Speaker bios:
- John C. Yang is the president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC in Washington, DC, where he leads the organization’s mission to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all through policy advocacy, education, and litigation. He has served in leadership positions for the American Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, among many others. Prior to Advancing Justice | AAJC, John had served as a political appointee in the Obama Administration addressing U.S. trade and economics, the Asia-Pacific Legal Director based in Shanghai, China, of a Fortune 200 company, and as a partner at a large DC-based law firm. He also serves on the diversity council for several Fortune 500 U.S. companies. John is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
- Dr. Jeremy S. Wu retired from the U.S. government after more than 30 years of public service at the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Commerce. During his tenure, Jeremy maintained a two-track career in statistics and civil rights. He served as Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Acting Chief Statistician at the Department of Transportation in the aftermath of 9/11 and National Ombudsman at the Department of Energy during the case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee. He was the first Asian American career employee to reach Senior Executive Service rank in USDA. Asian Fortune listed Jeremy as one of 40 influential Asian Americans in Washington in 2015. In the same year, he founded the APA Justice Task Force, a group of volunteers to address racial profiling and related justice and fairness issues for the Asian American community.
- Gisela P. Kusakawa is the NAPABA Law Foundation Community Law Fellow at Advancing Justice | AAJC. Gisela is a leading advocate on the anti-racial profiling of Chinese scientists, researchers, and students. Her work laid the groundwork for the Anti-Racial Profiling Project dedicated to protecting the rights of Asian Americans unjustly targeted by the government. Prior to Advancing Justice | AAJC, Gisela clerked under the first Asian American judge in Virginia, the Honorable John M. Tran. She is a former recipient of the Justice Thurgood Marshall Civil Liberties Award for her work in civil rights and public service, and an inaugural member of the GW Law Business & Finance Law Review. Gisela served indigent immigrant populations under AmeriCorps for two years in Ohio, and was a former Rotary Scholar at Kofu City, Japan. She was a previous board member of the Filipino American Lawyers Association of Washington, DC and currently represents the organization for Pinay Powerhouse.
- Vivin Qiang is the Program Coordinator of the Anti-Racial Profiling Project at Advancing Justice | AAJC. She is responsible for coordinating the project, including connecting impacted persons to a legal referral network, and assisting the communications team in Chinese ethnic media and social media engagement. Prior to joining Advancing Justice | AAJC, Vivin worked in China with a global environmental nonprofit organization, where she worked closely with local communities to build conservation projects across urban neighborhoods. She also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at a refugee settlement agency in Nashville, Tennessee, where she focused on educational advancement for immigrant communities.
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