2023 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) Federal Employee Leadership Development Conference

John Tien was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security by Secretary Mayorkas on June 24, 2021. Tien is the first Asian American to be confirmed as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. 

Prior to becoming the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Tien spent ten years serving in senior executive roles in the critical infrastructure financial services sector as a managing director at Citigroup. As a chief operating officer, he provided customer service support to tens of millions of customers to include safeguarding their accounts against fraud, data breaches, and other cyber threats. 

Tien previously served in the Obama Administration as the National Security Council Senior Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009-2011, the Bush Administration as the National Security Council Director for Iraq from 2008-2009, and the Clinton Administration as a White House Fellow in the Office of the United States Trade Representative from 1998-1999. 

Tien began his career of public service at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he was the first Asian American to ever serve as the First Captain and Brigade Commander, West Point’s top ranked cadet position. For the next 24 years, he served as a U.S. Army combat arms officer, retiring in 2011 at the rank of Colonel. He is a veteran of three combat tours to include serving as the Task Force 2-37 Armor Battalion Commander in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He and his unit were responsible for securing and stabilizing the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar and Ramadi with an emphasis on counterinsurgency operations, community partnership, creating rule of law institutions, and the training of thousands of Iraqi police officers. His military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Combat Action Badge, and the Valorous Unit Award. 

Tien holds a Bachelor of Science from West Point and a Master of Arts from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and was also a National Security Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. 
 

Gautam Raghavan has served as Assistant to the President and Director of The White House Office of Presidential Personnel since February 2022. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of The White House Office of Presidential Personnel and was the first employee hired by the Biden-Harris Transition Team, where he served as Deputy Head of Presidential Appointments. 

Raghavan served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and advised organizations focused on advancing civil rights and social justice, serving as an Advisor to the Biden Foundation and as Vice President of Policy for the Gill Foundation. 

During the Obama-Biden Administration, Raghavan served in the White House Office of Public Engagement as liaison to the LGBTQ community as well as the Asian American & Pacific Islander community, as Acting White House Liaison for the U.S. Department of Defense, and as Outreach Lead for the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group. 

A first-generation immigrant, Raghavan was born in India, raised in Seattle, and graduated from Stanford University. He is the editor of “West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House.” He lives with his husband and their daughter in Washington, D.C.
 

Erika L. Moritsugu serves as Deputy Assistant to the President and the first-ever Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) Senior Liaison at the White House, where she supports the Biden-Harris Administration on a wide array policies and outreach to advance the President’s priorities, and engage with a cross-section of communities to promote equity, justice, and opportunity for AA and NHPIs.  

Her past government service includes serving as the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the leadership of Secretary Julián Castro in the Obama Administration and was the first-ever Senate Deputy Legislative Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  

On Capitol Hill, she was a senior representative of Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Senator Daniel K. Akaka of Hawai‘i, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and served in various roles at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.  

In the non-profit sector, Erika managed two teams at the National Partnership for Women & Families that focused on economic justice and congressional relations, advocating for gender and race equity in workforce and health policies. Erika has also led the Government Relations, Advocacy and Community Engagement teams at the Anti-Defamation League, which included championing its interreligious and interfaith work.  

Erika attended Brandeis University, the College of William and Mary, and George Washington University Law School. Born in California and raised in Hawaiʻi , Moritsugu lives on Capitol Hill with her spouse, Brian, their two children, Vianne Leilani and Chester Likeke, their two cats, and one dog.  
 

Krystal Ka‘ai  is the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) and the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. In this role, she is responsible for advising the Biden administration on the coordination and implementation of federal programs and initiatives to advance equity, justice, and opportunity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA and NHPI) communities. Prior to joining WHIAANHPI, Krystal worked on Capitol Hill for over a decade, including serving as the Executive Director of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) for eight years. She previously held positions with the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the State of Hawai’i, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation. Krystal was born and raised in Hawai’i and is the first Native Hawaiian to ever lead WHIAANHPI.  

Anna Mok is the President, Executive Chairperson & Co-Founder of Ascend & Ascend Foundation, North America’s network of Pan-Asian business professionals and the Co-Founder of Ascend Pinnacle, the network of Pan-Asian corporate directors. Known as a collaborator and connector, Anna has a deep and long-standing commitment for building a civil and equitable society. She creates economic and educational access and strives for working collectively in the workplace and society. She inspires her team and organizations to make positive sustained societal impacts and has demonstrated commitments to the development and advancement of emerging leaders, women and those underserved into senior executive and corporate board director roles. 

As a senior partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP, she is a broad-based executive who advises prestigious global leaders and companies on their most complex and strategic transformation, growth, risk management and governance efforts. Her current leadership responsibilities include Asia-Pacific, Private Equity and global clients. The intersection of technology, business, culture and the workplace at globally headquartered companies are focus areas for Anna. She was the first female of Chinese-American descent to be admitted to the partnership. Her 25+ year career includes leading regions, industries, client excellence, offerings, global and DEI. 

Her proven success as an advocate for strong board governance resulted in her being the first Asian or female board chairperson on several boards. She currently serves on boards of Ascend, The Conference Board, Commonwealth Club of California and The Thirty Percent Coalition and on numerous corporate advisory councils and community-based organizations. She has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Bloomberg, and other leading global media outlets. 

Anna is a graduate from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. An immensely curious and creative individual, Anna loves creating supportive networks, designing and building public art, cooking and entertaining, renovating her Victorian-era home, and exploring nature and the world with her family and friends.
 

Ms. Yang is an experienced senior executive in four publicly traded companies, appointee in two Presidential Administrations, and public and private company board director. She has extensive experience in digital transformation, global expansion, technology, healthcare, consumer media, and M&A at some of the world’s most valued and admired companies. She currently serves on the boards of GE Healthcare (NASDAQ: GEHC), Doximity (NYSE: DOCS), and CommonSpirit Health. She advises institutional investors and privately held companies in technology and healthcare. Until September 2022, she was General Manager of Amazon Web Services, Healthcare, where she led the world’s most broadly adopted cloud platform to achieve 60-70% YoY growth for one of the highest margin healthcare businesses at the Fortune 2 company. Previously, she served at Ascension as Chief Strategy Officer for Population Health and as Managing Director for Ascension Holdings International, where she helped build two successful businesses in value-based care and global supply chain, respectively. She also was an executive at The Advisory Board Company, Discovery, and AOL Time Warner. Her government work includes service as Senior Advisor to the FCC Chairman on Broadband, appointee to White House Task Forces on Health IT and on Broadband, and U.S. Special Coordinator for China Rule of Law at the U.S. State Department. Her recent awards include Modern Healthcare Top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and Fierce Healthcare Top 10 Women of Influence. A long-time Council on Foreign Relations member and Rotary Scholar, she graduated from University of Virginia (B.A., Phi Beta Kappa) and Stanford Law School (J.D., President (Editor-in-Chief) of Stanford Law Review).

Michelle Kwan was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Belize on October 7, 2022.  Ambassador Kwan has had a distinguished career in public service, diplomacy, and sports.  She represented the United States as the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history, having won 43 championships, including five world championships, nine national titles, and two Olympic medals.  She became the first Public Diplomacy Envoy in 2006 and for a decade traveled extensively on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to engage youth around the world on social and educational issues.  Ambassador Kwan also served as the Treasurer and Board Member of Special Olympics International. 

After she earned a B.A. from the University of Denver with a focus on international relations and an M.A. from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, she became a Senior Advisor at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.  In addition, she served as an Advisor to the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State where she assisted with the U.S.-China Women’s Leadership Exchange and Dialogue.  Kwan is fluent in Cantonese. 
 

Trong is a Program Director at the Federal Executive Institute with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). He is responsible for programs that support the development of current and aspiring federal executives. Prior to joining OPM, Trong was the Chief Learning Officer for the Defense Contract Management Agency and managed strategic workforce development programs. He developed comprehensive strategies that focused on developing the workforce through technical and leadership training, and he oversaw diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies through recruitment and retention. Trong also volunteers as a Board Member at Large with the Asian American Government Executive Network and as a marathon training coach. 

Jenn (she/her) joined the Biden Administration in January 2021, serving as the White House Liaison and Senior Advisor to the Chair at the National Endowment for the Arts. In this role, she helps advance equity and inclusion, health and well-being, social cohesion, and civic engagement through the arts. 

A graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Social Studies, Jenn joined the NEA after working on the appointments team with the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to that, she worked as an associated consultant at WolfBrown with a portfolio of arts and education clients. She spent over a decade at Google, where she worked in Strategy and Operations across Google Fiber, AdWords, and Grow With Google. In 2016, she took a sabbatical to serve as the Expansion States Operations Director at Hillary for America. 

While at Google, Jenn received her Master's degree in viola performance at The Juilliard School, studying with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Venue highlights include the MoMA sculpture garden, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, and Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Cafe Revolution in San Francisco. 
 

Philip Kim (김제중) serves as a Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement for the Biden-Harris Administration. Previously, Philip served as the White House Liaison at AmeriCorps and the Deputy Director in the Office of the White House Liaison at the U.S. Department of Education where he focused on political appointments for each of the federal agencies. Prior to serving in the Administration, Philip was the Western States Deputy Director for the Biden-Harris coordinated campaign and served in the Office of Public Engagement for the Democratic National Convention Committee. He was also the Director of AA and NHPI Engagement at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) before leading Senator Booker’s Nevada state team in 2019. Philip also served as a middle school math teacher in Clarksdale, MS and is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley.  

Violinist Foster Wang has been praised by The New York Times for his "seductive" playing and by Musical Opinion for his "impressive virtuosity" and "playing of great assurance." A devoted chamber musician, Foster has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble, and has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio program From the Top. From 2012–2016, Foster was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, where he had the privilege of serving as concertmaster under such distinguished conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas.  
 
Born and raised in New York City, Foster began his musical education at the age of four with his parents, both of whom were professional violinists in China. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. His principal teachers include David Chan, Lynn Chang, Naoko Tanaka, and Rafail Sobolevsky. 
 

Operating from a social justice framework, Chingcha Vang took his passion for Asian American History to the classrooms of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a 9th, 10th and 12th grade social studies teacher at the Hmong American Peace Academy, Chingcha received the Excellence in Teaching Award at his school during his first year and was promoted to the Social Studies Department Chair/Instructional Coach where he led successful efforts in creating more culturally responsive learning experiences for students. After working in both the classroom and administrative setting for two years and receiving his Master's Degree in Educational Policy and Leadership from Marquette University in 2018, Chingcha decided to shift his energies towards recruiting and retaining extraordinary and diverse leaders from colleges across the Midwest to teach preK-12th grade students within one of the Teach For America's 51 regions. More recently, he transitioned into a coaching/support role for 20 first and second year teachers across 10 middle and high schools in Milwaukee with TFA. Chingcha is now bringing his learnings as a coach, connector, and former teacher to LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics), where he’ll join a program team in designing, workshopping, and developing API leaders in both the corporate and non-profit settings. His two passions of developing people and centering API communities at the forefront of his work have become a reality.

Alexander Cena is the Director of Leadership Development for LEAP (Leadership Education Asian Pacifics), where he is responsible for the efficient, cost-effective, and timely delivery and coordination of community and corporate leadership development programs, workshops, and events. He is a leadership development professional specializing in diversity & inclusion work and community organizing in the Asian Pacific Island Desi American (APIDA) community. 

Mr. Cena has over 11 years of service in the APIDA community. In 2009, as a Programs Manager for a youth development organization called Asian American LEAD, co-created the first Asian American youth summit in the Washington DC area. Between 2013 to 2016, he served as the Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs at the University of Florida and opened up the first Asian Pacific Islander American student center on a college campus in the southeastern part of the United States. After moving to Virginia, he joined the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities as their Community Outreach Coordinator and later became the Center Director for Higher Achievement. He maintained his commitment to the APIDA community by holding positions such as Vice President and founder of the Asian American Association at Virginia Commonwealth University and as a member of the education subcommittee for the Asian Advisory Board of Virginia. 

Mr. Cena also leads the Asian American Justice+ Innovation Lab (AAJIL) as the Co-Executive Director. AAJIL is a volunteer organization that positions itself as a is a community racial justice incubator committed to education, community-building, and innovation for promoting justice, radical love, and emergence
 

Akemi Mechtel (she/her) joins the LEAP team as the Assistant Director of Leadership Development, with nearly a decade’s worth of experience working across the non-profit and public sectors. After graduating from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, she started her career in education working as a tireless advocate for accessibility and equity in the classroom. After witnessing the barriers her students faced she went back to school to better understand the impact of policy in our communities, and obtained a Master’s in Public Policy. She has impacted both large government systems and small nonprofits to think critically about the way that race shows up in how we do our work, and build better systems that decentralize power, maintain momentum, and push back against the status quo. The years she has spent supporting students to further their education, engaging in policy reform, and building relationships across the communities that she occupies has further solidified her passion for working towards a socially-just future. When Akemi isn’t working to change systems she can be found spending time with her dog, reading a good book, or traveling to see friends and family.

Linda Akutagawa (she/hers) is President and CEO of LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics), an organization she has led for the last 10 years. She is committed to developing Asian and Pacific Islanders leaders, and from the classroom to the boardroom, she actively advocates for inclusive pathways for diverse leaders. 

Ms. Akutagawa is a Commissioner on the 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission and an appointed member of the California Department of Insurance Diversity Task Force. She is also the Immediate Past Chair of the Alliance for Board Diversity, a Board Member of the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (a co-founding organization of #StopAAPIHate), a member of the Asian/Asian American Institute Advisory Board at California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA) and a Board member of Japanese American Community Services (JACS). 

She is a nationally recognized speaker and facilitator on leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion, nonprofits, and board governance. Ms. Akutagawa received her B.S. in International Business with a minor in Economics from California State University at Los Angeles. She has a Certificate in Nonprofit Board Consulting through Boardsource. She is married and a fur-mom to two spoiled rescue dogs and aunty to eleven nephews and nieces.
 

A counseling psychologist and former Professor of Clinical Psychology, Kayoko has more than 20 years of diversity training, content development, and facilitation experience. She enjoys mentoring and teaching across topics including anti-racism and social justice as well as women's issues including body image and mothering. She currently works with Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese American advocacy group leading healing circles that address issues of intergenerational and community trauma. She was born in Tokyo, Japan and brings her bicultural, international, and feminist perspectives to her professional work. She maintains a regular practice of Ashtanga yoga.

Trained as a clinical psychologist, Mahima is passionate about creating spaces where individuals and teams can identify their emotional experiences and use their awareness to foster inclusion, belonging and organizational change. She advises companies on workplace well-being, trauma informed practices, product design, and inclusion and belonging initiatives. After a long tenure in community mental health she shifted her focus to helping organizations prioritize their employees mental wellness. Mahima maintains a private practice in San Francisco and teaches at several graduate level training programs. She was born in Chennai, India and immigrated to the United States as an adult. She lives in San Francisco and fantasizes about becoming a chef sometime during her lifetime.

KimOanh Nguyen-Lam is a life-long learner and educator who had served as a teacher, mentor, advisor, professor, university administrator, federal government senior leader and as a certified executive coach.

She joined the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as a faculty for the Center for Leadership Development in 2022. Becoming an FEI faculty over a decade after graduating from the Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership in the Democratic Society Program was another circle KimOanh felt honored to complete. The first one was becoming a university professor of education who created a program that recruited and prepared multilingual teachers to work with limited-English-speaking students like who she once was. The second circle she closed was being the senior executive in the U.S. Department of Education who helped to design the educational program, policy, and funding to support refugee and immigrant students based on her lived experiences as a newcomer refugee in the U.S. school system, and later as a teacher of the refugee students who were brought to our shores from around the world.

KimOanh’s love for language and culture also led her to collaborate with colleagues in the California State University system to establish an innovative immersive language program that enable college students to acquire language proficiency in Arabic, Korean, Mandarin, Persian/Farsi and Russian. The Strategic Language Initiative Program won numerous awards and graduated many engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and other social science individuals with advanced language skills in diverse world languages. She traveled across the country to speak to university presidents and to members of congress to promote new legislation and policy tapping into the rich language and culture assets of our citizens to advance the U.S. diplomacy and democracy globally. She facilitated liaisons and partnerships between U.S. educational institutions and those from abroad. Her passion for social and educational justice enabled her to develop projects, programs, and curricula while serving as the senior associates and later Executive Director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at CSU Long Beach. She designed and directed a 6-campus consortium program to prepare bilingual credentialed teachers in Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog and Vietnamese. She also developed several university courses on ethnic studies for Asian Americans Studies Department at CSU Long Beach.

KimOanh served in the federal government for seven years in executive roles. Her last position was as the Senior Advisor for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders – WHIAAPI – to improve the quality of life for all AAPIs in the U.S. She had the opportunity to work closely with colleagues across the federal government including Commerce, Education, Environment Protection Agency, Housing, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and Social Security Administration. She organized national forums on issues critical to the health and well-being of AAPIs and used the information shared at these forums to inform policy decisions.

KimOanh has always involved in community activism, serving on numerous non-profit organizations including as the President of the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans, and as a board member of the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program. She had worked with many community-based groups to develop curricula for heritage language preservation, anti-bias and anti-discrimination, civic engagement, and parent empowerment. Her doctoral studies and research interests focused on learning and change in the human systems. She hosted several bilingual TV and Radio programs to promote strong families and improved parent-teacher as well as school-community relationships. KimOanh was named faculty of the year several times, received a Congressional Service Award in 2004 and 2006, and was nominated for the Minerva – California Women Who Made a Difference Award in 2004. She served on the CA Governor’s Advisory Board of Education and was an elected school board trustee (2004-2011) of Garden Grove Unified School District.
 

Bahar Niakan is the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Center for Leadership Development (CLD) and leads the strategy and execution of the US government’s premier development programs for the federal executive, management, executive, and professional corps.  Serving in this capacity, she is responsible for the Federal Executive Institute, the Federal HR Institute, the Presidential Management Fellows program, OPM’s Management Development Centers, the Process & Performance Improvement program, the Lab at OPM, and the USALearning program.  

Ms. Niakan has over 20 years of experience as a hand-on senior leader in management and operations within the public and private sectors.  Before joining OPM, Bahar served as the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer (Deputy CHCO) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As HHS DCHCO, Bahar spearheaded transformational and strategic initiatives for all aspects of HHS human resources and human capital management, with a focus on optimizing HR service delivery, modernizing HR Information Technology, and improving the employee performance and engagement culture at HHS. Previously, she also served as the Director of Management for the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS; the Director of Management Policy for the HHS Office of the General Counsel; and the Director of Human Resources Solutions in private industry, providing contract HR and operations support to multiple Federal agencies.  Ms. Niakan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative International Development from Johns Hopkins University.    
 

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