passion involved stories of ordinary people in pursuit of social change and justice. She became the Executive Editor of Ms. Magazine, where she received numerous journalism awards. Her investigation of date rape at the University of Michigan led to campus demonstrations and an administrative overhaul of its policies, while her research on women who join neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations provoked new thinking on the relationship between race, gender, and sexual orientation in hate-motivated violence.
Zia has been outspoken on issues ranging from human rights and war to racial profiling and hate violence. In 1997, she helped author a complaint and gave testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for racially discriminatory treatment against Asian Americans. Zia traveled to Beijing in 1995 to the UN Fourth World Congress on Women as part of a delegation of journalists of color. Her work on the Asian American landmark civil rights case of anti-Asian violence is documented in the Academy Award-nominated film, "Who Killed Vincent Chin?"
Zia is author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2000) and a finalist for the prestigious 2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. She is also co-author, with Wen Ho Lee, of My Country Versus Me (Hyperion, 2002), about the Los Alamos scientist who was falsely accused of being a spy for China in the "worst case since the Rosenbergs." She is currently at work on a book about the 1949 exodus from China after the Communist Revolution and working on any number of other causes.
Advisory Board
Rini Chakraborty, Sweatshop WatchAlice Kessler, Equality California (EQCA)
Deanna Jang, Asian & Pacific Islander Health Forum
Sin Yen Ling, Asian Law Caucus
Tam M. Ma, Office of Senator Sheila Kuehl
Andy Marra, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Dana Paredes, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice
Nicole Vazquez, California Assembly Budget Committee
Karin Wang, Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Fellowship Staff
Vivian Huang
Vivian Huang is the Director of Legislative Advocacy for Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE), a collaborative project of Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, and Asian Law Caucus. Having grown up in an immigrant family, Vivian is passionate about issues impacting immigrants, including discrimination, language access, and immigration. Through AACRE's work, Vivian conducts state legislative advocacy, budget advocacy, and policy analysis on these important social justice issues.
Prior to joining AACRE, Vivian was the Assistant Director of Policy at the California Primary Care Association and advocated for improved access to health care for farmworkers, immigrants, women, and communities of color. Vivian also participated in the Presidential Management Fellows program, with rotations in the Bureau of Primary Health Care, Asian Health Services, and the House Committee on Ways and Means. She is a Guest Faculty/Mentor for the Women's Policy Institute, Board Member of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, and Leadership Council Member of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Vivian has a BS in Biochemistry from University of California, Los Angeles, and a MHS in Health Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Andy Wong
Andy Wong is the Founder and Director of API Equality. Through his efforts, Andy has helped to build a broad-based coalition of over 75 local, state, and national API organizations in support of marriage equality, garner extensive media coverage of the issue in the API and English language press, and equip numerous API individuals and organizations with the tools to be effective advocates for LGBT people. In addition, Andy regularly confers with national and statewide leaders in the LGBT movement. He currently serves on the Board of Equality for All, a campaign to defeat any proposed ballot measures to ban partnerships rights for same-sex couples in California's constitution, and the Executive Committee of Let California Ring, the largest campaign in history to open hearts and minds about the freedom to marry in the Golden State.
Along with his dedication to advancing LGBT equality, Andy is committed to promoting the health, safety, and welfare of women and children. He presently sits on the Children and Youth Cabinet of the United Way of the Bay Area, was a former Susan Schechter Leadership Development Fellow at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and previously served on the board of ACCESS/Women's Health Rights Coalition. Andy is also passionate about philanthropy and currently serves on the board of the AIDS Relief Fund for China, a foundation that supports grassroots NGOs in China working to prevent and end HIV/AIDS. Prior to becoming the Director of API Equality, Andy was the Director of Development at Community United Against Violence and a Jane Addams-Andrew Carnegie Fellow at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
Andy received his BA in Political Science and Women's Studies from Swarthmore College in 2002.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Helen Zia for being such an inspiration to the API community and Equality California Institute and the Proteus Fund for making this fellowship possible through their financial support. Also, many thanks to all of our presenters at the Leadership Training on January, 11-13, 2008. They include: Rini Chakraborty at Sweatshop Watch, Deanna Jang at Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum, Alice Kessler at Equality California, Sin Yen Ling at Asian Law Caucus, Tam Ma at State Senator Sheila Kuehl's Office, Andy Marra at GLAAD, Vincent Pan at CAA, Dana Ginn Parades at Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, and Nicole Vazquez at the California Assembly Budget Committee. Finally, special thanks go to Wendy Chuah at Stanford University for helping to conceptualize the fellowship program and Karin Wang at Asian Pacific American Legal Center and API Equality-LA for co-training with Vivian and Andy.