Jocelyn Surla Banaria is the Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate. Jocelyn is returning to Berkeley from the UC Office of the President, where she was Assistant Director of the systemwide Senate. Her ten-year career at UCOP followed four years at UC Berkeley, where she worked in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Admissions and Enrollment. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Development Studies from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Education, with specialization in Educational Administration and concentration in Higher Education, from the University of Hawaii.
Jeff Chang is a writer and cultural organizer who has worked in and written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music.
He is finishing a cultural biography of Bruce Lee called Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America (Mariner/HarperCollins). He is the host of the Edge of Reason, a podcast of artists and ideas by Atlantic: Rethink and Hauser & Wirth.
Charles Huang is a co-founder of RedOctane and the co-creator of the Guitar Hero video game franchise. In 2005, the company published Guitar Hero, which became the best-selling video game globally for 2007-2008 and the fastest video game to reach $1 billion in sales. In 2006, Mr. Huang, along with his brother Kai, was elected as one of the top 50 producers in new media by the Producers Guild of American New Media Council, whose membership includes notable movie directors such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Brian Grazer. Mr. Huang currently acts as an advisor to several venture capital funds and...
Chief of Staff, University of California Office of the President
Jenny Kao is Chief of Staff to the President of the University of California system of 10 campuses, 6 academic medical centers, and 3 affiliated national laboratories. She serves as UC President Michael V. Drake’s top executive advisor and confidant on a wide range of issues, helps develop and execute the University’s policy agenda, and advances UC’s role as an engine of social mobility and opportunity in California.
An immigrant and a product of California public education, Jenny has worked in the public sector for nearly 30 years. Before becoming Chief of Staff, she served as UC’s...
Director of Power Building, Asian American Futures
Eunice Kwon is the Director of Power Building at Asian American Futures, where she works on building a political home for young Asian American and Pacific Islanders in California. Previously, she led the equity office for Asian American, Pacific Islander, Southwest Asian, and North African communities at UC Berkeley, and was the inaugural COO and Director of Community Engagement at the Sustainable Economies Law Center, an organization focused on building community ownership and cooperative alternatives to extractive economic systems. She currently serves on the board of Oakland Asian...
Donald K. Tamaki is known for his historic work serving on the pro bono legal team that reopened the landmark Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. the United States, overturning Fred Korematsu’s conviction for refusing incarceration during the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and providing a key legal foundation in the decades-long Japanese American Redress Movement. Tamaki is the co-founder of StopRepeatingHistory.Org, a campaign focused on drawing parallels between the round-up of Japanese Americans during World War II and the targeting of minority groups based...
Phil Ting was elected to the State Assembly in 2012 and served until 2024, representing the 19th Assembly District, which spans the Westside of San Francisco, as well as the communities of Broadmoor, Colma, Daly City, and parts of South San Francisco and San Bruno.
Ting is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He began his career in public service as the Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus, an organization founded in 1972 to advance and promote the legal and civil rights of the Asian Pacific Islander community, and once...
