Steering Committee
Standing (left to right): Karin Wang, Noel Alumit, Jonipher Kwong, Sanjay Chhugani, Eileen Ma, Jury Candelario, Alex Fukui, Marc Loresto, Genevieve Tan;
Seated (left to right): Marshall Wong, Doreena Wong, Greg Matsunami. Not pictured: Michelle Soliman."
Noel Alumit has worked in the AIDS field for nearly 20 years, sixteen of them with the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team. He is a founding member of the HIV Prevention Planning Committee, a body that prioritizes HIV prevention dollars in Los Angeles. He has done Communication work for APAIT, the UCLA Art | Global Health Center, and East West Players. He is the co-chair of the Media/Website Committee.
Noel is also a Los Angeles Times Bestselling author. He wrote the novels Letters to Montgomery Clift and Talking to the Moon. His writing has appeared in USA Today, The Huffington Post, Asian Week, The Advocate, and others.
Jury Candelario is the Executive Director at the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Fundraising Committee of API Equality - LA.
Sanjay Chhugani is the Board President of Asian Pacific Aids Intervention Team (APAIT) and Public Education Committee co-chair for the API Equality-LA. He is also former Board President of Satrang, co-president of the Asian Pacific Islander Pride Council, and a board member of the Gay Asian Pacific Support Network. He is a co-founder of Fusion, the Los Angeles People of Color LGBT film festival program of Outfest. He has been very active in the Asian and specifically South Asian LGBT community organizing events, providing support and as a spokesperson for the community.
In his professional capacity, Sanjay Chhugani has worked in the human resources and staffing field for 20 years and currently functions as the Director of Support Services for Santa Barbara Applied Research, Inc., a small engineering and information technology firm in Pasadena, CA. He has an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
Alex H. Fukui is the co-chair of the Faith Committee at API Equality - LA. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA School of Law.
Rev. Dr. Jonipher Kwong is an ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Church and is in the process of seeking plural standing with the Unitarian Universalist Association. He is the co-chair of the Faith Committee. He earned his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Claremont School of Theology in Southern California. Rev. Kwong has been the minister of two churches, was the founder of two young adult groups, and is currently an Interfaith Organizer for California Faith for Equality. He has also been the Executive Director of the Counseling & Spiritual Care Center of Hawai'i and is a member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. Rev. Kwong also serves on the board of the California Council of Churches and the Steering Committee of API Equality - LA.
Marc Loresto is the co-chair of the Fundraising Committee of API Equality - LA. He is an alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Eileen Ma is the Campaign Director at the Koreatown Immigrant Worker's Alliance (KIWA). She currently is the co-chair of the Outreach & Recruitment Committee of API Equality - LA. She is an alumna of Columbia University.
Greg Matsunami has been working for marriage equality for many years -- first, in Oregon in 2004, then as volunteer with the No on 8 campaign in 2008 and now with API Equality LA, where he serves as a co-chair of the Public Education Committee and a member of the Faith Committee. In addition to marriage equality, Greg has also worked on a number of congressional and presidential candidate campaigns. In his professional life, Greg has held various management positions with companies like Levi's and Nike. He holds degrees from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School.
Michelle Soliman began her work with the LGBT community in 2008 as a volunteer with Vote for Equality, the organizing arm of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center. As part of a nationwide protest against the passage of Proposition 8, she later organized a rally that drew hundreds of people to the steps of City Hall in Norfolk, VA. Since then she has been busy doing work for marriage equality as a co-chair of the Media/Website Committee and a member of the Public Education Committee. Michelle also serves as a board member of AQWA (Asian/Pacific Islander Queer Women/Transgender Activists). Michelle is currently a Junior Architect with an architectural firm that specializes in a range of services related to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some of her major clients include Los Angeles Unified School District, the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Department of Justice and The Abbey Company.
Genevieve Tan started her work in the LGBT community shortly after the passage of Proposition 8. She currently serves as a co-chair of the Outreach & Recruitment Committee and a member of the Media/Website Committee. Genevieve is also a board member of AQWA (Asian/Pacific Islander Queer Women/Transgender Activists) and Director of Queer Pinay Outreach for Barangay, a Filipino LGBT support and advocacy group based in Los Angeles. Genevieve is an HR Manager at Fox Networks Group, where she provides employee and labor relations support to networks engineering and operations for sports broadcasting. Prior to her current position, she worked in recruitment at 20th Century Fox and assisted with the development of partnerships with local universities' recruiting programs.
Karin Wang is Vice President of Programs at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), where she oversees a broad range of legal, advocacy and leadership development programs. She is the co-chair of the Media/Website Committee of API Equality - LA. Prior to her current position, Ms. Wang launched and managed the Los Angeles civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and served as an APALC staff attorney, directing its immigrant rights project. She is president-elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association (APABA), and is co-chair of the pro bono committee of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). For her work as an ally to the LGBT community, she has been honored by the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and Lambda Legal. Ms. Wang graduated from Berkeley School of Law.
Doreena Wong has been organizing in the Asian, feminist, and LGBT communities for over 30 years and formed numerous API LBT groups across the country. Her day job is working as a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program ("NHeLP"), a national public interest law firm working to increase and to improve access to quality health care on behalf of low-income individuals, including immigrants and limited-English speaking populations, by providing legal analysis and representation, information, education, and policy advocacy. Before coming to NHeLP, she worked in the area of civil rights for a number of public interest organizations including the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, CA, the ACLU of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C., and a Los Angeles civil rights firm specializing in enforcement of consent decrees in race discrimination cases. She graduated from New York University School of Law.
Marshall Wong is a native of Los Angeles and has worked for the L.A. County Human Relations Commission since 1999. He authors an annual report on hate crime and frequently provides training on this topic. Previously, he held positions with the Smithsonian Institution and in the Office of the Mayor of Washington, D.C. From 1991-1994, Marshall was a Fellow in the Kellogg National Leadership Program and has received awards from the National Multicultural Institute, the Organization of Chinese Americans, and the D.C. Mayor's Office. He has studied Spanish in Mexico and Guatemala; authored articles for Social Justice, the Washington Times and Asian Week; and wrote a biography about his father Delbert Wong, the first Chinese American judge.