Ryan Horio

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Ryan Horio (he/him) is a Japanese, Chinese American first year raised in Orange County, CA, by his father—who is shin-yonsei—and his mother—who is a refugee from Vietnam. Last year, he received dual degrees from UCLA in Asian American Studies and Human Biology and Society as well as a minor in Community Engagement and Social Change. He values genuinity in his relationships and enjoys connecting with communities across shared identities, stories, and experiences. Ryan’s research interests seek to investigate the intersections of substance use disorders, psychological health, and Asian American identity, focusing on the structural determinants of health as well as the systems that perpetuate health inequities for Asian American communities. His other interests lie in mentorship, research scholarship, community-engagement, and activism. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing, journaling, writing letters to his friends, running, and watching anime

Sean Sugai 

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Sean Sugai (he/him/his) is a graduate student in the concurrent Master of Social Welfare and Master of Arts in Asian American Studies program. Sean researches at the intersection of race, data, and the carceral state, specifically as it relates to youth mobility, movement, and mobilization. His research works across three areas of inquiry: 1) data erasure and data justice in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, 2) gender-based and sexual violence and intersectional healing in education, and 3) youth-based social movements and organizing. He is committed to working with and empowering youth of color. 

Sean’s community and academic work is deeply influenced by his upbringing in Waipahu and Pearl City on the island of O’ahu, where he grew up as a gay Japanese-Filipinx settler in a low-income, immigrant, and single parent household. This background significantly shaped Sean’s undergraduate research on anti-Blackness, settler colonialism, and US empire across the Pacific, with a particular focus on Filipino/a/x immigrants in Hawai’i. This work remains close to Sean’s scholarship, as it not only demonstrates the importance of community-based research, but also how the Pacific, with its colonial and carceral entanglements, produces unique racial formations.

Professionally, Sean worked in the field of higher education access, beginning in the UCLA Office of Undergraduate Admissions and later serving as a full-time UCLA Early Academic Outreach Program College Adviser in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He stays actively involved in the college access field, not only to support and uplift students directly, but to challenge the systems and institutions he seeks to transform.

Sean believes that being a good researcher and educator requires being a present, engaged, and affirming community member and mentor. He welcomes any opportunity to mentor and support students at all stages in their journey.

Priscilla Soun

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Priscilla Soun is a second-generation Cambodian American who was born and raised in the East Bay Area of California. She is the eldest daughter of seven children. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in Asian American Studies. While at UCLA, she worked as the Transfer Coordinator for UCLA’s Southeast Asian retention project, known as SEA CLEAR, and sat on as a member of the Undergraduate Leadership Committee for the Asian American Studies Department. She also served in various facilitator and coordinator positions for UCLA’s Student-Initiated Admit Weekends for first year traditional and transfer students. 

Eve Chen

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Eve Chen (they/them) is an artist, queer child of Chinese-Vietnamese refugees, born and raised on Tongva land (Los Angeles, CA). Eve’s familial history is one wrought with war from Guangdong, China, Cambodia, and Saigon, Vietnam. Through unfolding this history, they are interested in understanding how children of refugees and war can reconnect to the lands that their bodies were exiled from. Their art and research seeks to explore (1) How refugees fit into the broader Asian American immigrant narrative, (2) What the relationship is between the children of refugees and the country that produced their family’s refugeehood, (3) How children of refugees understand, imagine, and desire the homeland. Eve hopes to disseminate these stories through their art and research and bring light and healing to their community.

Karen Yimeng Wang

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I am a second-generation Chinese American whose parents immigrated to the U.S. as electrical engineers following the 1965 reversal of anti-Asian immigration policies. Furthermore, as someone who grew up in the Bay Area, studied computer science at Stanford, and worked as a software engineer at Google, my life has been shaped, for better or for worse, by Silicon Valley.

My research asks how Asian America produces and is produced by Silicon Valley. Why and how do Asian Americans participate in a system that racializes and subjugates them? What can we understand about the workings of capitalism, militarism, and other regimes of power by analyzing the ways in which Asian Americans are differentially included in/excluded from the tech industry, and how racial hierarchies are reproduced through the “techno-capital machine?” And finally, how can Asian American stories help us imagine alternative futures that challenge Silicon Valley’s homogenizing and ahistorical narratives?

Sophia Anne Vertido

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Sophia Vertido (she/her) is a second-generation Filipinx-American woman who was born and raised in Aurora, Colorado. She is currently a first-year Masters student, pursuing a degree in Asian American Studies. Prior to UCLA, Sophia received her Bachelors at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her undergraduate research explored domestic culture in the Philippines during the American colonial period, using frameworks of imperialism and gender to argue how American colonialism promoted hegemonic constructions of Filipina womanhood but also simultaneously created spaces for resistance and counter-hegemony. She plans to continue researching the role that Filipina women played in resisting US empire-building.

Lindsey Chou

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Lindsey Chou (she/they) is the proud daughter of Cambodian refugees, born and raised across Garden Grove and Long Beach, CA. She is currently a first-year Master’s student pursuing a dual degree in Asian American Studies and Social Work. Prior to UCLA, she received a B.A. in Asian American Studies and Psychology from Stanford University, where she was heavily involved in Southeast/Asian American community and educational spaces. Her work examines various forms of memory in upholding and disrupting colonial notions of trauma, healing, and care. Drawing inspiration from community members engaged in alternative forms of care and resistance in the everyday, she seeks to build critical pedagogy and care practices that center self- and community-driven knowledge production. Lindsey is also a big lover of Spotify playlists, live music, animated media, parks (big and small), and a good dilly dally.

Kevin Casasola

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Kevin Casasola is a queer Filipino-American from Murrieta, Riverside County. He is a passionate educator, artivist, and mental health advocate who creates spaces where individuals can express their authentic selves. Kevin’s dedication to the Filipino/Pilipinx community was nurtured during his undergraduate years at UCLA and through his profession in youth education and development. He believes in the transformative power of education rooted in history and relevance, which he has demonstrated as a teacher, youth health educator, and teaching artist.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Kevin is an advocate for a balanced life, both physically and mentally. He enjoys dancing across Los Angeles, cooking with the community, and climbing outdoors. Kevin’s diverse interests and commitment to mastering his passions reflect his holistic personal and professional growth approach.

Kevin is pursuing a joint Master of Social Welfare and Asian American Studies at UCLA. His research focuses on developing critical behavioral health interventions to improve mental health outcomes for Filipino immigrants and their LGBTQ+ children. Kevin is particularly interested in addressing the challenges posed by religiosity and mental health stigma within these families, aiming to foster stronger relationships and better mental health outcomes.

Through his work at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), Kevin leads discussions with parents of LGBTQ+ children to help them reconcile and strengthen family bonds. His goal is to tailor interventions that address the unique needs of LGBTQ+ Filipino youth and their families, as a clinical practitioner of social work.