Leadership & Committees

Dr. Jeffrey Soo Kim has served in education for 24 years as a teacher, administrator, instructional coach, and civic leader. He authored the nation's first high school Korean American Ethnic Studies course (Anaheim UHSD) and teaches future leaders as adjunct professor at CSUF and Vanguard University. A USC doctorate and National Board Certified Teacher, he has received multiple honors, including the 2022 Roy Erickson Civic Leadership Award, the 2023 Outstanding Ethnic Studies Community Partner Award, the 2024 City of Irvine Wall of Recognition, and the 2025 Civic Engagement Champion Award from the Asian Pacific Islander School Board Members Association. He is also the board president of the Irvine Unified School District Board and founder of the EdFamily w/ Dr. Jeff YouTube channel. He is married to his wife, Dr. Stephanie Kim, a minister at Saddleback Church, and together they have five daughters.

Dr. Priya J. Shah received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine and is a longtime educator, artist, and community organizer in Orange County, CA. She teaches Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies at several local colleges and universities. Her activism on behalf of LGBTQ+ students and racial justice has earned her the Harvey Milk Jr. Award for Community Service and the OC Pride Community Advocate award. Priya is also committed to uplifting our South Asian American community and is currently working with the South Asian American Digital Archive on a project about the earliest Indian American women to immigrate to California.

Dr. Tony Hwang is a leader in higher education and educational technology with over two decades of experience navigating the intersection of academic excellence and applied innovation. Having served as the Executive Director for the Office of Enrollment Management at UC Irvine, he has built a career centered on developing scalable, data-driven frameworks that support student success. Recently, Tony has expanded his focus toward the EdTech sector, launching a suite of immersive XR and AI pilots designed to maximize instructional efficacy and establish scalable models for next-generation learning.

Tony's commitment to the Asian American Museum at Great Park (AAMGP) is foundational; he led the team that submitted the initial proposal to the Irvine City Council for its successful approval. Beyond this advocacy, he helped found the Asian American Youth Leaders program at the South Coast Chinese Cultural Center. As the creator and lead strategist of the Living Archive Initiative, he unites academic expertise with cutting-edge technology to transform archival assets into immersive, site-specific narratives, effectively turning the physical landscape into a "living museum."

A proud lifelong member of the UCI community, Tony is passionate about ensuring the diverse Asian American experience is preserved and shared through inclusive, high-tech engagement. He holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from California State University, Fullerton.

Julia Huỳnh is the curator for the Southeast Asian Archive (SEAA) and research librarian for Asian American studies at UC Irvine Libraries. In these roles, she offers instruction and research consultations, develops collections documenting the Southeast Asian American experience, and supports community-centered archives partnerships and programs. She has served on the board for the Association for Asian American Studies as board archivist, Orange County Archives in Action planning committee, and Images Festival as a board of director.

Also active as an interdisciplinary artist, she's exhibited her work in Canada and the United States, and her films have been screened at festivals including ReFrame Film Festival (Peterborough, Ontario), Reel Asian International Film Festival (Toronto, Ontario), Aurora Picture Show (Houston, Texas), and SEA x SEA: Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival (Seattle, Washington). Julia holds an honors BA in art and art history and an MA in photography preservation and collections management.

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu is Chancellor's professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She also serves as faculty director of the Humanities Center and Associate Dean in the School of Humanities of Research, Faculty Development, and Public Engagement.

She authored Dr. Mom Chung of the Fair-Haired Bastards: the Life of a Wartime Celebrity (University of California Press, 2005) and Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism during the Vietnam Era (Cornell University Press, 2013). Her book, Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress (New York University Press, 2022), is a collaboration with political scientist Gwendolyn Mink and received the 2023 Mary Nickliss Prize, which recognizes the best publication in U.S. Women's/Gender History from the Organization of American Historians. Wu and Mink also collaborated on a comic biography of Patsy Takemoto Mink that is free for digital download.

Wu's most recent book, Moving Mountains: Asian American and Pacific Islander Feminisms and the 1977 National Women's Conference (University of Washington Press, 2026), focuses on Asian American and Pacific Islander Women who participated in the 1977 National Women's Conference and subsequently organized their own regional and national conferences on Asian Pacific American women.

Thuy Vo Dang (she/her) is a professor of Information Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA where she co-directs the Community Archives Lab. She holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego and a B.A. in English and Asian American Studies from Scripps College. Her previous role was Curator for the UCI Libraries Southeast Asian Archive and Research Librarian for Asian American Studies. With research and teaching expertise in Southeast Asian diaspora, ethnic studies, oral history, and community archives, Thuy brings an interdisciplinary approach to co-creating digital humanities and archival documentation projects with educators and community-based organizations.

Her current research and community engagement work center "refugee archival praxis" through the storytelling strategies and cultural heritage preservation of diaspora communities. She is coauthor of the books A People's Guide to Orange County (2022) and Vietnamese in Orange County (2015) and has published articles in Amerasia Journal, AAPI Nexus, Journal of Critical Archival Studies, Health Promotion Practice, History Now, Ethnic Studies in Academic and Research Libraries, and Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies. Thuy is also a long time board member of Arts Orange County and the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association.

Virginia Nguyễn is a teacher, speaker, and mother who has spent over 20 years in education. She does it all right here in Irvine, where she lives in the Great Park neighborhood and teaches history at Portola High School.

The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Virginia grew up knowing that stories shape us, and that too many stories have never been told. That belief drives everything she does, from her classroom to her work as Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Educate to Empower — a PBS SoCal Local Hero–recognized nonprofit dedicated to cultivating schools and communities where every student feels seen, valued, and inspired to dream big.

Virginia is passionate about Orange County's rich and diverse history and the people who have made it home. As a neighbor, a teacher, and a member of this community, she joins the Education Committee to help foster programs that reflect the full history of Asian Americans in Southern California and beyond. She is committed to making this museum a place where families and visitors of all backgrounds can connect with stories that matter.

Virginia believes that museums, like classrooms, have the power to change how we connect to the world and each other.