Tuyet Le is the executive director of the Asian American Institute, a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice. Established in 1992, AAI is a pan-Asian, not-for-profit organization that promotes equity for Asian Americans through advocacy, utilizing research, education and coalition building. Members of the Center for Advancing Justice include the Asian American Justice Center in Washington DC, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, and the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco.
In leading AAI since 1999, Ms. Le has focused on improving cooperation among diverse Asian American communities, on raising their visibility, and highlighting their concerns to policy makers and the public at large. AAI programs have included community organizing, leadership development and legal advocacy, advocating for immigrant rights, affirmative action, voting rights, redistricting, and advocacy against hate crimes. AAI has been recognized for its work by numerous government agencies, as well as local and national organizations.
Ms. Le currently serves on the board of the Asian American Justice Center, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She was a member of the 2004 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellows Class, which is a program fostering leadership in community and civic organizations. Ms. Le, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam, previously worked at the Vietnamese Association of Illinois for over two years, and last served as its Acting Executive Director.
Kathleen Jung Hee Fernicola is the Policy Director of the Asian American Institute (AAI), the Midwestern region’s premiere pan-Asian organization committed to empowering Asian Americans through advocacy by utilizing research, education and coalition-building. Ms. Fernicola brings extensive academic and applied policy experience to her work with AAI.
Her academic work is focused on social movements, urban policy and organizational change. Her dissertation, “Controlling Interests:· Institutions and Ideas in Labor-Community Coalitions” examines how different forms of communication and discourse used by social movement organizations reflect and construct their own understandings of material reality and interests and informs their framing repertories, especially in the context of political and policy campaigns. Prior to joining AAI, she co-founded Building Partnerships USA, a technical-assistance organization that developed strategic leadership training programs for coalition leaders, linked academics to applied research projects, and published multi-issue reports on jobs, housing, transportation and education designed to support organizing and advocacy objectives for coalition partners.
Kathleen currently holds a lecturer position at the University of Chicago and is a Visiting Scholar at UC Davis' Gifford Center for Population Studies. Kathleen completed her doctoral work in Sociology at the University of Chicago. She also holds a M.S. in Natural Resource and Agricultural Economics from the University of Arizona and has worked as an agricultural economist for the World Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Alice Lee-Osborne is the Director of Donor Relations at the Asian American Institute (AAI).· Alice is the development staff member responsible for building AAI’s annual campaign and helping to advance Asian American philanthropy in Chicago and its metropolitan region.
Alice brings with her 11 years of development experience and skills.· She has had exposure to a broad range of non-profit organizations and a wide array of fundraising skills which include: managing annual giving campaigns, writing proposals and working closely with volunteers to organize special events and initiatives.
Alice is a co-founder of the Asian Giving Circle, a philanthropic fund comprised of 50+ individuals who are committed to financially support organizations that serve Asian American communities in Chicago.·· Alice continues to volunteer as a member and holds a personal commitment to increase Asian American participation in Chicago’s mainstream philanthropic community, as well as, educate individuals on the impact and importance of personal philanthropy within Asian American communities locally and nationally.
Ms. Lee-Osborne has a B.A. in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago and an A.M. from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
Bryan Hara is the Leadership Coordinator at the Asian American Institute (AAI).· He will be responsible for the development and execution of all leadership programs.· Bryan brings many years of experience in program and event management to AAI. He is very dedicated to the growth of the Asian American community in Chicago, and specializes in cultivating the leadership skills of individuals who are driven to make an impact.
Bryan currently serves on the board for the Japanese American Citizens League Chicago Chapter (JACL). Prior to joining the Asian American Institute, Bryan organized business workshops, training seminars, and ran fundraising events at the JACL to raise awareness in the Japanese community.· He also spent time in the finance world working at Chase Investments and Edward Jones Investments where he led educational, marketing, and financial seminars.· Bryan holds a B.S. in Business-Marketing from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.· While at IU, he was President of the Indiana Men’s Club Volleyball team where he coached, organized and managed fundraising events, planned all trips, maintained an annual budget, and supervised all volunteer for event activities.
Mr. Kang serves AAI's Legal Advocacy Program, which focuses on Chicago redistricting and other key voting rights issues that impact the Asian American community. Mr. Kang joined AAI after serving as an attorney at the Legislative Reference Bureau, a non-partisan State agency that provides legal advice to elected members of the Illinois General Assembly regarding the drafting of legislation. Mr. Kang has practiced law in Chicago and Boston and was co-founder and President of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Clark, a national grass-roots organization that mobilized support for former presidential candidate General Wesley Clark (Ret.).
Mr. Kang received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was Chair of the Diversity Coalition and an active member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mr. Abhay, a volunteer for the resettlement of Laotian refugees in Illinois in 1982, began organizing the community during the early 80s into what became known the Lao American Community Services (LACS), which provided counseling and adjustment services as well as employment services. Mr. Abhay served as the Executive Director of LACS from 1985 to 1989. Following, Mr. Abhay served at the Indochina Resource Action Center (IRAC) to provide technical assistance in community organizing to emerging refugees and immigrants Community Based Organizations nationwide. At AAI, Mr. Abhay hopes to focus his knowledge and experience in community organizing to promote greater civic engagement within Asian American communities to resurrect the hardship that we are currently seeing from the fall out of the financial crisis.
Viveka Ray-Mazumder, Community Organizer
Ms. Ray-Mazumder will be responsible for the Youth Civics Program, where she will work with young people and student leaders to mobilize, coordinate, and encourage civic engagement work among Asian American youth in Chicago. Ms. Ray-Mazumder will work with students in several public high schools to discuss the history and importance of Asian American voting in Chicago, and will work with these young people on voter education and registration efforts in their communities. Prior to joining AAI, Ms. Ray-Mazumder was a legal advocate for the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, and an organizing intern with Herstory Writers Workshop in New York.
Ms. Ray-Mazumder holds a B.A. in Sociology from Middlebury College, where she led numerous workshops and trainings for students, staff, and faculty relating to issues of identity and social justice.
Charouay Messing is the Office Manager at the Asian American Institute.··Her most recent position was at the Coalition of African Arab Asian European Latino Immigrants of Illinois (CAAAELII) as a Coordinator for the Adult Education program.· Prior to that, she worked as a legal assistant for over 7 years.· She currently volunteers as Community Service Co-chair for the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP).· She serves as liaison to many civic and community groups, while encouraging others to participate and attend community service events through NAAAP Chicago.
Charouay has a B.A. in International Relations with an emphasis in Southeast Asian studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.·· She has a dedicated interest in working with the Asian American community which started while she was growing up in a first generation Lao-Thai family in a small town in Wisconsin.· Charouay has enjoyed traveling to many parts of the world including Western Europe, Croatia, South Africa, Southeast Asia and South Korea.· She looks forward to contributing to an organization committed to the empowerment and civic engagement of Asian Americans in Chicago.
Stien van der Ploeg is the Executive Office Assistant at the Asian American Institute. After studying Media & Culture and Dutch Language & Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam, she dedicated her career to empowering and enriching the lives of the disadvantaged by assisting the executive director of a youth care organization and coordinating their office administration and prevention programs. Prior to joining AAI she served as an AmeriCorps member to improve the quality of early education in Chicago. In her spare time Mrs. Van der Ploeg has always volunteered, and currently tutors grade school children.
Mrs. van der Ploeg and her mother were born in the Netherlands, her father in Indonesia. On her way to move to Chicago she literally traveled around the world and visited several Asian countries on the way.
Katherine Rivera, Uniting America AmeriCorps Leader
Katherine Rivera is the Uniting America AmeriCorps Leader at the Asian American Institute (AAI), the Midwestern region’s premier pan-Asian organization committed to empowering Asian Americans through advocacy by utilizing research, education, and coalition building. Ms. Rivera serves as a volunteer recruiter for AAI; The Uniting America Program is designed to bridge immigrants with native born Illinoisans through volunteerism.
She enjoys traveling, learning languages, and working with high school students at her local church. In college, she completed a study abroad in Egypt and Turkey where she was able to travel throughout the Middle East and practice her language skills.
Ms. Rivera is a second-generation Filipino –American born and raised in Chicago. She graduated with a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Washington with a special interest in Arabic and French.
Jennifer Okray, Americorps VISTA Communications and Marketing Associate
Jennifer Okray is the AmeriCorps VISTA Communications and Marketing Associate at the Asian American Institute. She will be enhancing the development of internal and external communications and marketing strategies for AAI to strengthen community and corporate recognition.
She brings visual, written and verbal skills to the organization with degrees in Arts Management and Communications from University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, a Master of Science degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and a myriad of international travel and cultural documentation.
Jennifer has a passion to fight poverty and raise awareness of social issues and injustices, while improving efficiency of NGO’s. Her history includes non-profit and business reporting, volunteering, traveling to obscure locales, photography and an insatiable curiosity that sometimes gets the best of her. She enjoys such simple pleasures in life as family, hot tea, rustic outings, poetry, adventure sports and Skittles.
Herb Iverson, Americorps VISTA Community Organizing Associate
Herb is taking over as AAI's Community Organizing and Research Assistant Americorps VISTA. He graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He is interested in increasing political engagement and empowerment across the Pan-Asian community of Chicago.
Satish Turakhia, Title V, Administrative Assistant
