Judge Kerry Hada

Judge Kerry Hada was an attorney in private practice, until his appointment as judge to Denver County Court in 2008.  He has served on numerous Colorado Supreme Court panels and committees, and is also a faculty instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.  He is a founding member and past president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Colorado and served on the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association judiciary committee.  Judge Hada is active in the Japanese American Citizens League, Japanese Association of Colorado, Asian Chamber of Commerce, Japan American Society of Colorado, and Japanese American Veterans Association.  He was a former infantry officer and Airborne Ranger in the U.S. Army.  He is currently on the board of directors of several organizations.  Judge Hada is on the Board of Governors of the Japanese American National Museum.  He is a recipient of the Minoru Yasui Community Volunteer Award, the Charles B. Dillon Award of Merit for outstanding public service, and the Asian American Heroes of Colorado Award.  He is honorary chair of the 2009 Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.  He was a nationally ranked ski racer at the University of Colorado.  Judge Hada’s educational degrees include a B.S. in marketing, University of Colorado; MBA, Colorado State University; J.D., University of Denver. Prefecture in Japan of ancestral origins: paternal side from Hiroshima-ken; maternal side from Wakayama-ken.

Yul Kwon

Yul Kwon has had a diverse career in technology across academia, business, law, and government.  Yul obtained his B.S. degree in Symbolic Systems (theoretical computer science) from Stanford University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and worked as a graduate-level researcher for the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering.  At Yale Law School, he received his J.D. and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal as well as the executive editor of the Yale Symposium on Law & Technology. Following graduation, Yul clerked on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and developed a broad perspective on technology from both the public and private sectors.  As a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate, he helped draft the section of the Homeland Security Act establishing the Directorate of Science and Technology, authored a landmark bill on nanotechnology, and organized a bipartisan caucus on science and technology.  As an attorney at Venture Law Group and Harris Wiltshire & Grannis, he counseled technology startups, venture capital firms, and telecommunications firms.  As a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and the Trium Group, Yul analyzed innovation-based industries and provide strategic advice to some of Silicon Valley’s largest companies.  Yul also gained experience working inside one of the world’s premier tech companies as a member of Google’s business operations and strategy group.

In December of 2006, Yul became the first Asian American to win the CBS reality show, Survivor.  On his way to winning the show’s controversial, racially-segregated season, Yul applied the leadership and political skills he developed over his career to create a multi-ethnic alliance and break stereotypes about Asian Americans in the media.  In 2007, he was voted the all-time favorite Survivor winner in a poll by Entertainment Weekly for his strategic and honest gameplay.

Yul’s recent activities include lecturing at Stanford University and at the FBI Academy, where he helps teach a course on counterintelligence.  He has spoken frequently on the topic of leadership, team-building, and diversity at Fortune 500 companies around the country, including IBM, AT&T, Dell, Verizon, Yahoo, Goldman Sachs, and McKinsey.  Yul continues to be active in the media, having worked as a host for the Discovery Channel and as a special correspondent for CNN.  He is also the Northern California franchisee for Red Mango frozen yogurt, one of the fastest-growing retail brands in the country.

In addition to being recognized by more than fifty organizations for his extensive work in community service, Yul has been profiled in VIBE Magazine's annual "Juice" issue of people with power, as well as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue. He is active in a wide range of charitable efforts and serves on the advisory boards of several civil rights organizations, including the Asian American Justice Center and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. 

Ved P. Nanda
Professor Nanda has taught at the University of Denver since 1965. In addition to his scholarly achievements, he is significantly involved in the global international law community. He is Past President of the World Jurist Association and now its Honorary President, former honorary Vice President of the American Society of International Law and now its counselor, and a member of the advisory council of the United States Institute of Human Rights. He was formerly the United States Delegate to the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, Geneva, and Vice-Chair of its Executive Council, and also served on the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association-USA. He also serves as an elected member of the American Law Institute and as a council member for the American Bar Association Section of International Law.
 
In 2006 Professor Nanda was honored with a $1 million founding gift from DU alumni Doug and Mary Scrivner to launch the Ved Nanda Center for International and Comparative Law. The Center will begin its programming in 2007, hosting programs for the lawyers, students and community participants as well as promoting scholarship in the field of international law.
 
In February 2004, Professor Nanda was awarded the “Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award for Community Peace Building” from Soka Gakkai International and Morehouse College. In 1990 in Beijing, China, Professor Nanda was presented with the “World Legal Scholar” award by the World Jurist Association. He was also the recipient of the United Nations Association Human Rights Award in 1997. He has received honorary doctorates from Soka University in Tokyo, Japan and from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, India. He is widely published in law journals and national magazines, has authored or co-authored 22 books in the various fields of international law and over 180 chapters and major law review articles, and has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor and Scholar at a number of universities in the United States and abroad.

Maya Lin

Maya Lin has maintained a careful balance in her career between art and architecture, creating a remarkable body of work that includes large-scale site-specific installations, intimate studio artworks, and architectural works. In her large-scale environmental artworks, she has consistently explored how we experience and relate to the landscape. From her recent works such as Where the Land Meets the Sea (2008, a drawing in space based upon the topology of the San Francisco Bay) Eleven Minute Line (2004, an earthen line 1600 feet long by 12 feet high, traversing a meadow in Sweden) and Flutter (2005, a 20,000 square foot sculpted earthwork commissioned for a federal courthouse in Miami) back to her very first—the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, where she cut open the land and polished its edges to create a history embedded in the earth—she has made works that merge completely with the terrain, blurring the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional space and setting up a systematic ordering of the land that is tied to history, time, and language.

Her studio artwork has been shown in solo museum exhibitions in the US, Italy, Denmark, and Sweden. The exhibition Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes, which opened at Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery, is the first to translate the scale and coherence of her outdoor installations to the interior space of a museum. It is currently showing at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Ms. Lin’s architectural works have been critically acclaimed both nationally and internationally.  Her recent architecture includes the Riggio-Lynch Chapel and Langston Hughes Library for the Children’s Defense Fund, an Environmental Learning lab at Manhattanville College, and a private residence in Colorado that was honored as one of Architecture Record’s Record Houses in 2006.  Her architecture creates a dialog between the landscape and architecture, she is committed to and advocates sustainable design practice in her works, often using sustainable and reclaimed materials, merging materials and design to establish a singular voice.

Currently Ms. Lin is working on, among others, the design for the Museum of Chinese in America’s new space in lower Manhattan, as well as Storm King Wavefield, an 11 acre earthwork reclamation project at Storm King Art Center, and the Confluence Project, a multi-sited installation that spans the Columbia river system in the Pacific Northwest, intertwining the history of Lewis and Clark with the history of the Native American Tribes that inhabit those regions, but always with a critical eye toward the environmental changes that have rapidly occurred in the region.

A committed environmentalist, Lin has consistently focused on environmental issues and concerns- promoting sustainable building design in her architectural works while in her artworks asking us to pay closer attention to the natural world. She is working on what will become the last of her memorial, entitled “What is Missing?”, which will focus on extinct and endangered species and places and will debut at the California Academy of Sciences in September 2009, with a global debut on Earth Day 2010.

Maya Lin received BA from Yale in 1981 and her Master of Architecture from Yale University in 1986, and has maintained a professional studio in New York City since then.  Lin is represented by PaceWildenstein Gallery in New York.  She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is a member of the Yale Corporation. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Design Award, an AIA Honor Award, the Finn Juhl Prize, and honorary doctorates from among others, Yale, Harvard, Williams College, and Smith College. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2005 was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She has been profiled in Time Magazine, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker and her architecture and artworks have consistently elicited praise in magazines ranging from Newsweek to Art in America to Architectural Record. In 1996 a documentary about her work, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. She lives in New York City with her husband, Daniel Wolf, and their two children.

 Heidi Shyu

As vice president of Corporate Technology and Research, Shyu is responsible for the development and execution of an integrated technology and research strategy for the company. She is also chair the company's Technology Leadership Council, which oversees Raytheon's collective research collaboration and technology opportunities, and she represents the company on outside councils regarding technology and the defense industry.

In a career at Raytheon that has spanned more than 20 years, Shyu has worked on a variety of technical programs, including manned and unmanned aircraft systems and products. Most recently, she was vice president and technical director for the company's Space and Airborne Systems business. Prior to joining Raytheon, Shyu worked at Litton Industries, Grumman Aerospace and Hughes Aircraft.

Shyu is also Chair of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board for the U.S. Air Force, reporting to the Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force. In addition, she is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Air Force Association.

J.D. Hokoyama is the President & CEO and a founding Board member of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. A former Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Ethiopia, he has been a high school English teacher and department chair, a K-8 elementary school principal, a vice president for fund development and public affairs, the Acting National Director of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Director of the Office of Asian Pacific American Students Services at the University of Southern California. He holds a BA in English, a secondary teaching credential and a M.Ed. in educational administration from Loyola Marymount University. He is also on the boards of both Asian Pacific American and mainstream organizations locally and nationally.

David Lum is the Director of Asia/Pacific Product & Support Operations for the Government & Public Safety business in Motorola. For over 26 years, David has worked in the land mobile two-way radio business and has extensive experience in a wide variety of markets and applications that use two-way voice and wireless data radio systems in mission-critical applications. David's work experience & responsibilities include product development, systems marketing, manufacturing, systems engineering, field engineering, project and program management, sales and engineering training, business development, product marketing, government regulatory affairs, and operations management.

Prior to relocating back to Schaumburg in early 2003, David spent 5¼ years doing Business Development for Motorola's Asia/Pacific division, living in Singapore as an expatriate. David travelled frequently to many customer locations within Asia to promote radio systems, advised on design, spoke at technical conferences and seminars, presented to many senior level government officials, and educated customers and regulators on technology trends and applications. David also contributed to the industry by writing magazine articles that have been published internationally. One of the more interesting and unique credits in David's career is being the first Motorolan to enter into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) in 2001.

David has a Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master's of Science degree in Management from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. In his spare time, David is a Business Professor teaching at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, teaching Project Management, Global Business & Cultural Diversity, and Effective Leadership to MBA students for the past 19 years. David also served for 3½ years as President of the Asian Business Council, a twice award-winning employee-based network inside Motorola. David also started two Toastmasters Clubs, served as President, and continues to serve as Past President in his club, where he is an Advanced Communicator Bronze. David also contributes his time towards the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) Chicago chapter as a senior advisory council member to help Asians in the Chicago area to improve their professional career and leadership abilities through personal growth and leadership development, and as a National senior advisory board member with NAAAP National, where he is a frequent guest speaker, lecturer, and trainer on Asian affairs and leadership development.

Born and raised in the United States of America, David is married to his beautiful wife for over 26 years, has two great teenage sons, and lives in the Chicagoland area. David's hobbies include aviation (where he is a licensed private pilot), reading, microcomputing, teaching, public speaking (on business, cultural awareness, career management, and leadership), movie-watching, and spending time with his family.

As a Partner of Spectrum Knowledge, Inc., Vu H. Pham, Ph.D. works with dozens of organizations from the Fortune 500 to governmental and non-profit agencies to boost employee performance and strategic effectiveness. He conducts interactive training and data-driven research to achieve these results. He also currently serves as a Researcher at the Center for Research on Employment and the Workforce (CREW) at California State University—Fullerton, as well as the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Pham and his work have been featured on national and international multimedia venues, such as CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, Voice of America, The Los Angeles Times, KSCI International Television, Strategic Innovators, Asia in Play, Asian Week, Radio Free Asia and The Orange County Register. He has given keynote speeches on numerous occasions and presented at many conferences internationally, and has written for both academic and mainstream publications. Beyond his professional work, Dr. Pham has participated in generating over a million dollars for non-profit groups and donates many hours to them.

Previously, he held Research Fellow positions through the University of California Office of the President and the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. Having completed his doctoral degree from Cornell University, Dr. Pham's specialties include the areas of culture, organizational development and leadership. He has a forthcoming book entitled, "Impressive First Impressions: The Most Important 30 Seconds of Your Career." He is part of the Classrooms2Boardrooms Initiative at Cal State Fullerton's CREW, which bridges generational workplace divides through research and training.

Dr. Pham's clients range in industries that include: Aerospace and Defense, Technology, Financial Services, Accounting, Advertising, Healthcare, Retail as well as Museums and Cultural Organizations. He has also worked with individual clients to optimize their career success.

His other honors and roles include being selected as the head of a Smithsonian cultural project and museum exhibit, a Role Model for KSCI International Television's "Our Role Models" series, Board Member of Western University's Capital Campaign, "Entrepreneur of the Year" in California's 49th Assembly District, as well as being an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) award recipient, a Chancellor's Scholar at UC Irvine and an Honoree at UCLA. He also serves as a Senior Advisory Board Member for the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) and on the Los Angeles Asian Heritage Month Committee.

Panney Wei is an award-winning writer and motivational speaker on women’s issues, the power of the mind, and achieving your potential, inspiring people to move through obstacles and achieve greatness in their personal and professional lives. She is a proud descendant of one of China’s greatest military heroes and statesmen, General Zuo Zong-Tang (1812-85), forever immortalized in pop culture for the famous cuisine, “General Zuo’s Chicken.

Drawing from her experience as a competitive figure skater in her youth, surviving a life-threatening illness, and as an executive in the entertainment and finance industries, Panney’s passion is teaching people to be a champion in life, being a positive change agent in the world, and inspiring people to achieve their dreams. Designated as an Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for California, she is also a popular TV-Radio host with appearances on NBA TV China, Discovery Channel, Lifetime TV, and currently hosts her hit radio show, “Positive Changes with Panney Wei” on KCAA 1050 AM radio, an NBC News Affiliate, Wednesdays at 6pm PST to nearly one million listeners a month!

Panney is also a Certified Hypnotherapist and founder of Positive Changes with Panney Wei™ in Beverly Hills where her private practice and programs focus on educating and empowering corporations and individuals with success strategies to create effective leaders in the world and peace, success, and prosperity in their lives.

In the community, she translates her dynamic energy and passion for public service into non-profit community organizations such as Asian Americans for Progress, National Association of Asian Pacific Women’s Forum, American Women in Radio and Television, Asian Professional Exchange, and LA County Young Democrats, and serves on the Board of Directors for influential groups such as the Honorary Board for The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) Senior Advisory Council, and NAAAP – Orange County Advisory Board, donating much of her time and energy building and empowering organizations that make a positive impact on our society.

Much of her work is grounded in her Chinese and Asian American heritage, leveraging the strengths of both cultures, where her extensive travels contribute to her global view of achieving the human potential and shooting for your stars! Panney is also finishing a Doctorate in Naturopathy and is the author of several audios, articles, and an upcoming novel. Her website is www.panneywei.com

Rose Tibayan serves as Vice President of Strategic Development for NAAAP Chicago and is responsible for the successful execution of roles and responsibilities by all directors as well as the overall development of the organization. Rose also sits on the NAAAP National Board, where she has been serving since her appointment in spring of 2008.

Rose joined NAAAP Chicago in October 2007, and was immediately elected to the local board as Marketing Director. Through innovative marketing ideas and methods, Rose enhanced the visibility of the chapter through the promotion of NAAAP’s national vision, “We Make Leaders!” As a result of her efforts, she was awarded the “Innovator Award” by the chapter in August 2008. 

Rose is an award-winning executive producer and seasoned journalist with over a decade of experience in broadcast writing, editing and producing. Prior to moving to Chicago, she was a general assignment reporter at WPVI-TV (ABC6) in Philadelphia - the news leader in the nation's fourth-largest market. She has also worked for TV news stations in New York City, Milwaukee, Fort Myers, and the island of Guam.

Rose holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Delaware. In 1998 she was accepted to the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York City. She truly respects and enjoys working with her NAAAP colleagues. Together, they have made NAAAP the most dynamic Asian American organization in Chicago.

Erin Yoshimura is all about empowerment and challenges her clients with wasabi wit and cultural compassion to find their voice and stand with vigor through emotional intelligence training, personal branding and career coaching. Because she brings diversity to every room she enters, Erin uses her personal experiences to catalyze cultural awareness.

She’s created training programs, workshops and keynotes for clients including KUSA (Gannett), Raytheon, Making Connections-Denver, NAAAP-Denver chapter MillerCoors, Colorado State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colorado.

She’s a certified Personal Brand strategist, certified Emotional Intelligence trainer, and a certified coach.

Erin has also trained with and assisted for Lee Mun Wah (Color of Fear) of StirFry Seminars, a nationally-recognized master in diversity and communications training.

Erin's career before becoming a trainer and coach was in high tech, where she was an East Asian product manager, IT project manager and IT change management analyst.

What she loved most about her jobs were the emotional and cultural dynamics of leading multi-cultural teams – whether they were made up of people in different countries, spread across different sites throughout the U.S. or even in different departments within the same building.

Now she combines her corporate experience and passion for diversity with training, branding and coaching to teach empowerful communication and cultural intelligence skills.

As a way to give back to the community, Erin, along with her husband, Gil Asakawa, founded www.visualizAsian.com to inspire and empower Asian American Pacific Islanders. They conduct live interviews with notable AAPI trailblazers from national politicians to writers, activists and entertainers using teleconference and web-streaming technology, to connect the community so they, too, can follow in their footsteps.

Sonya Gong Jent is a Vice President of Operations at State Farm’s Multicultural Business Development Group.  She has worked in the insurance industry for 21 years, starting with the State Farm in 1987 as an auto claim representative.  Working her way up the ranks, she became a Supervisor and Superintendent in Auto Claims before being selected as the Regional Public Affairs Manager for the states of Alabama and Mississippi.  As a registered lobbyist, Sonya also worked with the media on regulatory issues and philanthropic efforts in both states.  In 1999, Sonya was named Director responsible for the Bloomington Customer Response Center and Bank Response Center.  By 2001, Sonya relocated to Ohio where she oversaw the Health Operations for the eastern half of the US and managed a multi-state transition.  In 2004, she was named as an Executive Assistant to the President’s Office at State Farm’s Corporate headquarters in Bloomington, IL and in 2006 was named Vice President of Operations in the Southern Zone – Atlanta, GA.  As VP of Operations she oversaw Human Resources, Learning and Development, Marketing, Public Affairs and managed the Developmental Agency Field Offices for the four state zone. (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina).

Sonya actively engages in the Asian Community and enjoys volunteering in the community.  She has served as President of the Columbus Chapter of OCA (Organization of Chinese Americans), Vice President of Franklin County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and a board member of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce, as well as, a Planning Committee member for Asian Festival.  She was instrumental in helping coordinate the efforts to start the Central IL Chapter of OCA.  Sonya has served as the keynote speaker and panelist for GenerAsian NeXt, an Asian Youth Leadership Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
 
Gong’s accomplishments include being selected for Leadership Birmingham, as an APAWLI Fellow (Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute), and Birmingham delegate to “America’s Promise” in Philadelphia.  She has served as President of the Birmingham’s Christmas in April* and Homewood Chamber of Commerce, as well as, a member on the boards of Birmingham Urban League and Illinois CASA and CCRRN (Child Care Resource Referral Network).  As a volunteer Sonya has connected with organizations such as: Habitat for Humanity helping build one of the only homes in McClean County built by an all female crew, the American Heart Association, Safe Harbor Shelter, VIP for Easter Seals, Special Olympics, American Cancer Society, Susan B. Komen Foundation, Youth Vote Coalition and the YWCA.   Gong has also served on the Advisory Board to the Alabama Head Injury Foundation, Ohio State’s Multicultural Diversity Community Advisory Board and Franklin County United Way’s Allocation Committee.

Gong is the recipient of the Organization of Chinese Americans Corporate Achievement Award, the OCA National Community Service Award, named as recipient of the Who’s Who in Asian American Communities and a nominee of OSU’s Fisher College of Business Diversity Award

Sonya has been active in her church where she has taught in the children’s ministry, is the Executive Sponsor of AsiaNet – State Farm’s Asian Employee Resource Group, a past Bloomington Election Judge, a Voter Registrar and member of the Central Illinois Organization of Chinese Americans Chapter.  Sonya served as a member of the Insurance Advisory Board for The University of Mississippi and has been a member of Atlanta NAAAP & OCA’s Georgia Chapter.  She is currently a member of the OCA Central Illinois Chapter, Executive Sponsor of AsiaNet Employee Resource Group at State Farm and serves as a Senior Advisor to the NAAAP (National Association of Asian American Professionals) National Board and Chicago Chapter, as well as a member of NAAAP Chicago.