Keynote Speakers
C.S. Lee
Raised in Washington State, C.S. Lee started acting in high school. His audition to Cornish College of the Arts landed him a full-ride scholarship whereupon he received his BFA in Acting. He continued his training at the Yale School of Drama, where he was awarded the Carol Dye Acting Award and an MFA in acting. He then spent eight years in New York acting on the stage, working with artists including David Karl Lee, Mac Wellman, Sung Rno, Mia Katigbak, as well as regional theaters. Lee has appeared on Chuck, Monk, The Unit, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Spin City and The Sopranos. Film credits include Random Hearts, The Stepford Wives, Tenderness and The Unborn.
Paull Shin
Senator Paull Shin is a Washington State Senator and the first Korean American ever elected to the Washington State Legislature. During the Korean War, he was adopted by an American GI and brought to the United States. He began his education with a GED and went on to earn several more degrees before he began to teach at the college level. In 1993 he retired teaching only to embrace public service. In his spare time, Senator Shin enjoys mentoring young men and women interested in politics and reaching out to adoptees around the world.
Michael Kang
Michael Kang is an American film writer and director. His feature directorial debut, The Motel, premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best First Feature Film by the Independent Spirit Awards. The film recieved numerous awards, including the Humanities Prize and the NHK International Filmmakers Award, as well as the top jury prizes at prestigious film festivals. Kang’s second feature film, West 32nd, delved deeply into Korean American themes. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and was released theatrically in Korea. Recipient of various distinctions and fellowships, Kang continues to be a pioneer in the American film industry. His latest film, Tying The Knot, is currently in post production and plans to premiere in 2011.
Film, Media, and Entertainment
Bernie Cho
Bernie Cho is the President of DFSB Kollective, a Seoul-based creative agency that specializes in providing innovative digital media, marketing, and distribution solutions to Korean Pop (‘K-Pop’) music artists. As more and more K-Pop acts aspire to go independent and international, Bernie and his team collaborate with them to devise customized music 2.0 strategies that directly connect them to their local and global fans. Since Spring 2009, his agency has successfully launched the first sold-out K-Pop tour in the USA, secured the first #1 chart debuts for K-Pop albums in North America, and rolled out over 250 K-Pop artists into digital music stores and sites worldwide. Prior to founding DFSB Kollective, Bernie served as the Head of MTV Korea’s Digital Media Production and worked for over a decade in the Korean music TV industry as a Creative Planner, Program Producer, and Video Jockey.
Phil Yu
Phil Yu is the creator and editor of AngryAsianMan.com which has been called by the Washington Post “a daily must-read for the media savvy, socially conscious, pop-cultured Asian American.” His commentaries, mixed with humor and criticism, are on the pulse of our times and are quoted in stories for the Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, MSNBC, NY Press, CBS News, SF Gate, Hyphen and AsianWeek. Phil previously worked at the Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) in San Francisco. He is currently an Associate Content Producer for Yahoo! Movies, and serves on the Programming Committee for VC Filmfest, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Phil graduated with a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University, and earned his M.A. in Critical Studies as a Provost Fellow from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television.
Grace Lee
Grace Lee is a Los Angeles based filmmaker of both documentary and fiction films. Her feature film AMERICAN ZOMBIE was released by Cinema Libre in 2008. Prior to that, she produced, wrote and directed THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, an award-winning documentary on Asian American identity and stereotypes. She received her MFA in Directing from UCLA Film School, where her thesis film BARRIER DEVICE, starring Sandra Oh, won a Student Academy Award and Directors Guild of America award, She is the recipient of the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Digital Media, a Rockefeller Media Arts grant, the PPP Pusan Prize as well as funding from the NEA, Center for Asian American Media, UCLA Institute for American Cultures. Other documentary credits include BEST OF THE WURST, which is permanently featured at the Currywurst Museum in Berlin and CAMP ARIRANG, about U.S. military prostitution in South Korea.Grace is currently in production on the feature documentary AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: about 95-year-old Detroit philosopher and activist Grace Lee Boggs. She has also taught production courses at UCLA Film School, UC-Irvine Department of Studio Art, and at Objectifs Film and Photography Center in Singapore and has appeared on panels and guest lectures ranging from the True/False Film Festival, the PEN/Faulkner Center, Stanford University, Scribe Video Center, UC Berkeley, the Smithsonian Institution, and many others. More info at www.gracelee.net.
Politics and Activism
Becky Lee
Ms. Becky Lee received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan and then continued on to receive her Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Interested in the prevention of domestic violence, Ms. Lee has been working on issues concerning domestic violence survivors over the last twelve years as an advocate, policy associate and attorney.
Gene F Kim
Gene Kim is the Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors for
the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL)
and the new Executive Director of the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus (CAPAC). Even prior to his current involvement,
Gene has long been invested in the APA community and its
development, previously acting as the Director of Communications
and Program Development for the Asian Pacific American
Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), the non-profit arm
of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). At
APAICS, he managed political training events, youth empowerment
programs, and national research operations. He also served
as the Research and Policy Director of the Dan Seals for Congress
campaign, and as a Legislative staffer for Congressman Al
Green (D-TX). Gene Kim graduated from the University of California,
Berkeley with dual degrees in Rhetoric and Sociology with
High Honors.
Andrew Hong
Andrew Hong is the new Communications and Program Associate at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. He began at APAICS in 2010 as a media intern shooting photos and videos during various APAICS events. He has since taken on a greater role in the organization’s communications and program development efforts. He currently creates various promotional materials for APAICS programs, helps edit and update the Asian Pacific American Political Database, researches APA officials in the news, and assists with initiatives for new programs and outreach methods.
Jane Yoo
Jane Yoo is the Communications Director at NAKASEC and is charged with developing and implementing comprehensive communications strategies across all NAKASEC program areas, including designing social media campaigns. Prior to this post, Jane was the Account Coordinator at Pro-Media Communications, where she positioned non-profit leaders and experts in high-level media outlets on issues related to immigration, racial justice, financial reform and education, as well as working with them on social media strategies to further their mission. Jane got her start in national immigrant rights organizing as NAKASEC’s Program Associate and as the Asian American Community Organizer for the 2003 New York City Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride event and action. She has a B.A. in International Relations with a concentration in Foreign Policy, War and Conflict Resolution-Asia Region at Syracuse University. Jane works out NAkASEC's Washington D.C. office.
Hyun Jae Cheon
Hyun Jae Cheon is a student leader with NAKASEC and currently attends Cornell University. He has been speaking to students nationwide and inspiring their participation in the DREAM Act movement. He has spoken at the East Coast Asian American Student Union and most recently at University of Maryland's Asian American Student Union's F.U.E.L. Leadership Conference.
Education
Keith Yi
Keith K. Yi is an educator who has been impacting the lives of students for the past twenty-five years. In 1986, he began his teaching career at Cardozo High School in Bayside, New York, teaching biology to high school students. After becoming an assistant principal in New York City public schools, he began pursuing his dream of becoming a high school principal. Never giving up his dream, after so many years of going to interview after interview, Keith became the first Korean-American high school principal in Westchester County, New York in 2005. For the past six years, as the principal of Dobbs Ferry High School, Keith has provided instructional leadership for the school, which has been ranked in the top 100 high schools in the country according to Newsweek magazine. One of his favorite pastimes is watching and cheering his student-athletes participating in school sports.
Writing
Heinz Insu Fenkl
Professor Heinz Insu Fenkl is an Associate Professor of English and Asian Studies at SUNY New Paltz. Before teaching at SUNY, Professor Fenkl taught a wide array of creative writing, folklore, and Asian literature courses both in the U.S. and in Korea. His award-winning novel, Memories of My Ghost Brother, is an autobiographical book about growing up in Korea as a bi-racial child in the 1960s. In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Fenkl has published translations of Korean fiction and folklore.
Sung J Woo
Sung J. Woo’s short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and KoreAm Journal. His debut novel, Everything Asian (2009), has received praises from The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews (starred review), the Chicago Sun-Times, and won the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature (Youth category). His short story “Limits” was an Editor’s Choice winner in Carve Magazine’s 2008 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. A graduate of Cornell University with an MFA from New York University, he lives in Washington, New Jersey.
Svetlana Kim
In 1991, Svetlana was a political refugee from Leningrad. Today, she volunteers at the Presidential Correspondence Office of the White House, is a bestselling author, public speaker, and founder of Svetlana Kim LLC. Her book, White Pearl and I: A Memoir of a Political Refugee, is about embracing challenges and impacting the lives of others. Svetlana is both a Certified Financial Planner and a Registered Financial Consultant.
Medicine
Chul Soo Hyun
Dr. Chul Soo Hyun is the president for the Korean American Medical Association (KAMA), the only national organization for Korean American physicians devoted to promoting educational experience and networking with a goal of creating a global network of Korean physicians throughout the world. Dr. Hyun has obtained numerous degrees and completed residencies and fellowships in many universities including John Hopkins University, University of Miami School of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Yale University School of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, and Yale University School of Medicine. He is an attending gastroenterologist at the New York Presbyterian Hospital and currently serves as a clinical faculty member in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Christopher Y Park
Dr. Christopher Y. Park is an attending physician and scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. A graduate of Yale College, Dr. Park completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, pathology residency and fellowship training at Stanford Hospital, and postdoctoral training at Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Park is also President of East Rock Institute (ERI), the oldest non-profit Korean cultural organization in the United States, where he began as a volunteer while in college. Dr. Park also serves as Co-Director and a faculty member of ERI’s Annual Teach Korea Corps Teachers Conference, is a member of the organizing committee of ERI’s young professionals group, and regularly gives talks about Korean culture to diverse audiences in the United States and abroad. Dr, Park is also a proud former President of the Korean American Students at Yale, and past organizer of ERI’s Korean American Students’ Conference, a predecessor to KASCON. When not working on things related to Korea, Dr. Park investigates the molecular mechanisms regulating blood stem cells as well as stem cells within blood cancers.
Michelle Milee Chang
Michelle Milee Chang is the Founder and CEO of the non-profit organization, Ambassadors for Sustained Health (ASH). Inspired by her service trips across 6 countries and 3 continents, Michelle saw the need for better, more lasting, healthcare delivery to the impoverished. In the winter of 2009, Michelle started ASH in her Boston University dorm room and saw it grow into a network of young volunteers hungry to redefine the notion of charity and healthcare for the poor. Michelle embraced the energy of ASH and its African partners to construct the first Community Center and Medical Dispensary in Wamuini, Kenya. The ASH-Wamuini Community Center works to holistically improve and sustain health through medical care, education, employment and financial accountability. Presently, Michelle is a researcher at the Columbia University Medical Center; she will be attending medical school in the Fall.
Academia
Charles Armstrong
Charles K. Armstrong is a scholar of the modern history of Korea and East Asia and currently is a professor at Columbia University where he teaches courses on modern Korean history, the international history of East Asia, the Vietnam War, and US-East Asian relations, among others. Professor Armstrong has published several books on contemporary Korea, including The Koreas, The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950, Korea at the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia, and Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy, and the State, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. His current book projects include a study of North Korean foreign relations in the Cold War era and a history of modern East Asia. Professor Armstrong is a frequent commentator of US and international media on Korean, East Asian, and Asian-American affairs.
Hesung Chun Koh
Hesung Chun Koh (Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology) is co-founder and the Chair and President Emeriti of East Rock Institute. She is also the Director Emerita of Research and Development & East Asian Research, HRAF at Yale University).Dr. Koh has taught at Boston University, Albertus Magnus College, Yale Law School, and Yale University. She was a Visiting Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan (1979, 1996-1997) and at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan ( 1996-1999). She is the author and editor of six books in English, Korean and Chinese .and numerous articles on various aspects of Korean culture, society and women, information systems, Korean cuisine, Korean Diaspora and comparative culture research and on Aging. She designed and developed the HRAF Cultural Information System (HACIS) and , the Korean Cultural Information System (KOCIS).As the first Chair of the Association for Asian Studies, the Committee on Korean Studies, and the Chair of the Wilson Center Task Force for Korean Studies, Dr. Koh initiated teacher training and curriculum development on East Asia and Korea and developed an award-winning teaching website on Korean cultural values, www.instrok.org. Dr. Koh served as a member of the US National Academy of Science’s National Research Council and was the U.S. Representative of the Social Science Research Council to the World Information System, UNESCO in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1952 her husband, Dr. Kwang Lim Koh, and Dr. Koh established the Korea Institute which later became the East Rock Institute, the oldest research organization on Korean culture in the US. and carried out research, publications, leadership training, and educational and cultural programs including groundbreaking efforts to help young Korean Americans with identity development by organizing and convening nearly 30 annual conferences as well as the founding and editing of the Korean and Korean American Studies Bulletin,. In addition, she had five solo exhibits of Asian art since 1998 in Kyoto, Japan, Seoul, Korea and in New Haven, CT. Dr. Koh is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Order of Civil Merit Songyujang Kungmin Hunjang, the highest honor bestowed on a civilian in the Republic of Korea, and the Connecticut Governor’s Award.
She is a proud mother of 6 children , 11 grandchildren and 2 great granddaughters.
Religion
Sang Yun
Having grown up in rural Pennsylvania near Amish communities, Sang came to Yale in 1989 thinking he would major in math and pursue a career in medicine. He shifted mid-course into Religious Studies and Philosophy, and later attended Princeton Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Charmain, landed back in New Haven, CT, and much to their own surprise, they eventually joined full-time staff with the campus organization, Yale Students for Christ. They have directed the ministry for the past decade, living just down the street from the university with their three kids (pictured here with their youngest).
