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.

Linda Zhang (she/her) is a second generation Chinese American born and raised in Massachusetts. She attended Mount Holyoke College and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Physics and a Five College Asian/Pacific/American Studies Certificate. Prior to attending UCLA, she worked at a youth center in Boston’s Chinatown as well as in other various settings developing her research, teaching, and direct service skills. Influenced by her various work experiences, her research questions focus on the role of domestic violence shelters under the nonprofit industrial complex, primarily those serving Asian American and immigrant survivors, in policing survivors and creating conditionalities for receiving care. In particular, she is curious about the ways in which the increasing professionalization of domestic violence services has impacted access to care. Furthermore, she is eager to explore how accountability for harm can move towards a community centered abolitionist future. In her free time, she enjoys catching up on the latest anime and collecting the cutest stationery she can find.

Nidhi Satyagal is a first year student in the Asian American Studies Master’s program. She is a lifelong Southern California resident who graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in June 2023 with a degree in Economics and a minor in History. In the last year, she has been working in community outreach and prevention with a non-profit domestic violence agency that provides culturally sensitive services to primarily South Asian survivors. Nidhi is interested in the South Asian diaspora, particularly the ways that right wing Hindutva politics and caste are recreated in ordinary spaces and communities occupied by second generation South Asian Americans.