Our People

Lily Wang is the Deputy Director at Asian American Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus. Previously, she was the Deputy Campaigns Director at United for Respect, where she led a national Wall Street accountability campaign that resulted in a $20 million hardship fund for laid off former Toys ‘R’ Us workers and catalyzed the introduction of groundbreaking federal legislation to regulate private equity’s predatory practices.

Lily is an experienced campaigner, strategist and organizer with 20 years of experience in community and labor organizations, and spent more than a decade developing policy, corporate accountability and organizing campaigns grounded in transformative organizing principles, scaled engagement and grassroots leadership of immigrants, communities of color and low-wage workers. She began her movement journey in Oakland’s Chinatown, where she organized with low-wage women workers and youth.

Gabriela Villareal is the Policy Director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus (ALC). She is responsible for the oversight and direction of ALC's policy priorities on local, state, and federal issues impacting low-income Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Gabriela has guided successful campaigns to enact state legislation in California, New York, Texas, and Washington. As an immigrant rights advocate, she spent nearly a decade working on legislative and administrative reforms at the federal and local levels. She was raised in California, after immigrating with her family from the Philippines.

Glenn Katon is an experienced civil rights lawyer who has tried over 15 cases and argued several appeals. His practice has focused on police misconduct, religious freedom, free speech, and national security. Before joining Asian Law Caucus, he had a civil rights law firm, was Legal Director at Muslim Advocates, and was a Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Florida. He began his career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means in the Northern District of Texas, served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and practiced commercial litigation as an associate and shareholder at two law firms.

Gitika Nalwa is a Summer Law Clerk. Before joining ALC, she worked with the Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE) and with the “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition in San Francisco.

She is a rising second-year at Harvard Law School and holds a BA in English and Economics from UC Berkeley.

Megan Vees is a Litigation Staff Attorney. Her work focuses on advocating for the rights of immigrant communities and communities of color subjected to injustices in the criminal legal system. Prior to joining Advancing Justice-ALC, Megan worked as a staff attorney on Public Counsel’s Consumer Rights & Economic Justice Project, where she had a special focus on bail and other forms of criminal debt. Megan began her legal career clerking for U.S. District Court Judge Jesus Bernal in the Central District of California, followed by a fellowship at The Bail Project. While in law school, she participated in the Criminal Justice Policy Program’s bail reform project and the International Human Rights Clinic. Prior to law school, Megan worked at the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, where she informed detained children of their rights in deportation proceedings. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru and worked for a refugee rights organization in Cameroon. Megan holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

Sallie Lin is the Community Advocacy Manager at Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus. Previously, she was a Senior Community Advocate for the Housing Rights Program at ALC and worked at other affiliates, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California and Asian Americans Justice Center in Washington, D.C. She is committed to supporting marginalized, underrepresented communities and seeks to learn from the experiences and wisdom of those she serves. Sallie holds a Master of Laws degree in International Relations from Peking University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Carl Takei is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Criminal Justice Reform Program Manager at the Asian Law Caucus. Previously, he was a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he co-led the national organization’s shift toward divesting from police and reinvesting in communities, and fought abuses at the intersections of criminal legal and immigration enforcement systems. He led the ACLU’s successful advocacy work to terminate the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Criminal Alien Requirement” contracts with private prisons, culminating in that agency’s 2016 decision to phase out all of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ private prison contracts.

Carl is also a longtime co-chair of Tsuru for Solidarity, working with other Japanese American advocates and allies to end detention sites and support directly impacted communities. Carl is a graduate of Boston College Law School, and began his legal career as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

Devon Matsumoto (he/him) is the Senior Program Coordinator in the Criminal Justice Reform Program at Asian Law Caucus. Previously he worked at Fresh Lifelines for Youth as the Leadership and Middle School Program Coordinator working to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. Devon draws from his own family's history of displacement, incarceration, and advocacy to guide his work.

Devon has also been an organizer in San Jose Nikkei Resisters, which works to educate, mobilize, and unite the San Jose Japanese American community around social justice issues. Devon is a graduate of Seattle University’s School of Social Work.

Eileen Kim is the Staff Attorney for the Criminal Justice Reform Program at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. She previously worked as an attorney adviser with the Social Security Administration Office of Hearing Operations in San Bernardino, California.

Eileen is an experienced advocate across Black, Brown, and AAPI spaces. She has spent the last decade studying prison-industrial complex abolition and the Black liberation movement and has since offered her personal time, voice, and skill set to advocating for an abolitionist world where community-driven public safety would make the carceral state obsolete. Namely, she has taught a college-level seminary course at a men’s state prison in California’s Inland Empire and spoken on panels and podcasts about mass incarceration, abolishing the police in the social psyche, internalized racial oppression, white supremacy in the church, and America’s xenophobic racism toward the AAPI community – in tandem with the AAPI community’s complicity in anti-Black racism. She has also marched at multiple protests, performed spoken word at a BLM rally at Los Angeles City Hall, and written two books for charity – The Language of Abolition and a children’s book, Grandfather and Simon the Bear, aimed at helping Asian American youth navigate racism. She has also worked with outreach programs and non-profits overseas in Mexico, Kyrgyzstan, England, and Benin.

Eileen is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and has interned with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Boston Juvenile Court, and Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services.

Tatiana is a Community Advocate in the Criminal Justice Reform Program. Prior to ALC, Tatiana worked as a client advocate at a non-profit law firm solely representing and advocating for the needs of survivors of human trafficking.

Tatiana is a fluent Spanish speaker, she was born and raised in the Bay Area. She earned a BA in Sociology and a BA in Latin American and Latinx Studies from UC Santa Cruz.

Tatiana is a Legal Assistant with the Housing Rights Program where she supports legal & administrative work. Prior to ALC, she worked for a law office in Oakland Chinatown, supporting a small legal team and providing Cantonese interpretation to the community.

Since the age of 11, she was involved and supported by local nonprofits, such as Girls Inc and the Achieve Program. Tatiana roots her work in giving back to the people as a way of saying thank you to the community that raised her.

Aseem Mehta is a Meselson-Liman Public Interest Fellow in the Immigrant Rights Program. His work focuses on supporting incarcerated immigrants and seeking repair for individuals harmed by the state’s violence. Aseem previously advocated alongside immigrant communities against detention and deportation in New York and South Texas as an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow. Before joining Advancing Justice – ALC, Aseem clerked for the Hon. Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Hon. Edward M. Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Aseem received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. He was awarded the P.D. Soros Fellowship, Reinhardt Fellowship, and Stephen J. Massey Prize in recognition of his excellence in and commitment to lawyering in the public interest.

Avelina is Community Advocate with the Immigrants Rights Program. In her role, she works alongside attorneys to challenge the deportation and detention of immigrants and refugees. Avelina is committed to supporting families like her own in their journeys to heal from the trauma inflicted by separation.

Previously, Avelina served as Program Manager at Bonafide and developed re-entry services for people returning home from life sentences. She was a Resource Manager and Legal Assistant at UnCommon Law, and has also facilitated restorative justice centered groups inside of men and women's prisons throughout California. In 2019, Avelina received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and during her time there was Program Director of UC Berkeley’s Teach in Prison program, an intern at Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, and a member of Berkeley Underground Scholars. In 2021, she was selected as a Young Professional of Color Fellow with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.

In addition to her work at ALC, Avelina serves the community in various capacities. She is currently a member of the Inmate Family Council where she advocates for impacted families' visitation rights and works alongside California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation (CDCr) administration to make prison visitation accessible. Avelina's work is intentionally dedicated to making healing accessible for communities who have historically been underserved and disenfranchised.

Cyrina is a paralegal with the Immigrant Rights program. She collaborates with attorneys to provide legal representation to immigrants facing detention and deportation.

Before joining Advancing Justice-ALC, Cyrina worked as an immigration paralegal at a community law firm in Tucson, AZ supporting working class and poor families facing separation. Cyrina has been involved in grassroots organizing with undocumented communities along the US/Mexico border for over ten years, as a volunteer EMT and humanitarian aid worker with No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, as a bilingual hotline administrator with the Tucson Community Rapid Response Network, and as a member of Trans Queer Pueblo where she was an organizer and advocate with LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers facing detention and deportation.

Jenny Zhao is a senior staff attorney in the Immigrant Rights Program. She litigates cases challenging the detention and deportation of Southeast Asian refugees and other communities targeted for policing and immigration enforcement. Before joining Advancing Justice – ALC, Jenny was a Liman Public Interest Fellow at the ACLU of Northern California. She received her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was a member of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic.

So Young is a staff attorney in the Immigrant Rights program. She provides direct legal services to immigrants who are detained and facing deportation. So Young first joined Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus in 2013 to organize undocumented API youth and rejoined in 2019 as a Bridge Fellow. In law school, she interned with the Immigration Defense Unit of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and at a private public interest firm in its deportation defense practice. So Young received her law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.

Adil Raniwala is a Community Rights Advocate in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. His work involves networking with Masjids and Muslim community centers to provide legal resources and educate Muslim communities about their rights, especially pertaining to police surveillance and other discriminatory practices.

Adil has worked closely with Muslim youth, involving himself in advocacy and religious settings in the Muslim Students Association West nonprofit, where he managed a professional development and mentorship program for Muslim college students. There, he also organized political advocacy trainings and conducted research on Countering Violent Extremism and police abolition programs. Adil also manages a public service program funded by the Strauss Scholarship Foundation dedicated to ending food insecurity in the Berkeley Muslim community. Adil graduated from UC Berkeley in August 2022 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Political Economy.

Caroline Marks works in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. Caroline’s work focuses on, among other things, state legislative and administrative advocacy challenging surveillance and counterterrorism programs and narratives that harm Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities and other communities of color.

Before coming to ALC, Caroline worked on litigation and advocacy with the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law, to hold the United States responsible for its extraordinary rendition program—whereby the U.S. kidnapped and transferred individuals to black sites and proxy governments for their subsequent torture and secret detention. Specifically, Caroline participated significantly in litigation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case Mohamed et al. v. United States.

Caroline graduated from NYU School of Law and holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University. During her time at Brown, Caroline spent a semester Amman, Jordan learning the Levantine dialect and expanding her knowledge of modern standard Arabic.

*Pending admission to the California Bar

Hammad Alam is a Staff Attorney and Program Manager in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. Hammad’s work focuses on, among other things, the federal Countering Violent Extremism program and state of California’s directly linked Preventing Violent Extremism and other similar surveillance and criminalization programs targeting Muslim and other immigrant and communities of color.

Hammad has helped lead coalitions against both of these programs, helping devise strategy engaging policy advocacy, community organizing, and the law to place pressure on government actors to defund and dismantle these harmful programs. Most recently, as part of the NoPVEinCA Coalition, Hammad led a statewide campaign to defund PVE in California, successfully blocking the harmful program from receiving state funding to staff and operate it.

In addition to anti-surveillance and anti-policing work, Hammad also drives NSCR’s work against the Muslim Ban, through both litigation and ALC’s participation as a core member of the No Muslim Ban Ever campaign. Hammad comes to ALC with prior federal litigation experience and served as a law clerk in the Eastern District of California. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law and holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

Sanjana is a Community Advocate in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. Prior to ALC, Sanjana worked as a community organizer in the Seattle area with college students, immigrant rights and racial justice organizations, and community members focusing on anti-imperialist, surveillance, and racial justice work through community teach-ins, coalition building, and advocacy.

Sanjana graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle, with a B.A in International Studies and Law, Societies, & Justice with a specialization in South Asia. As an undergraduate, she took an interest in studying criminal justice, researching post-colonial legal systems, migration patterns, and the politics of spiritual-artistic traditions in South Asia. In her free time she enjoys writing, photography, practicing Hindustani classical music, and reading film reviews on Letterboxd.

Deanna Kitamura is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Voting Rights Program. Her work focuses on protecting the vote and expanding access to the polls for AAPI voters. Before joining AdvancingJustice-ALC, Deanna was a Senior Staff Attorney at Partnership for Working Families where she provided legal support to grassroot organizations. For nearly a decade before that, Deanna worked at Advancing Justice-Los Angeles – first as the Statewide Redistricting Manager and later as Senior Staff Attorney and Voting Rights Project Director. She has filed lawsuits resulting in cities converting from at-large to district elections and has co-authored various reports, including Voices of Democracy: The State of Language Access in California’s November 2016 Elections. Deanna has worked on legislation involving California’s automatic voter registration process, the administration of vote centers, and language access improvements for voters. She has served on several local and state election-related committees and is a member of the California Secretary of State’s Language Accessibility Advisory Committee.

Deanna has dedicated her legal career to working on social justice issues. In addition to the nonprofits listed above, she has worked at Western Center on Law & Poverty, the National Consumer Law Center, and California Rural Legal Assistance. She began her career working on employment discrimination cases at a civil rights litigation firm. Deanna graduated from Pomona College and UCLA School of Law.

Eileen has worked for over twenty years as a community organizer, campaign director and non-profit executive, serving primarily low-income, immigrant and LGBTQ communities of color. Her professional experience includes working for many labor unions and community-based organizations, such as API Equality-LA where she served for several years as Executive Director and contributed to highly-lauded efforts to achieve equality and visibility for API LGBTQ communities. Most recently, she worked as staff attorney for Advancement Project – National Office on voting rights and immigrant rights, and Advancing Justice LA’s National Voting Rights Project. She is originally from Somers, New York, is Chinese American and speaks Mandarin and Spanish. She earned a JD from Loyola Law School (2013) and a BA from Columbia University (1993).

Elisa Chen is the Data Analyst on the National Voting Rights team at Advancing Justice – ALC. Her work focuses on building the technical infrastructure for community based organizations nationwide, and providing data analysis support for civic engagement, voting rights advocacy, and litigation. Elisa previously worked at Coase-Sander Institute for Law and Economics, University of Chicago Crime and Education Lab, and Advancing Justice-LA, using social science research methods and computational tools to support criminal justice reforms and voting rights issues. She is particularly interested in creating disaggregated data to better serve our community, critically examining the production and distribution of data, and making open data accessible to everyone.

Elisa received her M.P.P from University of Chicago, and B.A in Mathematics and History from University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her free time, she can be found doing yoga and reading comic books with her two imaginary cats at her small apartment in Hyde Park, trying to be elegant at the ice rinks, and learning languages in the public library!

Elisa is a first-generation immigrant, and she' more than proud to help her fellow immigrants of color to navigate the complex social and political landscape in America.

Kim is the Voting Rights Legal Fellow at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Affiliation and Advancing Justice – Chicago. Prior to this role, Kim was the Managing Attorney at the Chinese American Service League, where she coordinated and provided legal services to residents of Chicago’s Chinatown and surrounding areas.

Kim draws from her breadth of experience in the private and public sector. Previously, Kim served as Assistant Attorney General at the Illinois Attorney General’s office, where she served as lead counsel in federal civil rights lawsuits.

Kim earned her J.D. at the University of Wisconsin, where she participated in the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society.

Noah Kim is a research assistant on the Voting Rights team at Advancing Justice–ALC. Noah is a recent graduate of Pomona College where he double-majored in Politics and English. Prior to the ALC, he worked for the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, processing public input data and delineating map submissions on the data management team. As an aspiring attorney, Noah hopes to give back to the AAPI and underserved communities both in and after law school. In his free time, he can be found writing music, volunteering at church, or landscaping his new aquatic snail tank.

Sietse Goffard is the Senior Program Coordinator on the Voting Rights team at Advancing Justice – ALC. His work focuses on fair redistricting and voter empowerment. Sietse previously worked on affordable housing and Section 8 rental assistance programs for the City of Boston. He also spent several years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) leading projects to tackle racial discrimination in housing and lending. His research and articles have been published by the Brookings Institution, Cato Institute, US-China Perception Monitor, and National Bureau of Economic Research. In addition, Sietse is an avid public transportation enthusiast and served on the advisory council of Washington D.C.’s transit system to advocate for more equitable metro and bus coverage.

Sietse completed his graduate studies at Harvard Kennedy School and at Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, where he served as class president and co-led a citizenship mentoring program for elderly Asian immigrants.

Prior to joining ALC’s Workers’ Rights team, Ammad worked as a civil rights advocate serving members of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities on a broad range of issues, including employment discrimination/unemployment insurance benefits, religious accommodation issues, law enforcement harassment and anti-Muslim bullying in schools. Through previous roles, Ammad also has experience from his time in New York (and Canada) on immigration matters, including refugee, asylum, and DACA issues. A native of Kashmir, Ammad works with Americans for Kashmir to engage political stakeholders in finding a permanent internationally mediated solution to the Indian-occupation of Kashmir. In his spare time, Ammad plays in cricket/soccer leagues and often finds that most of his planned hikes are far beyond his lung capacity.

Mei Mei is a Community Advocate with the Workers’ Rights Program where she supports the legal counseling clinic and works on “Know Your Rights” trainings and materials.

She grew up in Bakersfield as the child of low-wage workers--an assistant cook and a hotel housekeeper. Her experience living in a working class, first generation immigrant household is one of Mei Mei's reasons for her commitment to social justice. In her free time, she maintains her morning pages streak and studies peoples' movements against U.S. imperialism.

Palyn’s legal career spans two legal services programs, the National Employment Law Project, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has advocated for disabled clients in administrative hearings and abused clients in protective order, custody, and divorce proceedings. At NELP, she was co-counsel on a class action that recovered back wages and overtime for grocery store and pharmacy delivery workers. Following the 2004 Republican National Convention, as a staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, Palyn represented peaceful protestors caught up in mass arrests, ultimately leading to a large group settlement. Most recently, she was a volunteer at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, helping achieve a trial victory in a national origin discrimination case challenging a hiring question on prior use of other Social Security Numbers. After graduating from Harvard College and Columbia Law School, she clerked for a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn.

Andie is the Development Manager at Advancing Justice-ALC. Previously, Andie fundraised for Oakland public school students with the Oakland Public Education Fund and did development work for KAN-WIN, a Chicagoland-based organization offering services targeted to API survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She has a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University where she also minored in Asian American Studies. She spent eight years competing in speech and debate for which she researched issues including Asian American gender politics and the history of reproductive rights in the US.

Andie is 2nd generation Chinese-American and can speak conversational Mandarin. She spends her free time roller skating, doting on her cat, Choo Choo, and thrifting.

Since 1994, Audee Kochiyama-Holman has worked at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus as the Director of Alumni Relations focusing on individual giving, event planning (in-person and virtual), direct mail and other fundraising activities.

She has been a Board member of EastSide Arts Alliance in Oakland since 2000, which is a community-based arts organization dedicated to advocating for progressive, systemic social change. Currently, Audee is also the Co-Director of the Yuri Kochiyama Archives Project. She has been a social justice activist since the 1960's and has worked for nonprofit organizations in New York and Bay Area throughout her career (including the New York Public Library, the Population Council, the Institute for Food and Development Policy. and the National Center for the Early Childhood Workforce). In 2004 -- she co-edited "Passing It On", a memoir written by her mother Yuri Kochiyama, which was published by UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press). Audee received her Master's Degree in Social Research from Hunter College in New York.

Irma Aronce is the Grants and Administrative Manager at Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus. She works on Government and City and County of San Francisco Grants. Prior to joining ALC in 2009, Irma was the Job Cost Accountant at Fisher Development, a general contractor/construction company for 8 years.

Paul Ocampo started at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus as the Development Coordinator and is currently the Development Director. He remains committed to the work of social justice. In 2006, he assisted Maxine Hong Kingston in editing an anthology of writings by veterans titled Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. While attending graduate school in Arizona, he co-wrote a petition responding to SB 1070 and other anti-immigrant legislation and demanding universities in Arizona maintain the classroom as safe spaces for all students. He also codirected a reading titled Out of Silence that featured Afghan women’s poems and essays found on the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. He comes to Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus with a broad experience in education and the non-profit sector.

Paul was born in the Philippines and came to the U.S. at the age of eleven. He earned a B.A. in English at U.C. Berkeley, an M.A. in Asian American Studies at UCLA, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Sarah Lau is the Events Manager at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. Prior to this role, Sarah had the pleasure of supporting the organization as a consultant, volunteer, and, many years ago, intern.

Most recently, Sarah provided consulting services in fundraising events, recruiting and operations to San Francisco Bay Area and China-based non-profits and companies.

Previously, while based in Beijing, Sarah was Director of Strategy & Operations at a start-up consulting firm and Product Development & Operations Associate at a luxury travel company.

Sarah was raised in San Francisco and serves on the boards of Eth-Noh-Tec and Mount Holyoke Club of Northern California, and on the Phillips Academy Alumni Council Equity & Inclusion Committee.

Lauren Nguyen is the communications associate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus. Prior to joining ALC, she led digital strategy at Restoring Justice, a criminal defense organization, and focused on social media and advocacy at the ACLU of Texas. Lauren has also served as an PIVOT Election Fellow for Rise AAPI and volunteered as an ESL teacher in her hometown of Houston. She loves cheering for the Astros and her dog Eddie.

Nashwah has been part of mobilizing grassroots movements on issues including racial justice and civil rights. She was most recently on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, conducting digital organizing and fundraising on their digital team. Previously, she was also a Communications Associate at Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) in Washington, DC, where she led social media initiatives to promote programs and events to get more AAPIs into elected office. She was also at Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as their Communications Coordinator, where she registered Bay Area community members to vote.

She holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, as well as a Masters of Public Diplomacy.

Niketa Kumar is the communications director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. Previously, she served as director of communications at the Water Foundation, a California-based public foundation focused on water advocacy and policy. Niketa created and led the organization’s first external and internal communications program, and served as a strategic communications partner and advisor to partners across a variety of campaigns for clean, reliable water for people and nature.

Before joining the Water Foundation, Niketa served as a vice president at BerlinRosen Public Affairs where she led comprehensive communications programs for national and local campaigns to reduce income inequality and improve the economic security of families across the country. Niketa also served as deputy press secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy during the Obama Administration, focusing on the agency’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and the administration’s initiatives to address climate change. She received a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.

Zoha Raza serves as the communications associate at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. Prior to this position, she led and managed communications work statewide for CAIR, coordinated youth leadership programs, and aided different social justice efforts around the Bay Area and beyond.

She has been published by a number of different news outlets including San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Spotlight. She also volunteered as a NextGen Councilmember for ABC7, where she shared insight from local communities to contribute to story development.

Zoha graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Communications. Outside of work, Zoha enjoys writing, playing basketball, and trying new food spots.

Cameron (she/her) is the Executive Assistant, Special Projects at Advancing Justice– Asian Law Caucus. Prior to joining the team full-time, Cameron worked as the Development Intern at ALC during the summer of 2019. In this position, she assisted with fundraising, alumni outreach, and ALC’s housing clinic. She also volunteered at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, where she helped low-income families complete their applications for subsidized housing. During her junior year, Cameron interned for the Office of Senator Tammy Duckworth (D – IL) in Washington, D.C.

Cameron graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Human Geography. As an undergrad, Cameron focused her studies on developing an intersectional understanding of structures of racial and economic inequality. As an Ambassador for Dartmouth’s Office of Pluralism and Leadership, she facilitated workshops for various student organizations to address issues of social identity, power, and oppression. She also researched Justice Alito’s judicial philosophy under the Presidential Scholars program.

Darrell is the Operations Manager at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. He comes to the caucus with two decades of operational experience, touching on various aspects of community engagement and resource building within communities of concern. Hailing from a background of writing and production at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he brings creative problem solving and systemic analysis to the toolset of change within the community. Before joining Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Darrell scaled operations for numerous bay area companies, removing boundaries and creating space for progress and impact.

Fay is the Director of Finance and Administration for Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. In 2007, Fay is a graduate of San Francisco State University majoring in Finance and International Business. While in school, Fay was a Finance Tutor for 1 year in SF State University and a part-time afternoon teacher for 5 years in a private elementary school. Prior to joining Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Fay was an Outreach Coordinator in San Francisco Elections Department for 1 year.

In 2001, Fay migrated from Canton, China to the United States. She is fluent in conversation in Cantonese and Mandarin and writing in Chinese.

Isabell graduated from Accounting and Hospitality Management from San Francisco State University, and has been working in the Hospitality industry for more than 15 years. She has worked for many different departments besides the Accounting Department in hotels to learn and understand other department operations. Isabell has two boys who love outdoor activities. Her passion is my family. Her favorite quote is 'Where there's a will, there's a way'.

Philip Van has been with ALC for 27 years. His job is to meet with and translate for clients on the front line. Before joining ALC, he worked at another non-profit law firm for eight years. He feels very grounded and happy that his work can help seniors and new immigrants in the community overcome their legal challenges. His favorite hobby is landscape photography, and every year he donates his work to auction at the ALC Fundraising Gala in order to raise donations for the communities we serve.

Sue Williams Kim is the Legal Operations Manager at Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus. Prior to joining ALC, she was the Client Advocate Program Manager at a nonprofit law firm serving the legal needs of human trafficking survivors. There she developed and implemented an interdisciplinary program designed to support survivors with trauma-informed, client-centered, and human-rights based case management services. Her prior work also includes experience providing support to sexual assault survivors, including in her capacity as a volunteer and then Director of Recruitment and Training at San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR).

Sue was raised in San Francisco and received her Masters in Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University.