STAFF + BOARD
NQAPIA Staff (L2R): Patrick, Tracy, Khudai, Tia, Sasha, and Glenn (front)
NQAPIA Staff
Glenn D. Magpantay, Executive Director
Khudai Tanveer, Membership Organizer
Conor Huynh, Administrative Assistant
Amanda Saich, 赛因儿 Development Assistant
NQAPIA Consultants
Patrick G. Lee, Grant Writer
Linda Le, Bookkeeper
Janani Balasubramanian, Social Media Consultant
NQAPIA Board of Directors
NQAPIA Board at the Northeast Regional Summit
Stan Fong, IT Consultant, Atlanta, GA – Co-Chair
Sharita Gruberg, Center for American Progress, Washington, DC – Treasurer
Shilpa Joshi, Renew Oregon, Portland OR
Navid Ladha, Trikone-ATX, Austin, TX
Moof Mayeda, New Relic Software, Portland OR
Milap Patel, Open Society Foundations, New York, NY– Secretary
Kham Moua, OCA APA Advocates, Washington, DC
Kevin Lam, Asian American Resource Wrkshop, Boston, MA
Julia Rhee, Retrofit Republic, San Francisco, CA – Co-Chair
Cathy Chu, GSA Network, Los Angeles, CA
Andrew Chou, Bank of America, New York, NY
* Affiliations for identification purposes only.
Former Board Members
Years denote when the individuals stepped off of the Board.
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2018
Vivian Fried-Chung, Palo Alto, CA
Eri Oura, Oakland, CA / Honolulu, HI – Co-Chair
Amanda Zhang, Harvard University, Madison, WI
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2017
Shivana Jorawar, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Washington, DC
Sasanka Jinadasa, Reframe Health and Justice, Washington, DC
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2016
August Guang, Providence Youth & Student Movement, Providence, RI
Almas Haider, Washington, DC
Aya Tasaki, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2014
Bex Ahuja, Management Center, Brooklyn, NY
Anj Chaudhry, CAAAV, Brooklyn, NY
Mandy Hu, San Francisco, CA
Alison Lin, Oakland, CA
Michelle Lee, Koreans United for Equality, Los Angeles, CA
Phillip Ozaki, Lambda Legal, New York, NY
Jayden Thai, University of Louisville, KY
Sasha Wijeyeratne, Desi Queer Helpline Project, Madison WI
monna wong, API Equality – Northern California, San Francisco, CA
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2013
vanessa coe, San Francisco, CA
I Li Hsaio, Invisible to Invincible (i2i), Chicago, IL
Aries Liao, Q-WAVE, New York, NY
Joy Messinger, Invisible to Invincible (i2i), Chicago, IL
Alan Ratliff, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, Oakland, CA
Ryan Shen, Q-WAVE, Flushing, NY
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2012
Rekha Bachwani, Portland, OR
Mala Nagarajan, Creative Collaborations, Rockville, MD
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2011
Lance Dwyer, API Wellness Center, San Francisco, CA
Sel Hwahng, IGLHRC, Brooklyn, NY
Karl Kimpo, Chicago, IL
Asha Leong, Co-Chair, Washington, DC
Rakesh Modi, Trikone, San Francisco, CA
Tawal Panyacosit, API Equality, San Francisco, CA
liz thomson, Invisible to Invincible (i2i), University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
NOTE: NQAPIA Incorporates in 2010
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2010
Trisha Barua, Chaya, Seattle, WA
Sarav Chithambaram, Queer Asian Pacific Alliance, Boston, MA
Jun-Fung Chueh, Community Health Awareness Council, Mountain View, CA
Alain Dang, API Equality, San Jose, CA
Loren Javier, Lambda Legal, Los Angeles, CA
Gopi Kannabiran, Indiana University, LGBT Student Services, Bloomington, ID
Kit Yan, Good Asian Drivers, QAPA, New York, NY
Tom Yang, Pacific Northwest Queer API Alliance, Seattle, WA
Former Board Members whose terms ended in 2009
Eileen Cheong, Audre Lorde Project, Brooklyn, NY
Ray Hsia, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, New York, NY
Sam Van, Philadelphia Queer Asians, Philadelphia, PA
Urooj Arshad, Advocates for Youth, Washington, DC
NOTE: NQAPIA Transitions from an Unincorporated Association with a Steering Committee to a Tax-Exempt 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation with a Board of Directors in 2009
Former Steering Committee Members who stepped off in 2008
Pabitra Benjamin, Rights Working Group, Washington, DC
George Cheung, Cheung & Lopez, Seattle, WA
Doreen Wong, Asian Pacific Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women and Transgender Network (APLBTN), Los Angeles, CA
Alex Fukui, Gay Asian Pacific Support Network (GAPSN), Los Angeles, CA
Mary Quant, QWAVE, New York, NY
Hrishi Sathawane, Trikone- South Bay San Jose, CA
Former National Organization Working Group 2007
Alain Dang
George CHeujng
Pabitra Benjamin
Glenn Magpantay
Mala Nagarajan
Rebecca Sawyer
George Robert
Hrishi Sathawane
Ben de Guzman
Suresh Dianand
Alain Dang
Karl Kimpo
Koko Lin
Pauline Park
Jamie
NOTE: NQAPIA Transitions from an Unincorporated Association with a Steering Committee to a Tax-Exempt 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation with a Board of Directors in 2009
Former National Convening Planning Committee 2006
Jun-Fung Chueh, LGBT Resource Center, UC-Davis
Rebecca Sawyer, Asian Pacific Islander Queer Sisters, Washington, DC
Pauline Guillermo-Togawa, Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Coalition, San Francisco, CA
Hrishi Sathawane, Trikone, San Jose, CA
Pabitra Benjamin, Action Wisconsin
Nikhil Aziz, Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association, Boston, MA
Robert Bernardo, Gay Asian Pacific Alliance, San Francisco, CA
Ben de Guzman, Asian/ Pacific Islander Queers United for Action, Washington, DC
Karl Kimpo, Invisible to Invincible, Chicago, IL
George Cheung, Cheung & Lopez, Seattle, WA
Diana Ming Yin, Exoticize My Fist!, Oakland, CA
Glenn D. Magpantay, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York
NOTE: Roundtable of LGBT API Organizational Leaders agree to found a national organization that become NQAPIA in 2005
Former National Convening Planning Committee 2005
Jun-Fung Chueh, LGBT Resource Center, UC-Davis
Rebecca Sawyer, Asian Pacific Islander Queer Sisters (APIQS) – Washington, DC
Manish Vadiya, Trikone
Stephan Sastrawidjaja, International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)
Khushbu Srivastava, Princeton, NJ
Pabitra Benjamin, Action Wisconsin, WI
Nikhil Aziz, Political Research Associates and Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association
Willy Wilkinson, Transgender Law Center and Asian Pacific Islander Queer Women and Transgender Coalition (APIQWTC) – Oakland, CA
Ben De Guzman, Asian/ Pacific Islander Queers United for Action and National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium – Washington, DC
George Cheung, Cheung & Lopez, Seattle, WA
Diana Min Yin, Exoticitize My Fist
Glenn D. Magpantay, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York
Former QAPL Planning Committee 2004
Jerome Zorrilla
Luna Yasui
John Won
Weiben Wang
Sel Wahng
Irene Villaseñor
Irene Tung
Patty Tumang
Raj Shekar
Pauline T. Nguyen
Frank Mok
Glenn D. Magpantay
Yan Li
Kevin Lee
Doug Lee
Clay Ming Kwong Dollarhide
Alan Khoo
Stephanie Hsu
Ariel Herrera
Kris Hayashi
Monroe France
Mathilda deDios
Trishala Deb
Debanuj Dasgupta
Alain Dang
Conrad Chu
Jih-Fei Cheng
Chris Chen
Nick Chan
Christine Bacareza Balance
Former NQAPIA Staff 2018
Sasha W., Organizing Director – 2018
Tia Adams, Program Assistant – 2018
Tracy Nguyen, Conference Coordinator – 2018
Pabitra Benjamin, Organizing Director – 2014
Ryan Viloria, Conference Coordinator – 2015
Mia Nakano, Website/Tech Consultant – 2015
Ben de Guzman, Co-Director of Programs – 2013
Fayzan Gowani, Immigration Coordinator – 2013
Mala Nagarajan, Co-Director – 2012
NQAPIA FULL-TIME STAFF
Glenn D. Magpantay, Esq. is Executive Director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA). He has worked in the movement for LGBTQ rights and equality for over twenty-five years. Before, Glenn had a long and distinguished career as a civil rights attorney as the Democracy Program Director at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), where he worked to protect and promote the voting rights and political participation of Asian Americans. He continues to inspire new legal minds and future advocates by teaching Race & the Law at Brooklyn Law School and Asian American Civil Rights at Hunter College/CUNY.
Glenn is a former co-chair of the Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York and organized the first-ever LGBTQ testimony before the White House Initiative on Asian Americans & Pacific Islander in 2000. He was named as one of INSTINCT MAGAZINE’S “25 Leading Men of 2004”. In 1994, he spoke at the National March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Glenn attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook on Long Island, and as a beneficiary of affirmative action, graduated cum laude from the New England School of Law, in Boston.
Khudai Tanveer is the Membership Organizer at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA). Their relationship with NQAPIA started as a mesmerized Creating Change API Institute attendant in 2015 and 2016, continued as an internship during the summer of 2017, leading to the position of organizing fellow currently. Currently attending Virginia Commonwealth University as an undergrad studying Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies as well as Political Science w/ a minor in Global Education, they hope to continue building collective power through Non-Profit work after graduation. On campus, Khudai can be found having revived a local chapter of the Queer and/or Trans People of Color Collective and serving as a Diversity Ambassador on campus for the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Additionally, they are also a part of the inaugural Steering Committee of The Tunnel of Oppression, an interactive auditory and visual tunnel that aims to teach its attendants about oppression on campus in everyday life by walking them through simulations of those experiences. They shape their work on campus to try to help make the lives of marginalized students at their university better.
Previously having attended the Summer Activist Training, NQAPIA’s Direct Action Training, East Coast Solidarity Summer, and having helped facilitate People over Pride Youth Camp (POP!) with NQAPIA, they feel strongly about youth work, learning from those who came before us, and building a healthy/sustainable community for years to come with those that command the future with the lessons of those who came before us. Their personal passions revolve around building accountability and restorative justice for our community and feel excited about doing that with NQAPIA. Their genuine hope is to grow and build with/for the API queer community.
Conor Huynh is the Administrative Assistant at the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA). He has degrees in Psychology and Asian American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, he was the Director of Programming with UMD’s Pride Alliance, a coalition of campus LGBTQ+ organizations, where he helped plan queer social events and workshops. His work as an Asian American Studies research assistant also looked at voting trends and differences in relative advantage within the AAPI community. Conor enjoys exploring the intersections of being queer and Asian American. His interests include data disaggregation, giving voice to QTPOC, and Bao (2018).
NQAPIA CONSULTANTS
Patrick G. Lee is NQAPIA’s Grant Writer. He got involved with NQAPIA after attending one of their Family Acceptance Workshops in 2016, where, for the first time, he met Asian immigrant parents who openly love their LGBTQ children. He also works as a documentary filmmaker, with current projects on queer Asian history, LGBTQ self-representation, and Asian American coming out narratives. Trained as a journalist, Patrick believes in the power of storytelling to foster community resilience and move people to action.
As a queer Korean American, Patrick serves on the core committee for GAPIMNY, which creates safe spaces for queer and trans API people, and for KQTcon, the inaugural LGBTQ Korean conference happening in April 2018 (www.kqtcon.org). He also helps produce a monthly pan-Asian drag show in Brooklyn, New York.
Amanda Saich is thrilled about working to develop resources and funds to facilitate movement building. She is a multiracial queer immigrant with family from China and England and grew up mostly in cute, cushy, suburban New England. She earned her BA from Vassar College in Chinese Culture and Linguistic Studies and the interdisciplinary program of Science, Technology, and Society. During her time there, she developed her first queer community through her involvement in identity based orgs and the rugby team and has since sought out to build these spaces around her.
Amanda has experience developing grassroots fundraising programs for dozens of nonprofits during her time at ActBlue as Nonprofit Outreach Associate and working with local groups in the Hudson Valley during her college years. She is passionate about how digital tools can provide instruments to reconstruct power and elevate marginalized narratives. In her free time, you can find her working on local environmental justice initiatives within API and immigrant communities, jamming out to live music, sketching/drawing, or bingeing the latest Netflix series.
