KGA Board

Shiu Ming Cheers, Esq.
Staff Attorney
Neighborhood Legal Services

Anne Ji-Yon Lee, Board Chair
Project Manager
The Energy Coalition

Barbara W. Kim
Associate Professor
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Long Beach

Doreena Wong, Esq.
Attorney
National Health Law Program (NHLP)

Lisa Fu
Consultant

Suely is a 1.5 generation refugee from Los Angeles and the first Khmer American Executive Director of KGA since its founding. Before KGA, she worked as an organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 6 and District 1199 NW with janitors, healthcare and mental health workers to achieve economic justice and advocate for worker's rights. She was the co-chair of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) and a core member of Asian Pacific Islander Labor Alliance (APALA) Seattle Chapter. In her pursuit to link her work internationally, she is the co-founder of a social enterprise in Cambodia called Woman for Woman that produces fair trade silk products. It provides economic opportunities and advancement for Khmer girls and women to become empowered and independent through micro lending, trainings and employment. Suely holds a B. A. in Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology from UC Santa Cruz and is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Administration at CSU Long Beach. To balance herself, she enjoys laughing at jokes, reading, Piyo (pilates and yoga), spending quality time with friends and family, and shopping online.

Lian is a 1.5 generation refugee from Oakland, CA. She grew up in the Bay Area and has spent over a decade working in low-income communities of color. Lian started out as a youth organizer on the Kids First! Campaign and has since worked for funding for youth programs, fought for educational and health justice, volunteered and trained for numerous GOTV efforts with the Alameda County Labor Council, and most recently fought for workers' rights regionally and internatinally. In 2007, Lian helped Migrant Forum in Asia organize the very first regional, migrant domestic workers' assembly in Asia. Lian believes in fighting for our self-determination as women, as workers, and as creators of knowledge and culture in our communities. She was also the former director of the Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP) at the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO). When Lian is not working, she enjoys yoga, dog training, and cooking with her partner.

Sophya is a 2nd generation Khmer American in her family from Long Beach, CA. She is a founding member of Khmer Girls in Action. Sophya has been involved with KGA for over 8 years and has been organizing in the community on issues of immigrant and refugee rights and reproductive justice. She is currently attending Long Beach City College and is interested in continuing at UCLA. Her commitment and passion to create social change is through movement building and collective power led by young Southeast Asian women. Sophya believes that life is a beautiful struggle, we must live it not just to learn, but to teach.

Joy Yanga is a 2nd generation, Filipina American born in Los Angeles' Koreatown. She believes in the power of words, and that to dream is an act of freedom and liberation. Once upon a time she didn't know how to make sense of the world she lived in so, she took the road to higher education in hopes to figure it out and find a better meaning to her life. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a Bachelor's Degree in American Studies because the courses she took, the teachers who taught it and the students who disagreed with how mainstream history books erased people like herself motivated and challenged her to study in a new light. She's worked briefly with communities in Oakland, New Orleans and the Philippines to demand justice for our rights as people. She loves learning and making connections to how this world works. You'll find Joy scheming up ways to connect community organizing with the arts.

Ashley Uyeda is a fourth generation mixed race Japanese American who joined KGA in July 2008. Originally from the Bay area, she received her Bachelor's Degree in American Studies at UC Santa Cruz before moving to Los Angeles. In school, she worked with a student-led outreach and retention center for students of color to support them in accessing and succeeding in higher education. A Public Allies-Los Angeles alumni of 2007, Ashley worked with Southern Californians for Youth supporting Los Angeles based Youth Organizing organizations. Through her work experience, her passion and commitment to youth and social justice has been cultivated with a particular focus on empowerment and leadership development of low-income youth of color. Ashley believes that youth of color are essential and critical to building our movements for social justice, and enjoys working with them because on their energy, honesty, and hope for the future.