2008 Community Leaders Program Participant Autobiographies

Claire Abe
Claire Abe is Chinese-Japanese American born and raised in South Seattle. She has worked and volunteered in several schools and hospitals in Seattle, Oakland, and New York City. After earning a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, Claire worked in a NYC foster care and adoption agency. She is currently employed as a Case Manager at Neighborhood House where she is working with at-risk youth and their families in a South Seattle Public Middle School. Claire is passionate about child welfare and social justice. She enjoys running around the Seward Park Loop and spending time with her family.

Jamie Badilla
Jamie Badilla was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. She received a BA in Journalism/Public Relations from Western Washington University and is currently working as a Legislative Assistant to State Representative Eric Pettigrew. As a Filipina, Jamie has strong aspirations to delve into increasingly new opportunities available to diverse cultures within the U.S. She is currently seeking new ways to get involved with anti-trafficking efforts and is active in the Community Involvement Legislative Assistant Committee in the legislature. Some of Jamie’s past leadership roles include serving as one of three student coordinators for New Student Services/Family Outreach at WWU, an Orientation Student Advisor and a Resident Advisor. In her spare time she enjoys jogging, hiking, photographing and writing in her journal.

Monica Cheng
Monica Cheng is of Taiwanese heritage, born in New York to immigrant parents. Monica went to college in San Diego, where she interned with social service and community organizing agencies. While earning her Master’s in Counseling at Seattle University, she interned at a community college, taught a class for international students and worked at Neighborhood House with families in Seattle’s High Point housing community. She currently works with at-risk middle school youth and volunteers with kids at her church. Monica is passionate about building effective cross-cultural relationships; she believes that she has much to learn from the kids and adults she comes in touch with each day. She enjoys baking, drinking coffee, playing the piano and trying new types of food.

Janice Eng
Janice Eng grew up in a large family in a rural eastern Washington community, where her parents, who emigrated from Toishan, China, settled. Being the only Chinese family there gave Janice the awareness and passion to explore building safe communities through genuine connection with each other, and where all people have a voice and a sense of belonging. She has a BA in Applied Behavioral Science and teaches Nonviolent Communication (NVC) skills to organizations in the public and private sector. She also teaches this work in Washington State prisons through the Freedom Project, an organization she helped found, whose mission is transform prisoners into peacemakers.

Joe Gobunquin
Joe was born and raised in the Philippines. His passion in advocating for social justice for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities began in his early childhood as a person with disability. He is currently serving as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at the Asian Counseling & Referral Serving. He provides MH therapy and Case Management to Asian and Pacific Islander clients. He served as a Board President of a Community-Based Rehabilitation Program for youth and parents with disabilities in the Philippines. He is a resource speaker for graduate students at Seattle University School of Education for Multicultural Counseling and How to Work with People with Disabilities. To maintain a balance life he enjoys singing, playing with Yoda, (his 6 year-old Black Lab Retriever) and hanging-out with friends.

Jared Jonson
Jared Jonson was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Olympia, WA. He is a recent graduate of Washington State University obtaining a degree in Political Science and Comparative Ethnic Studies. As a student leader at WSU he focused on advocating for all minority students in the areas of equity, diversity, recruitment, retention, and leadership development. Upon graduating in 2007, Jared staffed the State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA). He is passionate about fighting for social justice issues and working to strengthen the APA electorate. Jared is very excited to participate in the ACLF program and is currently preparing to apply to graduate school.

Maria Koh
In 1951, Maria Koh came from a slow boat off China, via Taiwan, Hong Kong, and was confronted with the racial shock of not knowing which archway she should undergo at the St. Louis train station. (One was marked “White”, and the other “Negro” back then). She was later asked to return home, after the completion of a graduate education, as she neither qualified as a refugee nor a candidate for US citizenship. This instilled her dedication not only in her expertise of preventive and public health, but the upstream involvements for legislative, judicial and policy-making that benefits communities of color. She is candid and bold and enjoys reading, writing in bilingual languages of Chinese and English.

Grace Kong
Grace Kong has a lot of energy and has a hard time sitting still! She is a 1.5-generation Khmer American woman who grew up in the Rainier Valley area of South Seattle, and now resides in New Holly with her two cats Fancy and Cassius. She is employed with King County Work Training Program managing YouthSource, a one-stop education and employment center for at-risk youth. She has been working with youth for approximately 8 years and loves it. Grace is also a Board of Director with the White Center Food Bank and Khmer In Action, and volunteers her time with the Cultural Cambodian Alliance of WA. She has had more time to do community work since she completed her Masters Degree in Public Administration from Seattle University. You can find Grace running around Greenlake or Seward Park as she trains for her marathon races. You may also catch her in cities outside of WA since she likes to travel and get out of Seattle every few weeks. Say hello if you see her; she is friendly!

My Tam Nguyen
My Tam Nguyen is a first generation immigrant from Viet Nam. She works at the City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development as a Public Relations Specialist connecting communities to information on comprehensive and regional planning projects including Chinatown/ID and Little Saigon. She founded and is currently a mentor for the Future Global Citizens Project, empowering low-income minority youth to overcome with college application, financial aid, social justice, community service, global citizenship, and leadership education. She has traveled to Brazil on a sustainable development mission, to Vietnam to study economic and political change, and to Rome to study architecture. My Tam graduated from the University of Washington with a major in journalism, and a minor in international studies. She volunteers at Helping Link, an organization providing social, cultural and educational programs to empower the Vietnamese people, and serves on the Alumni Board of Directors for the University Of Washington Department of Communication. She enjoys photography, food, international travel, poetry, reading, urban art, live music, spending time with her family, and cooking home made meals for her ravenous friends.

Molly Nissen
Molly was born in Pohang, South Korea, adopted as a baby, and grew up in Salem, Oregon. She graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington with a B.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies and Spanish with a minor in Theatre Dance. While at Whitworth, she served as a campus senator, was active in the Women in Society Everywhere Club, tutored local grade school students, and taught dance classes. Molly also studied abroad in Spain, Mexico, and with Semester at Sea, visiting countries along the Pacific Rim. She has worked at the Boys and Girls Club as a program assistant. In addition, she has been on multiple ophthalmologic missions with Northwest Medical Teams to villages outside Oaxaca, Mexico. Molly currently works as the Student Services and Operations Managers at OneWorld Now!, an after school global leadership program for underserved Seattle youth. She enjoys traveling, laughing and dancing.

Alexandria Tang
Alexandria Tang was born in Pulau Tengah, Malaysia, with parents born and raised in Vietnam, and grandparents of Chinese ancestry. She grew up along the shore in central New Jersey and earned a BS degree in Accounting from The College of NJ. For the past three years she has been employed within the Corporate Accounting department at Safeco Corporation. Alex volunteers for the United Way of King County Free Tax Campaign and other worthy causes. She enjoys traveling, exploring international cuisine, and spending time with her husband, Andrey, and their rambunctious cat, Kitty.

Joyce Tseng
Joyce Tseng grew up on the East Coast, but feels truly at home in the Pacific Northwest. After moving to Seattle to work as a union organizer for three years with Service Employees International Union, she received a Masters Degree in Public Health. She is currently employed at International District Housing Alliance, managing projects focused on toxics reduction and environmental improvements within the International District. Joyce serves on the board of Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, and in the past, has been active with Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. In her free time, she enjoys cooking vegetarian food and being outdoors, and loves spending quality time with her partner, friends, and her cat.

Ehren Watada
Ehren Watada grew up in ethnically diverse Hawaii to a Chinese mother and Japanese father. He graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a degree in Business Administration. Currently he is in his 5th year of service in the U.S. Army. Ehren has a deep desire for community involvement and wants to give back to a Seattle community that has been very supportive of him these past few years. He is currently awaiting a match for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Ehren would also like to work with others to plant more trees in Washington State, discourage suburban sprawl, and be involved with urban renewal. On his free time he enjoys tennis or teaches his newly adopted cat, Oscar, to fetch and his newly adopted dog, Auggie, to play with yarn. Learning is going slowly.

Dale Watanabe
Dale H. Watanabe, a Sansei (third generation Japanese American) grew up in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and has spent all of his life in the greater Seattle area with the exception of three years spent teaching English in Japan. Since returning from there, Dale has worked in education, first as an ESL instructor at a community college and for the past 7 years as an International Student Advisor at Seattle University. He is active with the university, serving on many committees and advising the Japanese Student Association. He is also currently involved with the 2008 Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee to prepare for the annual pilgrimage in June, is a member of Ayame-Kai, the all-volunteer group that raises funds for seniors and senior program for the Japanese American community, and performs with the Blaine UMC handbell choir. He has a passion for collecting maneki neko (lucky cat) and tin toys, and enjoys spending time with his parents, friends and his partner Bif.