Simon Tam
CO-Founder, board chair

Simon Tam is an author, musician, activist, and self-proclaimed troublemaker.

He is best known as the founder and bassist of The Slants, the world’s first and only all-Asian American dance rock band. His work has been highlighted in over 3,000 media features across 150 countries including The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NPR, New York Times, and Rolling Stone.

Simon has been a keynote speaker, performer, and presenter at TEDx, SXSW, Comic-Con, The Department of Defense, Stanford University, and over 1,200 events across four continents. He has set a world record by appearing on the TEDx stage 13 times.

He was named a champion of diverse issues by the White House and worked with President Barack Obama's campaign to fight bullying. He recently helped expand freedom of speech through winning a unanimous victory at the Supreme Court of the United States for a landmark case in constitutional and trademark law (Matal v. Tam).

He designed one of the first college-accredited social media and digital marketing certificates in the United States. His approach to diversity & inclusion and marketing has been taught to hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. Bloomberg Businessweek called him a "Social Media Rockstar." Forbes says his resume is a "paragon of completeness."

Simon has received a number of accolades for his work, including: Milestone Case of the Year from Managing IP Magazine, the Mark T. Banner award from the American Bar Association, the Hugh M Hefner First Amendment Award, and Distinguished Alum Award from Marylhurst University. In addition, he was named a Freedom Fighter by the Roosevelt Freedom Fighters, Citizen of the Year by the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and Portland Rising Star from the Light a Fire Awards.

SueAnn Shiah
Secretary

SueAnn Shiah is a is a Taiwanese American musician, filmmaker, Christian activist, community organizer, ethnomusicologist, and public theologian specializing in identity formation, racial justice, gender, and sexuality. Her first feature length documentary HuanDao follows her journey of discovery, identity, and belonging in a two week bike trip around Taiwan. She released her debut solo album of reclaimed hymns, “A Liturgy for the Perseverance of the Saints” in June 2018. In 2020, she joined the leadership team and editorial board of Taiwan’s New Bloom Magazine and became a guest columnist for News Lens International.

In addition to her own creative and theological works, she collaborates with others in a variety of capacities as an artist manager, producer, audio engineer, songwriter, podcast producer, and creator of liturgy. She has a B.B.A. in Music Business with a Production emphasis and a Chinese minor from Belmont University, a Masters of Arts in Musicology from National Taiwan University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

SUMI KRISHNAN

Sumi Krishnan is an award-winning and multi-passionate entrepreneur, artist and social-justice advocate. She has been featured in Inc. Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, CNN, The Washington Business Journal, Smart CEO, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and a number of other media outlets. Sumi is most known for building K4 Solutions, Inc. - a consulting firm that grew to 200+ employees across the country serving more than nine government agencies.

With a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, Sumi also helped grow a training academy for civic-engagement called “Resistance School” and is currently serving at the nexus of art & activism, creating a media platform for everyday citizens to become everyday activists. She enjoys writing music for her solo-project as a singer/songwriter and spends much of her free time lifting weights in the sun and sipping good coffee.

Joe Jiang
CO-FOUNDER, VICE CHAIR

Joe X Jiang is a musician, filmmaker, composer and activist. As a musician, Joe has written and produced multiple albums, toured internationally, directed music videos and music documentaries, and continues to develop new projects with collaborators across genres and geographic locations. As a director, editor and DP, Joe’s films have been featured at festivals around the world. From narratives to documentaries, Joe navigates his productions with creative storytelling guiding the way. In addition to being an artist, Joe is also the Vice Chair of the Slants Foundation, and provides mentorship, resources and tech support to multidisciplinary artists from communities who are traditionally marginalized.

Roy Matsunaga
Treasurer

Roy is a Managing Director in the Portland office in the Portland office of the largest professional services firm in the world, serving a variety of public SEC registrants and private companies. Roy’s experience in client service as a financial expert brings an important skillset to the board. He has worked with clients in various industries, but primarily in utilities and renewable energy.

Roy’s artistic experience is in music as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, primarily with the band Big Roy and the Twigs and a Pixies cover band.

Pacyinz Lyfoung

Pacyinz Lyfoung is a multidisciplinary, French-born, Minnesota-grown, now-DC-based Hmong/Asian American woman public law and social justice professional, community activist-sometimes in a dormant phase, and peripheral poet-artist.

Early in her career, she worked on housing issues as a legal aid attorney, the co-founder first executive director of the Asian women’s shelter in MN, and a state government policy staff. During that phase, she was actively involved as a volunteer in Asian American arts and Asian American women’s issues, serving on the boards of Asian Women United of MN, the Hmong Women’s Action Team, NAPAWF-MN, and the Dragon Festival. Her poems have been published in the Asian American Renaissance Journal, Paj Ntaub Voice, the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, and many others.

In the past decade, she went back to school to transition to international work and was fortunate to lead a tiny but well-respected NGO where she developed expertise in global public interest intellectual property. At the present, she hopes to continue that global work while evolving as an independent consultant and IP attorney specializing at the intersection of public interest, intellectual property, social justice, race and culture, and innovation in the arts and technology.

Bao Vo

Bao Vo is an artist, musician, and designer based in Los Angeles. Bao's professional life straddles the line between art and technology. His work revolves around themes of personal and cultural identity, interpersonal relationships, and mental health. He releases music under the moniker BAO while working with other artists as a co-writer and producer. He hosts Coffee with BAO, an interview show focusing on how creative people's life and work inform each other.

After dropping out of art school, Bao founded the pioneering Asian American synthpop band Ming & Ping in 2002. The band's music has earned placements in ads for global brands and their multimedia stage shows have received critical acclaim. Ming & Ping was one of the first acts to employ mobile apps in its music-making process and, in 2009, became one of the first to release a mobile game as part of its marketing.

Bao is a first-generation immigrant from Vietnam and a beneficiary of public schools and the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program in Southern California. He is also a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) in Houston, TX, and the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, CA. In 2023, he received the Unsung Heroes award from the Asian Hustle Network for his contributions to the AAPI arts community.