People
Board of Directors
Pallabi Chakravorty
Stephen Lang Professor of Performing Arts, Dance Department, Swarthmore College
Candace Chewning
Deputy Director, Philadelphia Department of Labor
Director, Office of Worker Protections
Andrea Kim Neighbors
Director of Education, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Catherine Lee
Board Secretary
Chief Operations Officer, BlackStar Projects
Elizabeth Li
National Senior Director of Strategy, Stand for Children
Tuan H. Nguyen
Board Chair
Sr. Client Advisory, Managing Director, Rockefeller Capital Family Office
Michelle Nugent
Director of Art Education, Mural Arts
Blessy Thomas
Treasurer
Partner, Innovate Capital Growth Fund
Staff
Mehgan Abdel-Moneim
(she/her)Lead Teaching Artist
Ann Adachi-Tasch
(she/her)Director of Development
Samantha Cavanaugh
(she/her)Building Custodian
Dominique Chua
(she/they)Programs Coordinator| ext. 710
Joyce Chung
(she/her)Curator| ext. 714
Nila Devaney
(she/they)Teaching Artist
Daniela Galindo
(she/her)Lead Teaching Artist
Liz Karcewski
(she/her)Operations Assistant
Dave Kyu
(he/him)Director of Programs | ext. 703
Jino Lee
(he/him)Brand & Publicity Director | ext. 706
Sonia Mak
(she/her)Executive Director| ext. 701
Devin McKnight
(he/him)Technical Director
Matt Nelson
(they/all)Managing Director| ext. 707
Cole Roberts
(he/him)Exhibitions Assistant| ext. 713
Kong Yang
(she/her)Youth Education Programs Manager| ext. 705
Gayle Isa (Executive Director, 1993-2018) is a Founder and former Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative. Gayle has been a Douglas Redd Fellow focused on arts and community development and has served on the boards of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the National Performance Network, and the national Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists. She has also been a member of the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs and the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council, and was the first Asian American appointed to serve on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She has been an aspiring dramaturg and taiko drummer, and is currently focusing her creative energy on parenting her school-aged daughter.
Anne Ishii (Executive Director, 2018-2024) is a writer, editor and translator, who for the past ten years has worked specifically to achieve visibility and recognition for art and artists that touches on issues of gender and sexuality in the Asian diaspora. In her quest to platform more and better iterations of work from the API diaspora, Anne has worked in publishing and advertising, venture consulting and content strategy.