Jerry Won

Jerry Won is a storyteller, brand builder, and community leader. He is the Founder & CEO of Just Like Media, an Asian American storytelling company whose podcast brands include Dear Asian Americans, MBAsians, The Janchi Show, and Asian Podcast Network and have partnered with McDonald's, US Census 2020, and US Dept of Health and Human Services. 

He is a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator and has worked with organizations Johnson & Johnson, LEK Consulting, Horizon Media, and Pepsi. Jerry speaks on a variety of topics including authentic storytelling and the Asian American experience in the workplace. 

Prior, he was a Senior Strategy Consultant at Accenture and sales leader at start-ups and F500 companies. Jerry has a BS from USC Marshall and an MBA from Michigan Ross, where he served as President of the Student Government Association. He has served in board and leadership roles of alumni organizations and community non profits. 

Along with his wife Kyung and his two children, Jerry lives in Southern California.

Mo Nishida

Eddie Wong

Jo Zhou

Mo Nishida has been around since the 1960's, participating in the repeal of 'Title 2 of the Walter-McCarran Act - the concentration camp provision of the act, supporting the Alcatraz occupation of the Native peoples. He also was a part of the Los Angeles based Asian American Hard Core and staffed the Asian Involvement office of the  Japanese American Community Services. He was a member of the Eastwind cadre organization while living in the 'community workers collective in Boyle Heights in the 1970's. Presently, Mo is retired from work and participating in the 29th running of the '250 mile- Little Tokyo to Manzanar spiritual unity and prayer run' and participating in the national and class struggle of the Keiro Umbrella of Care disaster of our senior citizens' elder care program.

Eddie Wong has been a longtime activist and media artist in the Asian American Movement. He was one of the founders of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, co-edited Roots: An Asian American Reader, and co-founded Visual Communications. He is retired and stays busy editing and writing for East Wind e-zine.  

Jo Zhou is genderqueer nonbinary (they/them pronouns), an abolitionist, and a volunteer organizer at Chinatown Community for Equitable Development. Jo grew up in Shenzhen, China, and migrated to the United States when they were 18 to study English Literature at Wesleyan University. Since joining CCED in 2019, they have been fighting for Hillside Villa tenants to preserve affordable housing via Eminent Domain, as well as for better vaccine access for Chinatown's elderly tenants. 

Aileen Louie

Aileen Louie is the Vice President of Programs at Advancing Justice-LA, working closely with program staff and a wide range of institutional partners to secure the resources necessary to support the organization's work.

Aileen has over 20 years of nonprofit fundraising and management experience, gained primarily from her work at Advancing Justice-LA. Over the course of her career she has held several positions within the organization. She was its first Development Director and has also served as the Vice President of Program Administration as well as the Leadership Development Strategy Director. After stepping away from the organization to focus on her family, she returned to resume her work in supporting its ongoing development. In addition to her work with Advancing Justice-LA, she has also served on numerous non-profit boards including Search to Involve Pilipino Americans and the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, where she was one of its founding sisters.

Aileen is a graduate of UCLA where she was an student advocate for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Melissa Shah

Melissa Shah (she/her) deeply believes in applying the culture and teachings of yoga to bring to light the long standing disparities in wellness spaces. She is passionate about bringing yoga and Ayurveda back to its roots, and reclaiming representation within the wellness community. Originally from Munsee Lenape land (Queens, NY) she currently lives on Tsalaguwetiyi, S'atsoyaha and Shawandasse Tula land (Nashville, TN) and works to make yoga accessible through yoga therapy, mentoring yoga teachers, and mantra. She has been practicing yoga since she was a child, thanks to her mother, and has been studying it deeply since the age of 18. She has over 2000hrs of training in yoga and therapeutic applications of yoga. Melissa also holds a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and utilizes her background in public health to integrate yoga into schools and clinical settings.

Currently, Melissa works individually with clients offering yoga therapy in the Viniyoga tradition. She offers weekly community chanting classes, as well as pranayama classes for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Her offerings focus on how to tune into our true self and dharma (calling, purpose) when it comes to taking action toward what we believe in. She also works as the Program Director at Wellemental, an app-based company that strives to create inclusive spaces for kids to breathe through BIPOC-centered practices. You can find her classes and 1:1 offerings at www.findyourbreath.net or connect with her on IG at @findyourbreath. 

Items to bring (though certainly not necessary): yoga mat/carpet/surface they are comfortable practicing on, a towel or blanket they can fold

What to expect:

• Discussion on what it means to decolonize wellness and your own yoga practice
• Why self-inquiry and self-study are at the core of any decolonization practice 
• Whiteness as a construct, and how this plays a role in who mainstream wellness is serving
• Reflection activities on your identity(s) and how whiteness may play a role in how you move through society
• Holistic yoga practice with accessibility considerations

Soultree

Soultree is a Pilipinx artist, creatrix, and connector of Waray, Pangasinan, Ilokano, and Ilonggo ancesTree and Marshallese cultural influence and upbringing. Soultree uses prayers, chants, songs, moveMeants, and co-creations to uplift unseen spirits and untold stories from the places and peoples that have called them in while holding cultural, natural, spiritual, and political space for the community.

They launched SHHAA in Spring 2020, Soultree Holistic Healing Arts, and Activations. They followed up their EP Soultree (released Spring 2019) with MalaGINTO, a three-track meditative pandemic offering. They are currently working on a Seed & Spark campaign to bring the Mixtape "GEM" & Feature Film Visual Album "The GEM Project" to light and life.