Dr. Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani is a faculty member in the Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies Program of the UC Berkeley department of ethnic studies. A recipient of the Chancellor’s Public Service Award for Community Engaged Teaching and the Spirit of 1868 Award by the UC Berkeley Foundation, Dr. Tsuchitani centers her research, teaching, and advocacy efforts around critical pedagogy and educational equity issues.

Thomas M. Philip is a professor at the Berkeley School of Education, where he also serves as the faculty director of the Berkeley Teacher Education Program. He studies how ideology shapes learning and how learning is a site of ideological contestation and becoming.

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez is a professor of ethnic studies and Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of research include studies of tourism and militarism, transnational cultural studies, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies with a focus on Asia and the Pacific.

Colleen Lye is the chair of the Asian American Research Center (AARC) and a professor in the department of English where she teaches courses in Asian American literature and critical theory.  She is the author of America’s Asia, an award-winning book about the influence that American works of fiction had on Asian exclusionist policy in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Gavriel Curameng is a fourth year double major in media studies and Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at UC Berkeley, where he serves as the Executive Director, Staff Development of the Pilipinx Academic Student Services (PASS). He has created and led multiple programs to support prospective first-generation college students in their exploration of higher education, with a specific focus towards Filipino and Filipino American students.

Kieren is a third-year Ph.D. student in environmental science, policy, and management and is a co-founder of the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Collective. Their research focuses on the intersections of climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and military colonialism primarily in U.S. territories.

Nate Tilton is a third-year Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology at UC Berkeley, the associate director of the UC Berkeley Disability Lab, and a co-founder of the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Collective. His research focuses on the ways in which institutions disable people, with a particular emphasis on military ecologies, colonialism, veteran health, disability justice, and the effects of colonialism as an invasive species, with fieldwork on Guam and the Philippines.

Em Huang (they/them) is the director of LGBTQ+ advancement & equity at UC Berkeley’s Gender Equity Resource Center, and past chair for the Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance (APASA). They work to advance queer and trans communities in higher education through an intersectional lens, with their experiences as a queer, trans, and nonbinary East & Southeast Asian American informing their passion for social justice education and advocacy.

An alum of the department of ethnic studies, Nkauj Iab Yang served as the first-ever executive director for the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. She has dedicated over twenty years to increasing access and resources for the very diverse Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in California via numerous youth and community organizing efforts.