Vienne Cheung - With her background in Business and Fine Arts, Vienne’s work often places her in roles that allow her to envision, create and inspire. Over the past year, Vienne led programs such as ASPIRE's signature Asian American Women In Leadership Conference, the Outstanding Woman Of the Year Award and the Youth Leadership Program. She increased funding for ASPIRE through marketing initiatives (rebranding of the organization) and fundraising events. Under her leadership, ASPIRE received a grant award from the Saffron Circle.

While devoting time at ASPIRE, Vienne also works full time at Akamai Technologies, where she is responsible for the overall product launch process of million dollar products and their life cycles. Prior to these duties, Vienne worked with marketing programs of Fortune 500 companies and acted as Creative Director for FurnitureFan, one of the world’s largest furniture directories. She is also the founder of VienneDesigns and cofounder of The Look Good Photo Studio.

Vienne is active in the Asian community and she has co-hosted various television segments and events for Asian Spectrum, a local television show in the Greater Boston area. She was also a member of the Planning Committee for the 2008 Asian American Civic Association (AACA) Annual Fundraising Gala.

Cianna Ferrer is an Accountant with Weiner and Rice, PC in Newton, MA who specializes in individual and small business tax returns. As ASPIRE’s Finance Chair and Treasurer, she is responsible for monitoring the organization’s budget and finances. Cianna earned a B.S.B.A. in International Business from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Upon graduation in December 2005, she became employed by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington, D.C. There she promoted equal access for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to governmental programs and contracting opportunities by arranging regional outreach conferences and meetings between federal agencies to coordinate efforts. She also served as a Resident Assistant for The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, where she supervised and mentored students from around the world who came to Washington to intern. Now living in Boston, Cianna is dedicated to ASPIRE’s mission of helping Asian American girls develop leadership skills that will make them competitive in the future job market.

KoKo Huang is a recent graduate of Seattle University School of Law and is an associate at Williams Kastner. As ASPIRE's first Director of Development, she spearheaded fundraising efforts that included ASPIRE's inaugural fundraiser. After graduating from Bowdoin College with a double major in Asian Studies and Government and Legal Studies in 2000, she was employed in Boston and New York as a paralegal. In her free time, she has devoted her energies to various community service efforts, including mentoring Posse Foundation scholars, co-chairing Bowdoin's Volunteer Programs, and helping disadvantaged youths gain access to college.

Josephine Kim is a Lecturer on Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education who earned a Ph.D. in counselor education from the University of Virginia. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a National Certified Counselor. Her clinical skills and experiences span many contexts including residential facilities, community agencies, and public and private schools. She provides professional consultation and expertise on multicultural, mental health, and educational issues to various internet, newspaper, magazine, and television sources in Asia and in the U.S. She has been the keynote speaker at numerous parent, counselor, teacher, and youth conferences in Asia and in the U.S, and in 2007 alone, she presented 23 educational symposiums in Korea and 35 in the U.S.

Sandra Kim is an educator with a passion for the youth, arts, education, mentorship and health/fitness. She received her various educational degrees at UCLA, Teachers College at Columbia University and Harvard Graduate School of Education. In her current position as Office Coordinator of Residential and Campus Life at Wellesley College, Sandra is working on projects to bring increased awareness and education to the community-at-large about issues of mental health and wellness within the Asian-American community. Her goal is to create a safe place where students of color can feel comfortable in discussing culturally sensitive issues. A former youth pastor and high school teacher, Sandra strongly believes in the power of mentorship as a tool in breaking the silence in mental/emotional challenges. In her spare time Sandra enjoys the theatre arts, dancing and teaching kickboxing.

Erica Lee is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at UC Berkeley, where she is researching risk and protective factors and cultural influences on socio-emotional development in Chinese American children. She was previously a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she worked with the National Institute of Mental Health-funded Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS). She received her BA in Psychology from Cornell University in 2003, where she worked at a child and adolescent partial hospital, with high-risk elementary school children, and with families affected by domestic and dating violence. In Boston, she volunteered with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Asian Task Force for Domestic Violence, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Chinese American Mental Health Outreach Project. She served as Director of ASPIRE's Youth Leadership
Program from 2005-2008.

Grace Niwa is Founder and CEO of Niwa Public Relations. An expert in industry and government affairs, fundraising, community relations, and events marketing for the Asian Market. Grace currently oversees PR activities for Anheuser-Busch, Inc, Asia Society, Asian Chefs Association, White House Asian American Pacific Islanders President's Advisory Commission among others. Most recently, Grace was a consultant for the Asia Society on their historic first collaboration with the NBA for the NBA China Games. A classically trained pianist, Grace went to New York City in 1991 to attend the Juilliard School where she received her Master’s degree and gave her debut at Carnegie Hall in 1996. In 1998, she founded Korean American for Global Action (KAFGA) with Mercy Corps International and raised over $100,000 for the children of North Korea. Grace was also honored by WNBC-TV during the Asian American Heritage Month Festival in 1998 for her philanthropic work in the arts. Grace is very active serving on boards for numerous Asian American committees.

Kathy Rho is a Program Manager at the Commonwealth Corporation (CommCorp) in Boston. She currently works on a statewide initiative focused on the delivery of quality education, employability and transition services to youth in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS). A graduate of Smith College, Kathy taught high school science in Houston, Texas, for several years before obtaining her masters in education in Risk and Prevention from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She maintains a strong interest in Asian American acculturation and mental health issues and has co-authored a chapter entitled “Clinical considerations when working with Asian American children and adolescents” in The Handbook of Mental Health and Acculturation in Asian American Families (will be published in December 2008).

Lisa Shah is an Associate Director of Annual Giving at Wellesley College. She is focused on encouraging alumnae to learn about philanthropy and the importance of giving back to the community. Prior to working at Wellesley, she worked at the Asia Society in New York as a development professional specializing in event and membership fundraising. Lisa graduated from Wellesley College in 2002 with a degree in Economics. Currently, Lisa is an active volunteer for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), Newark Academy, and Wellesley College. Lisa is also passionate about photography and continues to exhibit her work at www.lisashah.com.

Liza Talusan is an educator, speaker, activist, and writer. She is an engaging facilitator in conversations about diversity, racism, privilege and power and prides herself in creating environments that allow for all people to discuss issues of diversity openly. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Child Development from Connecticut College and her Masters of Arts in Higher Education Administration from New York University. To better understand dynamics within corporate environments, Liza has also earned her certificate in Human Resources where she focused on the dynamics of intercultural communication. Liza has diverse experience working in education and training. She has been a classroom teacher for grades 6th, 9th and 12th. She has professional experience at the college/university level in Admissions and Enrollment, Career Counseling, Gender/Women’s Issues, and Multicultural Affairs. Liza has also served as a Dean of Faculty in a summer program for students in under-resourced communities. Liza is a contributing writer to Anti-Racist Parent, writer for To Loosen The Mind and founder of Retinoblastoma New England and its blog.

Hang Tran recently graduated from Boston College in 2008. She has been actively involved with ASPIRE since its founding in 2001 and is also a graduate of Boston Latin School. In college, Ms. Tran majored in education with a focus on teaching immigrant populations.

Amy Wang is an Associate Manager on the global loyalty marketing team at the Hyatt Corporation, where she oversees the program's online media strategies, including the launch of Hyatt's new online travel community: yattit.com. Previously, Amy was a Senior Marketing Analyst at Digitas, a leading marketing strategy agency, where she worked primarily with the General Motors business for three years while serving on Digitas' Diversity Initiative Steering Committee for two. Amy received her BS from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration in 2003. While in school, Amy's internship experiences included Zoë Restaurant in Soho-NYC, Tishman Real Estate Development Corporation, and Grand Hyatt Beijing. Amy served as ASPIRE Executive Director from 2007-2008, President from 2005-2006 and Program Director from 2004-2005.

Founder and Director Emeritus

Nellie Hsu, founder of ASPIRE, recently received her MBA from Harvard Business School and now works at Clorox as an Associate Marketing Manager. Prior to that, she was a Brand Planner for Arnold Worldwide on the anti-smoking “Truth” campaign, Ocean Spray, Oral-B, and Citizens Bank. Having graduated from Duke University in 1998 with a major in Comparative Area Studies and a minor in Japanese, she spent a year in Taipei as a Government Analyst before moving on to Kaiser Associates in Washington, D.C. as an Associate Consultant. She founded ASPIRE in 2001.