Board of Directors
Patricia Kinaga
Chair & Co-Founder
Patricia is an attorney at the national law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine where she specializes in employment law. In addition to representing employers in litigation, she provides advice and training on numerous topics in the workplace, including disability accommodation and how to conduct investigations. A former member on the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, she is a past president of the Japanese American Bar Association, and has served as an appointed member of the American Bar Association Commission on Disability Rights.
Johnna Cho
Vice Chair
Johnna is a former Senior Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs for Warner Bros., where she handled a broad range of legal matters relating to the home video, digital distribution, and game businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. While at Warner Bros. she also served for several years as the Executive Sponsor for the Network for Asian Pacific Americans (NAPA), the business resource group for Asian American and Pacific Islander employees. Ms. Cho started her legal career as an attorney with Graham & James, developing an expertise in corporate transactions. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from UCLA. Ms. Cho is a yoga enthusiast and certified yoga instructor (RYT-500) and currently in training to be a yoga therapist.
Nicole Wong
Treasurer
Nicole is the Account Director for Exact Tax Inc. She has been involved with nonprofits and philanthropy for over 15 years with 5 of those years at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She also serves as a committee member of Pasadena City College’s Asian American and Pacific Islander President’s Advisory Council, co-founded Asian Pacific Americans at Caltech, the campus’s first employee resource group, and is currently a Leadership Institute Fellow with Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE). She received her undergraduate degree at UC Irvine and her Masters of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University.
Phuong Nguyen
Secretary
Phuong is Senior Vice President, Business Development Officer, at Bank of America, where she is responsible for sourcing new financing opportunities, while leading deal teams through the screening, approval and execution phases of a transaction. She previously served as vice president at Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, City National Bank, and People's Bank of America.
Linda Wah
Director
Linda is an alum of Cal State University Los Angeles (CSULA) with a BS and MBA in Information Systems. She is a retired technology manager for the City of Los Angeles, and is a former elected Trustee for Pasadena City College, where she served in leadership on a number of community college boards and committees, including President for the California Community College Trustees (CCCT), Director on the national Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), and Chair of Community College League of California (CCLC) Financial Reform Task Force. She is a co-founder of two caucuses for California Community Colleges (Asian American Pacific Islander Trustees & Administrators (APITA)) and the Women's Caucus (CCCWC). Linda also serves on the CSULA President's Caucus, and is a co-sponsor for the CSULA Alumni Mentoring Program. Linda volunteers as an executive coach for the Executive Services Corp for non-profit organizations, and is the Chair of the National Women's Political Caucus/Los Angeles County Council.
Audrey Noda
Director
Audrey has over three decades of experience serving in high level government positions. As the Deputy Treasurer for Health and Education, she was responsible for policy and financing issues covering educational and health facilities and student housing. Audrey also oversaw the boards of the state's savings programs for persons with disabilities and Californians saving for college and retirement. She was the Deputy Controller for the State Controller and Chief Deputy to the Board of Equalization Member. Former Governor Gray Davis appointed her Deputy Appointments Secretary and Executive Director for the Commission on Infrastructure. She has dedicated her career to developing strategic partnerships and policy initiatives to advance the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and other diverse communities and has worked with several community-based boards and organizations. Audrey received her B.A. in political science from UCLA.
Advisory Council
Mario Galdamez
Mario has 12 years of experience providing direct service and administrative oversight of Independent Living and Employment Services. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Southern California Resource Services for Independent Living (SCRS-IL), a nonprofit organization that assists individuals with disabilities with a wide range of services. For over three years, he led SCRS-IL’s Workforce Department, providing oversight of training, development, advocacy, and placement services for qualified individuals with disabilities into competitive employment in five southern California counties. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science & Latin American and Latino Studies from UC Santa Cruz and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).
Stewart Kwoh
Stewart Kwoh is founding President and Executive Director of the legal and civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, and served on APIDC’s Board of Directors from its inception. Stewart is a nationally recognized leader on civil rights, race relations, human relations, and legal services. Stewart has served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors and as Chair of the California Endowment. Through his leadership, Advancing Justice acts a fiscal sponsor and provides capacity training for nonprofit organizations.
Alice Wong
Alice, a research associate at the Community Living Policy Center at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, has received numerous prestigious awards, including the American Association of People with Disabilities Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award, for her pioneering advocacy work. Alice created and manages the Disability Visibility Project, an on line community research dedicated to documenting stories of people with disabilities. A former board member of APIDC, Alice was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Council on Disability.
Staff
Chester Hashizume
Mr. Hashizume has served in leadership roles for many Asian American non-profit organizations, with experience in event planning and execution, organizational development, fundraising, and financial management. He is President of the non-profit Pacific Film Currents, which creates, distributes, and promotes educational media addressing issues in the Asian American community. Mr. Hashizume is an information technology project manager with expertise in managing enterprise projects.
Administrator
Peter Wong, Ph.D.
Dr. Wong received master’s degrees in public policy from the University of Michigan and economics and planning from the London School of Economics, and Ph.D. in public policy and urban planning from UCLA. His dissertation topic from UCLA focused on employment challenges and successes for Asian Americans with disabilities. As APIDC’s Research Director, he conducts research on employment barriers facing Asians and Pacific Islanders with disabilities. Dr. Wong is an Adjunct Professor at California State University Long Beach and works part-time for Special Services for Groups. Previously, he served as a senior advisor at the White House National Economic Council to President Clinton, where he specialized in income maintenance and poverty statistics.
Research Director
Kevin Chang
Kevin is a 2019 graduate of the Youth Leadership Institute.
Program Coordinator
Kelly Chau
Kelly holds a BS in Kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton.
Program Coordinator
Melissa Chow
Melissa is a 2021 graduate of the Youth Leadership Institute.
Program Coordinator
Madeline Ikeda
Madeline holds a BA from Wesleyan University.
Program Coordinator
Jennifer Jeon
Jennifer holds a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Program Coordinator
Daphna Patel
Daphna is a 2014 graduate of the Youth Leadership Institute.
Program Coordinator
Kevin Phung
Kevin is a 2014 graduate of the Youth Leadership Institute.
Program Coordinator
Grace Song
Grace holds a BS in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Program Coordinator
Hannah Wang
Hannah holds a Bachelor of Health Science from the University of Florida.
Program Coordinator
Hannah Wong
Hannah holds a BA in History from California State University Los Angeles.