PAST SPONSORS
|
|
|
19th Annual Convention Conference Speakers
In July 2005, Daphne Kwok became the Executive Director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation in San Francisco. Since April 2001, she was the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) focused on increasing political participation of the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community and working with the APIA elected officials from school board members to Members of Congress. For 11 years, she was the Executive Director of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), a non-profit, civil rights organization with more than 10,000 members. She coordinated programs and services for 45 chapters and 37 college affiliates and monitored issues pertaining to the Asian American community, such as hate crimes, campaign finance reform, immigration reform, Census 2000, English-only, and affirmative action. During the Wen Ho Lee investigation, Ms. Kwok testified before the Congressional Asian Pacific Caucus on the impact of federal counter-intelligence and security investigations on Asian Pacific Americans at the Department of Energy. She was subsequently appointed to the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Council. Empowerment of all APAs has long been one of Ms. Kwok's core values. From November 1997 until April 2001, Ms. Kwok was the first elected Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a network of national APA organizations. She coordinated a national voter registration campaign involving 19 Asian Pacific American organizations in 1996. This unprecedented campaign registered more than 70,000 voters. A 1984 graduate of Wesleyan University, Ms. Kwok became the first Asian American member of its Board of Trustees. She has a B.A. in East Asian Studies and Music. She received a Masters in Public Administration from New York's Baruch City College. Ms. Kwok
currently serves on the board of a wide range of APA groups
including leadership roles as President of the Organization of
Chinese Americans-Northern Virginia Chapter, Vice Chair of the
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center,
and Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific American Caucus of the
American Political Science Association. She serves as a Board
Member of the
Asian & Pacific Islander
American Scholarship Fund,
National Coalition of Asian Pacific
American Community Development, and National Japanese American Memorial
Foundation. Her views have been featured on national radio and
TV programs as well as in major newspapers and magazines.
Van Le is a refugee from Viet Nam since 1975 and resides at San Jose, she is grass root community leader and has a vision of the American Dream. She is now a State Farm Agent and has worked with Redevelopment Agency City of San Jose as community liaison to bridge the gap between the Vietnamese merchants and city. Van has received numerous awards and recognitions, including: “Ambassador Travel life for State Farm Insurance” – 2002-2005; “Santa Clara County Human Relations Award” February 2004; “In recognition of dedication and support for scholarship ceremony” – 2004; “2004 Businesswoman of the year”; “2004 Circle of Excellence for Public and Community Service”; “Vietnamese American Community Development Award of Recognition of City San Jose – 2004; Commendation from City of San Jose as Vietnamese Business Community – 2001; “Project Diversity Screening Committee City of San José” – 1999- 2000; “Asian American Corporate Achievement Awards” – 1998; and “Martin Luther King Jr. Good Neighbor award” – 1994.
Organizational involvements include: Chairwoman of Viet American
Cultural Foundation; Founder of Children Moon Festival since
1992 in San José; Founder of Vietnamese American Foundation;
Board of KNTV channel 11 – (1993-1995); Board member of Viet
Heritage Society (2003-2005) and Founder of Vietnamese City
Employee association (1990-1995). Her civic activities include:
organizing visits to nursing homes in San Jose and Asian women
shelter; raising funds for Women shelters and victims of
Hurricane Katrina; organizing r Tet festival in City hall and
organizing the annual Spring Festival.
Michele Lew was appointed as President and CEO of Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) in August 2005. She previously served from 2001-2005 as the district director for former California State Assemblymember and current State Senator Joe Simitian, advising on education, health care, social services, nonprofit, and Asian Pacific American issues. She has also worked with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, and UCLA on education issues. Michele has served on the boards of the Asian Pacific American Leadership Project, Foundation for a College Education, Hispanic Foundation Silicon Valley, and the YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula. She holds a BA in Economics from Yale University and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University Top
Thien-Nhien Luong works for the Public Health Department of Santa Clara County as a Senior Health Care Program Manager. Mrs. Luong manages the Epidemiology and Data Management Unit that is responsible for and leads health assessment function in the department. This includes the planning and implementation of Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFS), Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YBRS), and Vietnamese Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (VBRFS); and the reporting, analyses, and health status report production of data from numerous disease and injury surveillance systems in the County. Mrs. Luong serves as the Planning Chief for the Department Emergency Operation Center. Mrs. Luong helped to design and implement a public health integrated information system. Additionally, she has more than 10 years of experience working with community coalitions and partnerships to improve the well-being of Santa Clara County’s residents. She serves on and supports the mission of Tuberculosis Prevention Partnership, Traffic Safe Community Network, Violence Prevention Council, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Network, and Vietnamese REACH for Health Initiative (VRHI) .Top
Phuong Ly writes about immigrant communities and cultural trends for the Washington Post, where she has worked since 1999. Her stories often appear on the front page. She also has won regional awards for religion and breaking news stories and served on the national board of the Asian American Journalists Association. Phuong and her family came to the United States in 1979, as part of the wave of “boat people.” Phuong grew up in Salisbury, NC, and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina. Past
articles:
Nguyen Ngoc Bich is the immediate past Director of the Vietnamese Service at Radio Free Asia (RFA). Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and educated in Saigon, the United States, Japan and Europe, Mr. Bich is fluent in seven languages. He came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship as an undergraduate student and received his B.A. from Princeton University (Political Science, 1958). He did graduate work in Asian studies at Columbia University (1959-65), Japanese literature at Kyoto University (1962-63), bilingual education and theoretical linguistics at Georgetown University (1980-85). As an educator, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has taught at university level both in Vietnam and in the United States. Since coming to the U.S. in 1975, he has taught adult education, elementary school and high school in Arlington, Virginia, then at the university level at Trinity College, George Mason University (where he taught Vietnamese Literature and Vietnamese Culture and Civilization), and Georgetown University (where he was a teacher trainer in Bilingual and Multicultural Education). Together with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi, a linguist and ESL specialist, he was one of a group of educators who in 1979 founded NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education), the ancestor of NAFEA (National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans). Mr. Bich was the third president of NAVAE, which he headed from 1984 to 1986. Widely recognized for his work in education, he was appointed by President Bush to the post of Deputy Director, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (aka OBEMLA), at the U.S. Department of Education, where he served under Secretary Lamar Alexander from 1991 to 1993. Mr. Bich is Chairman, Board of Directors, of Boat People S.O.S., Inc. a community service organization located in Falls Church, VA. He was also the founder of National News Service, which provides news of interest to readers of Vietnamese language newspapers worldwide, and one of the founding members of NCVA (National Congress of Vietnamese in America, formed in 1986). He is the author of a number of publications on Vietnam, including An Annotated Atlas of the Republic of Vietnam (1972), North Vietnam: Backtracking on Socialism (1971) and Literature Under Communism in Vietnam (under press). But he is best known as a translator and writer on the arts. The author of The Poetry of Vietnam (Asia Society of New York, 1969), A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry (Knopf, 1975), he also edited War and Exile: A Vietnamese Anthology (Vietnamese PEN, 1989) and translated two collections of poetry coming from the pen of Nguyen Chi Thien, Hoa Dia Nguc / The Flowers of Hell and Hat Mau Tho / Blood Seeds Become Poetry (both published in 1996). In the field of art and music, he co-authored (with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi) a bilingual collection of Christmas carols (1975) and translated a book on Vietnamese Architecture (1972). More recently, he has translated Truong Anh Thuy’s Truong Ca Loi Me Ru / A Mother’s Lullaby (1989); had a hand in doing a photography book by Tran Cao Linh, Vietnam, My Country Forever (Aide à l’Enfance du Vietnam, 1988), the catalogue of a traveling exhibition of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American paintings, An Ocean Apart (Smithsonian, 1996), the book Thai Tuan: Selected Paintings and Essays (VAALA, 1996); and has completed a comprehensive history on Seven Thousand Years of Vietnamese Ceramics (under press). His edition of the complete works of the poetess Ho Xuan Huong (ca. 1770-1835) was published in 2000 to wide acclaim. His most recent publication (2002) is Omar Khayyam – Rubaiyat: Tho va Doi, a study of the famous eleventh-century Persian poet-astronomer-philosopher and his world-renowned poetry collection made famous by Edward Fitzgerald’s English translation. Prior to joining RFA (in January 1997), Mr. Bich has worked for 13 years as a Vietnamese-language Program Director for WHFS 103.4 FM and WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC. Because of his varied background and mastery of many aspects of Vietnamese culture, he is a much sought-after lecturer nationwide, on college campuses, at national and international conferences. As a world-renowned translator from and into Vietnamese, Mr.
Bich is also often asked to do simultaneous translation for international
conferences and in public courts of law.
Nguyen Qui Duc joins KQED Public Radio’s Pacific Time staff as host with a wealth of journalism and media experience. Recently, he has worked as general manager for the Vietnamese Broadcasting Network (VBN), a division of SkyView Media Group, a provider of foreign-language television services on DirectTV. Nguyen also is a former National Public Radio commentator for All Things Considered. In 1989, he was honored by the Overseas Press Club with a Citation for Excellence for his documentary series on Vietnam, produced for NPR. From 1986 to 1993, he was production manager for public radio station KALW-FM in San Francisco. From 1984 to 1986, Nguyen worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London as a production assistant, announcing daily news and current affairs programs and translating news material. Nguyen is also an author and translator. His book Where the Ashes Are, published in 1993, is a memoir of his life in Vietnam -- and his life in America after 1975 .Top
Hung Nguyen is a community organizer and activist. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts and working on his M.A. thesis "Jungian Psychology and the Masculine Spirituality." He is the President of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes culture, education and civic involvement. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) as the Chair of the Washington Leadership Program, the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia, the Executive Committee of the NAACP - San José Chapter and the Advisory Committee of the Vietnamese American Professionals Alliance (VAPA). Previously, Hung Nguyen served as Director of Public Relations for the Vietnamese Nationalist Community of Austin, recipient of the National Society of Fund Raiser Executives’ 1999 Philanthropic Organization of the Year Award and the Executive Committee of the California State Conference of the NAACP. Hung Nguyen has worked on
issues affecting the community, including capacity building, economic
self-sufficiency, redistricting, human rights, and voter education and
empowerment. In addition to being quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Washington
Post, San José Mercury News, Associated Press, Fairfax Times and many other
community newspapers, he has appeared on television and radio programs to inform
and educate the public on hot issues affecting the communities of interest. He
is focused in educating the public and working on projects in which the
community can increase its effectiveness, capacity/infrastructure and
empowerment capabilities. Hung Nguyen currently lives and works in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Janet Nguyen was elected to the Garden Grove City Council on November 2, 2004. She is the first woman to serve on the City Council in nearly 35 years, and at 28 years of age, the youngest member ever to be elected. In addition, Janet is currently the highest-ranking Woman of Vietnamese descendent in the nation and the youngest elected official currently serving in Orange County. Janet has served on the Garden Grove Planning Commission, the Garden Grove Traffic Commission, and was a former board member for the Orange County Alcohol and Drug Advisory Board. She has worked for two former Chairmen of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and Assemblyman Ken Maddox, 68th District, as his District Director from 1999 - 2004. Janet dedicates countless hours to different organizations throughout Garden Grove. She is currently a Board Member for the Garden Grove Hospital. She is also a member of Soroptimist International of Garden Grove and former Associate Member of the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association, former Board Member of the Grove Theatre Center and Senior Meals on Wheels. In addition, she owns a consulting business for public, government, and community relations, and is the Vice President of Governmental and Public Affairs for the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. Janet has been recognized by the Asian Pacific American Legislative Staff Association as the first Vietnamese American in California to hold the District Director position for a state or federal legislator's office. She has been awarded the We Give Thanks' 2004 Women of Vision Award, which recognizes outstanding women who have provided exceptional service to the community. Janet is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. A strong supporter of education, Janet taught the Law Student Admission Test’s (LSAT) preparation course to potential law students for Princeton Review. Janet
reside in Garden Grove with her husband Tom and their three dogs.
On November 3, 2004, Lan was elected to the Board of Trustees of the East Side Union High School District, the first Vietnamese American elected to serve on the governing board of the largest high school district in Northern California. Prior to his election to the school board, Lan worked as a Management Analyst for Santa Clara County Social Services Agency since March of 2000. Lan was responsible for developing social and family support services programs for families and children of the Santa Clara County. He worked closely with community-based organizations to ensure that services are adequately delivered to the children and families and advocates for needed services. Before Lan came to work for the County, he spent 9 years working as youth and family counselor, mental health counselor, and administrator. Lan worked with community based organizations such the Asian American for Community Involvement, Bill Wilson Center, Gardner Family Care Corporation, and VIVO to provide counseling and social support services to youth and families from all cultural background. In 2002, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisor appointed Lan to the County Mental Health Board. In this capacity, Lan worked closely with the county mental health department’s administrators to ensure that all mental health patients in the County get the proper care and services that they need. For over a decade, Lan has been active in the community. In 1992, he joined the Board of the Vietnamese American Forum. With other board members, he organized the annual dinner banquet to honor and celebrate distinguished community leaders who made significant impact to the local community. Through this organization, Lan became involved with political process. He coordinated the first Political Candidate Forum for the Vietnamese community in 1992. The forum drew political candidates from many levels of government included California state senate, state assembly, Santa Clara county board of supervisor, and San Jose city council. Lan became chair of the Vietnamese American Forum in 1992 and committee chair of other political candidate forums in 1994, 1996, and 1998. In 2000, Lan found the Vietnamese American Voter Education Committee. The committee’s goals and objectives are to educate the community about voting rights, voting and political process, and to encourage community members to participate in local politics. Lan is a true believer of preserving one’s cultural heritage. Since 1987, he taught Vietnamese language and culture to children and youth at the Queen the Martyr of Vietnamese Mission in San Jose. From 1992 to 1999, Lan co-organized the annual Mid-Autumn Festival for the children and their families to learn and celebrate their cultural heritage. On
education, Lan is completing his fieldwork for the M.A. degree
program in Clinical Psychology at John F Kennedy University. He
also received a B.A. degree in Business Administration with a
minor in Psychology from San Jose State University and an A.A.
degree from Business Administration from Evergreen Valley
College.
Lat Nguyen has been Latco Construction Co., Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer and President since 1979. He is responsible for overall management including strategic and operational planning. He coordinates between company and lenders, owners, equity partners and also city, state and Federal Governments. Lat is directly in charge of corporate operations, financing, oversee project management, estimating, buy out, CPM scheduling, including computer systems analysis and development. Additionally, he is responsible for various projects including and not limited to prepare, review and update Network Analysis Systems (NAS) in both ADM and PDM methods – he is an experienced manager of both Simplified Acquisition of Base Engineering Requirements (SABER) and Job Order Contract (JOC) schemes. LATCO Construction Co., Inc., is a General Contracting firm located in Atlanta, Georgia. The Company was founded in 1979 in Savannah, Georgia. Latco is an established leader in restorative and original construction both as a prime contractor and subcontractor. Latco specializes in the renovation and restoration of historic structures at first. LATCO earned a reputation for completing difficult and “impossible” projects by extending their expertise to the actual general contracting and management as well as the development aspects. The company completed over several hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial office/retail spaces and several hundred residential units in different structures throughout Georgia and other Southeastern states. Latco offers leadership and experience to customers whose needs ranged from modest single family homes to spectacular complex multi-million dollar mixed-used projects, both in private and public sectors all with the same commitment to excellence. Today, LATCO provides expertise, leadership, and commitment to excellence in the construction field. Starting with small government contracts and progressing to larger contracts, LATCO has developed distinctive growth competencies in marketing, bidding and management that uniquely position the Company for success in the government sector. As a result, LATCO intends to expand its present markets geographically. Latco renovated over 100 apartment units and 90,000 square feet of commercial space in 50 various structures, several custom homes. Developments and renovations include: the Standard Oil Building with $1.5 million dollars, Savannah, Georgia; 31,000 square feet of office in 7 structures with value of $2.4 million dollars; the Old Partridge Inn (100,000 sq.ft. structure) with a first Uban Development Acting Grant (UDAG) award to City of Augusta ($1.4 million, total project $8 millions); the Imperial Theater transforming it into one of the finest Performing Arts theaters in the South; and, $721,000 UDAG for the Old James Hotel in Augusta, Georgia. Conduct a feasibility study on 188 Acres of land to build an international resort facility for Grenada, W.I. by a matching grant from US State Department - Grenada, West Indies. Latco has worked with the National Park Services, General Services Administration, Veterans Administration, Department of Navy, Department of Air Force, Department of Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District, and other Federal Agencies in Restoration and General construction for various projects at various facilities at Carl Vinson VAMC, Dublin, GA; Fort Stewart, GA; Dobbins ARB, GA (IDIQ contracts and single projects); US Army Corps of Engineers at Ft Bragg, NC, at Pope AFB, NC and at Ft Stewart, GA; National Park Services at Martin Luther King National Park in Atlanta, GA and at Plaint, GA; Charleston AFB, SC; Fort Gordon, GA; and, US Department of State, Restoration US Ambassador’s Residence in Hanoi, Vietnam. Lat Nguyen
is originally from Nha Trang, Vietnam. He has lived in the U.S.
since 1975 and is married with four children. He has thorough
knowledge and extensive experience in general contracting,
construction management and real estate development.
Thoa Nguyen is currently the Project Director of the REACHING Vietnamese Women: A community model for promoting cervical cancer screening (REACH), and Community Coordinator of the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness Research & Training ("AANCART") of the Health Is Gold - Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the executive producer of four Vietnamese health education videotapes and the author and co-authors of printed materials and several articles to promote preventive health care, hepatitis B immunization, breast and cervical screening in English and Vietnamese. Ms. Nguyen
has over 30 years experience in the health field. Throughout out
her career, Ms. Nguyen has promoted issues of access, service,
and equity to health care for under-represented Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders in the United States. She has founded and
co-founded several community-based organizations. She serves as
an advisory member, a steering committee member, and a board
member for multiple non-profit organizations, State government
foundation including: Asian Immigrant Women Advocate, Associate
of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Asian Health
Services, Huong Viet Community Center, National Asian American &
Pacific Islander Cancer Survivors & Advocacy Network, American
Cancer Society, Asian Cancer Coalition, Vanguard Foundation and
State of California -- Department of Health Services. Ms. Nguyen
has received national and local awards for her work in the
community.
“I am a boat people refugee who arrived in the US in 1989. I fled the country with my father who used to be a former Military Official for South Vietnam before 1975. My father was forced to be in prison by the new Vietnam Regime for about 3 years. We tried to escape the country many times after he was released, but was not successful until the fall of 1989. We spent roughly about 3 years in the Refugee Camp in Indonesia and the Philippines.” Tom Nguyen attended the University of Maryland and graduated in 1997 with a degree in International Business. He relocated to San Jose, California from Maryland right after graduation. He started his banking career at Wells Fargo Bank as a Personal Banker and then transitioned over to Citibank. He later joined Bank of America and served as a Business Banker, Operation Manager, Branch Manager, and Regional Marketing Officer. “I was able to hone a lot of experience in many aspects of Banking at Bank of America through various job responsibilities.” Tom rejoined Citibank in late 1999 and served as a Commercial Banking Acquisition Manager, Relationship Manager. In 2003, he became the Business Banking Area Manager and manages the entire Business Banking Department for an area that consists of 15 branches. Tom currently serves as a mentor for the Business School at Evergreen Valley College. He also serves on the loan committee of Lenders for Community Development (a non-profit organization in Santa Clara County). Additionally, Tom has participated in many local community events by addressing financial education (Franklin McKinley Education Foundation, Catholic Charities Foundation, etc.). Tom enjoys
playing golf and makes an effort to play when work does not
occupy his time.
Dang Pham has been appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as Executive Director of the Immigrant Rights Commission/City Census 2000 Liaison on October 18, 1999. With this appointment, Dang was the first Vietnamese American appointed as the Department Head in the history of the City and County of San Francisco. He was the former Deputy Assistant Secretary/Chief of Staff of the Office of Bilingual Education & Minority Languages Affairs, US Department of Education. Dang was appointed by President Clinton on February 28, 1994. In November 1996, he was on a one-year special assignment as the Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel in the White House for outreach to the Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders community. Dang left Washington, D.C. in 1998 and became the Executive Director of Petrusky Educational Center in Garden Grove, Orange County. The center offers an after school program for the Vietnamese students in the Orange County area. Dang Pham was appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts in 1986 as the Educational Program Director of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees & Immigrants. He was the first Asian American appointed as the Commissioner of the Fair Housing Commission of the City of Boston. He was a secondary math teacher and discipline coordinator in Boston Public Schools for 7 years. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. Dang received a number of national awards to recognize his strong commitment and advocate for the language minority community such as:
Mylinh Pham is currently the Program Manager at the Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation (VIVO) in San Jose. In this capacity, Ms. Pham oversees the programs at VIVO and works on funding development. Ms. Pham has been working with the refugee community since 1989. Last year, she was nominated by the Silicon Valley Women’s Fund for a Women of Achievement Award in Santa Clara County. In addition, she produces and hosts a Vietnamese radio talk show called Nhan Hoa on 1430 AM. This talk show broadcasts to all of Northern California and address many topics that are of concern to the Vietnamese community. Ms. Pham serves on the Federal Emergency Management Board and the Board of Trustees of the Regional Medical Center, a hospital serving primarily Hispanic and Vietnamese patients, where she shares and educates the board members on the needs of refugees and minorities in Santa Clara County. Ms. Pham
also serves as an advisory council member on the Council on
Aging. This Council addresses the needs of the elderly community
and Ms. Pham is committed to educating them on the many issues
and needs involving the refugee senior population in Santa Clara
County.
Vu H. Pham is the founder and head of Spectrum Knowledge, Inc., a research, consulting and training organization. He currently serves as a Researcher in the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, as well as the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, he held a Research Fellow position through the University of California Office of the President. He has taught courses at major institutions, including: UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, the Claremont Colleges and Loyola Marymount University. Having completed his doctoral degree from Cornell University, Dr. Pham’s specialties include the areas of culture, organizational development and leadership. He combines data-driven research with his background in these three fields to assist clients with identifying and assessing organizational challenges, as well as providing effective solutions. His experience includes having worked with companies as large as those from the Fortune 500 to those in governmental and non-profit sectors. Dr. Pham’s clients range in industries that include: Aerospace and Defense, Technology, Advertising, Healthcare, Retail as well as Museums and Cultural Organizations. He has also worked with individual clients to optimize their career success. He has presented at numerous workshops, conferences and retreats across the country and has published in both academic and mainstream publications. Beyond his consulting, research and training work, Dr. Pham has participated in generating over one-half a million dollars for non-profit groups and donates countless hours to them. His other honors include being selected as a Role Model for KSCI Television’s “Our Role Models” series, as well as being a Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP) Fellow, 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’s “The Future of Asian American History” Conference.
Spectrum Knowledge consists of diverse
cultural, organizational development and leadership experts who have
backgrounds in research, education and training related to these areas. We
provide solutions to clients that enhance and grow organizations,
particularly through the investment in human capital. These data-driven
solutions include: team-building, skill development, strategic planning,
conflict resolution, motivation, leadership and communication flow. The
organization provides both customized and ready-to-go services.
Bobbie Salgado is the National Director of Public and Community Affairs of New Century Financial Corporation, the parent corporation to New Century Mortgage Corporation and HOME 123. She is responsible for the creation, and on-going development, of profitable community development partnerships that focus on expanding access to mortgage credit, financial education and housing counseling. She oversees and manages New Century Financial Corporation’s National Community Advisory Council. Before joining New Century, Ms. Salgado served as the National Director of Community Reinvestment at State Farm Bank. Prior to that time, she held the position of Vice President – Community Development at Chase Bank and also has served as a Senior Community and Public Affairs Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, specializing in fair lending and community reinvestment. Ms.
Salgado received her bachelor’s degree from the University of
Texas.
Mr. Scandiffio is the CEO of AllWorld Language Consultants, Inc. (ALC), a consulting firm which operates worldwide from its headquarters in Rockville. The firm furnishes a vast array of technical and linguistic services such as translation, interpretation, desktop publishing, graphic design, video production, security and counterintelligence. As the sole owner and operator of the company, he has always been intricately involved in the administration, development, and marketing of ALC, taking the company from a three-person operation in 1994 to its current status as a multi-million dollar corporation, with representation in five countries, three hundred and eighty-five full-time employees, and more than 850 subcontractors and consultants working around the clock in support of the U.S. Government and private enterprises. Mr. Scandiffio is also an Executive Director of two non-profit organizations, the International Small Business Alliance (ISBA) and the Media Technology Center (MTC). The ISBA is a trade association that promotes international business issues, building stronger networks for U.S small businesses and the international community through collaboration with the private sector, public and private institutions and other organizations concerned with international trade. The MTC is a nonprofit training and resource center whose mission is to build upon excellence, advancement and diversity in all aspects of the media (video, news broadcasting, and film production) by offering a wide variety of services and support to members and affiliates, as well as to the general public. Mr. Scandiffio is the Immediate Past President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County, an active member of the Board of Directors of Leadership Montgomery; a member of the Montgomery County Business and Educational Roundtable Board; a member of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and active member of the Silver Spring Economic Development Committee. In addition to the above, Mr. Scandiffio is a member of a number of professional associations, such as the National Military Intelligence Association; the National Defense Intelligence Association; the American Society for Industrial Security; the Montgomery County Cable Communications Advisory Council; the Greater Washington Board of Trade; and the American Translators Association. In 2000, Mr. Scandiffio was selected by the Small Business Administration as the Small Business Person of the Year for the entire Washington metropolitan area, and he has been recognized as such by Montgomery County, where his business operates. In 2001, Mr. Scandiffio was again selected as one of the Fifty Most Influential Minorities in Business in the country. In 2003, Mr. Scandiffio was honored by Montgomery County Public Schools as a “Champion for Children” for his long-standing support and dedication to public schools. Mr. Scandiffio is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics (Translation and Interpretation), with more than two decades of experience in the field of languages and linguistics. He is currently pursuing a second degree, and has already completed numerous Certification degrees from the Defense Security Service Academy (Facility Security and Automated Security); the Laboratory for Scientific Investigation; the John Reid School of Investigation and Security. Mr.
Scandiffio is married to Ms. Veronique A. Lemerle and has four
children (ages 24, 22, 13, and 11).
Julie Sun is a Manager of Strategic Initiatives in Freddie Mac’s Corporate Relations and Housing Outreach Division. In this position, Julie’s area of responsibility includes building strategic relationships and implement outreach initiatives with key community and minority organizations, particularly groups representing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and various immigrant populations. Prior to joining Freddie Mac, she was formerly a Senior Manager of the Targeted Outreach Programs at the Fannie Mae Foundation leading several national outreach initiatives focused on immigrants and Native Americans. Among her many duties and accomplishments at the Fannie Mae Foundation, Ms. Sun provided strategic guidance to many local immigrant and refugee communities on how best to build multilingual and multicultural homeownership outreach and education programs. Julie
received a Masters in Public Administration from American
University (Washington, DC) and a Bachelor of Arts from Emory
University (Atlanta, GA).
De Tran is publisher and editor of Viet Mercury, the Vietnamese-language weekly published by the San Jose Mercury News and the first Vietnamese newspaper published by a U.S. media company. Before joining Viet Mercury, he covered race and diversity issues for the Mercury News. He also worked as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and as a stringer for Newsweek magazine. He edited an anthology called “Once Upon A Dream: The Vietnamese-American Experience” in 1995 (Andrews & McMeel). De was born in Vietnam and came to the United States as a refugee in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. His first job in America was hawking the San Francisco Examiner at a street corner. De studied journalism at San Francisco State University. He lives in San Jose with his wife, Alice. About Viet
Mercury
Matt Wilson is a manager
of business development at GetActive and leads the software company's outreach
to the industry's leading creative and strategic consulting firms. Prior to
GetActive, Matt dabbled in Democratic politics, executing national advance for
former minority leader Dick Gephardt and later for John Kerry's presidential
campaign. Most recently, Matt directed Donnie Fowler's online communications
during his run for Democratic National Committee chairman. Matt earned his B.A.
in Classics from the University of Virginia.
Bobbie Salgado is the National Director of Public and Community Affairs of New Century Financial Corporation, the parent corporation to New Century Mortgage Corporation and HOME 123. She is responsible for the creation, and on-going development, of profitable community development partnerships that focus on expanding access to mortgage credit, financial education and housing counseling. She oversees and manages New Century Financial Corporation’s National Community Advisory Council. Before joining New Century, Ms. Salgado served as the National Director of Community Reinvestment at State Farm Bank. Prior to that time, she held the position of Vice President – Community Development at Chase Bank and also has served as a Senior Community and Public Affairs Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, specializing in fair lending and community reinvestment. Ms.
Salgado received her bachelor’s degree from the University of
Texas. |
