Tamon Norimoto
Tamon Norimoto serves as the Resource Development Director for Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), a health and human service nonprofit organization which provides services for the residents of Santa Clara County. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Housing and Community Development Commission for the City of San Jose and is the President of the Japantown Community Congress of San Jose (JCCsj). His board service includes the San Jose chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council (CJACLC).

Amy Hui
As a huge proponent of of life-long and experiential learning, Amy hopes to help fellow South Bayers foster a sense of community through SBFT educational events. Amy is a S.F.Bay “honorary native” and Cal Berkeley Alum. She is a non-profit professional with experience in the environmental and educational fields.

Fidelia Butt
Fidelia is a South Bay Area native, who attended Saratoga schools when only around 5 percent of her Saratoga High School class was Asian. She is currently a head and neck surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. She occasionally spends time as a clinical adjunct faculty for Stanford at the Palo Alto VA.

Impressed by the increased proportion of API’s in the Bay Area, she seeks out opportunities to help build and strengthen relationships within the community. She is a co-founder of the Asian American Cancer Support Network and is involved with the Silicon Valley Christian Health Alliance, a medical clinic serving homeless in downtown San Jose. She hopes to help FT encourage dialogue and increase awareness about Asian American/Pacific Islander issues.

Linda Pham
Linda is a graduate student, obtaining Master of Public Health (MPH) at San Jose State University. She is an organizer with South Bay First Thursdays since 2006.

Mike Hoa Nguyen
Mike Hoa Nguyen graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in American Studies and Asian American Studies.  He is an aide to Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15), where he covers a large variety of policy and issue areas including the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.  Prior to working for Congressman Honda, he worked for the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI) as a Program Associate.  Mike also serves as Chair of the City of San Jose’s Library Commission.  Mike is excited to be a part of First Thursdays so that he can continue to keep AAPI young professionals involved in the community after college.

Kao Saechao
Kao C. Saechao, ASW, mental health counselor at AACI, received his MSW at San Jose State University, completed B.A. at UC Berkeley. Interests include the transcultural perspective, intergenerational conflicts within API families, and mental health disparities among API’s, Community mental health, at risk Southeast Asian youth, and cultural identity.

Julian Ming Leichty
Julian Ming Leichty works at a non-profit that studies California education policy. He found out about First Thursdays while participating in APALI’s Civic Leadership Program in 2008. In his spare time, he likes to sing: he got hooked on karaoke after spending a year teaching in Taiwan. While in Taiwan, he co-taught first through sixth grade English classes at a public elementary school in rural Yilan County. Julian studied education and public policy at Brown University.

Sheila Rivera
Sheila Rivera was born in the Philippines and raised for most of her life in the U.S. She grew up in the East Bay but, after receiving her B.A. in Sociology from UCSC in 2002, now calls the South Bay/Peninsula her home. She has a passion for working for youth and getting them engaged in their education through experiential learning. She is also a big advocate for LGBT rights/equality. As an organizer, she hopes to organize events for the API community that will peak people’s curiosity in a way that will get them more involved with their community.

David Lin
As a member of the public, David wishes to contribute back to the community with his technical skills in areas such as software technologies, photography, and podcasting to assist First Thursdays reach a greater Asian American & Pacific Islander (AA&PI) communities on the Internet. David also volunteers at BUILD, an organization that provides underserved students with educational and entrepreneurial opportunities that would otherwise not be available to them.

Diana Trinh
Diana is currently a 5th-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley studying Social Welfare. She is a South Bay native and an APALI ‘09 alum. At school, she is a member and a former officer of the Vietnamese Student Association and hopes to delve much farther into the realm of non-profit APA work during and after she graduates from school. She believes that being able to give back to the community is much more important than bringing home six figures.

Alice Saelee
Alice Saelee, Community Educator at AACI’s Domestic Violence Program & Shelter (Asian Women’s Home), received her degree in Feminist Studies and Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. Alice’s lived experience as a South Bay native motivates her work to address the inequities that continue to plague South Bay API communities.

Anthony Lin
Field Representative / Scheduler, Office of Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo.

David Le
Graduated from UC Davis major in Economics and minor in Communication. Currently, pursue to become a Certified Public Accountant.

Diana Austria
Hi everyone — I’m a recent college graduate and just finished a year of Americorps with Vision New America, through Public Allies Silicon Valley. I’m currently working on a couple community-based research projects involving public health, health care access, science/health education, etc. I was semi-involved as an organizer earlier in the year (yay PA and Danise!), and hope to get more involved this coming year.

Gloria Pham
I am a recent alumni of San Jose State University, Spring Class of 2009. I majored in Health Science, with an emphasis in Health Administrative Services. I am a lifetime member of Alpha Phi Omega, a national coed community service fraternity. In my spare time, I enjoy volunteering within the community as much as I can. I am a current intern at AACI, as well as an organizer for South Bay First Thursdays.

Huong Nguyen
Fashion & art loving social worker :0)

Jacqueline Bui
I am a recent UC Davis graduate and would like to be more involved in the API community.

Jessica Leung
Jessica is an organizer who mainly handles the administrative side of SBFT – someone’s gotta do it! She is currently an intern with AACI. Before joining AACI, she graduated from UC San Diego and was extremely involved in student organizations. Jessica is proud to be a part of SBFT and is passionate about spreading awareness about issues within the Asian American community. She is also extremely excited to begin medical school in the East Coast in August 2010.

Tuan Mai
Audio Visual Technician while at Berkeley for most of the events at Haas School of Business.Business analyst while at Liberty Mutual Sales, product manager, and customer support at NexTag.

Ken Hoang
Graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Communication, and currently in the process of pursuing a CPA license. I got involved with SBFT and APALI through a volunteering opportunity with AACI. My personal journey is to travel and taste good foods from all over the world. Hopefully, I won’t reach the end in one lifetime.

Volunteers

Rommel Ruelos
Annie Yang