Team
Staff
Kevin Huang 黃儀軒 (he/him)
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Recognizing the growing gap in engaging Chinese-Canadian youth on environmental, social, and political issues, Kevin co-founded hua foundation with the goal of increasing community participation through youth empowerment opportunities.
Kevin oversees hua foundation’s external relationships with youth, policy makers, community organizations, and institutions. Ask him about hua foundation’s youth incubator projects, its research and development, and its community work.
Christina Lee 李嘉明 (she/they)
director of community capacity + strategic initiatives
Christina is a 2.5 generation Cantonese settler born and raised on unceded territories including the lands of the three title-holding Nations: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), skx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh). After completing her BA in Geography and Asian Canadian Studies, Christina was eager to apply her research skills in ways that centred community and community needs. Christina’s time at hua foundation has equal parts grounded and radicalized her, by providing both the support and fuel to pursue opportunities often out of reach for recent grads. She now is focusing on developing networks and supports for other racialized youth.
Christina currently leads the Language Access Project (LAP), to advocate for better language accessibility and equity across governments and institutions, and is an adjunct faculty with the University of British Columbia’s Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program. She also leads hua’s internal transformation projects and co-leads the capacity building and consulting portfolios. Ask her about projects she implemented, such as building the Language Access Project, Chinatown Cares Grocery Delivery Program, or the Vancouver Chinatown Social Cohesion Report.
Kimberley Wong 黄壯慈 (they/them)
Kimberley Wong is a queer Chinese Canadian femme whose work mirrors the intersections of their identity. They have been recognized by the City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia for their accomplishments in climate justice and multiculturalism, and their work continues to evolve beyond this. Kimberley currently sits as the Co-Chair of the City of Vancouver’s Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group and the Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition. They are also an elected member of the OneCity Vancouver organizing committee. Kimberley sees through the lenses and experiential knowledge of living as a renter, being an independent contractor in a precarious work landscape, and of a descendant whose ancestors have long histories organizing and changemaking for marginalized populations on this land.
Kimberley leads work on hua foundation’s Race and Equity Portfolio. Ask them about the anti-racism + solidarities resource and upcoming work @KimberleyLW.
Board of Directors
Joyce Liao 廖釆約
Joyce is a first generation Taiwanese Canadian who grew up in Treaty 7. During her undergraduate degree at UBC in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, she was drawn to hua’s work with its focus on food, race and community. She is excited about the relationality of hua’s work and in the intimate ways that it creates space for racialized youth to ponder alternative futures. These days, Joyce spends most of her time dreaming up bikepacking adventures and drawing existential doodles.
Crecien Bencio
Crecien is a community developer in Vancouver and he provides gratitude to the mentors, peers, and elders who have guided him on this journey. His family comes from the Philippines. He finds his joy in his pottery studio and reading novels on his two hour daily commute. Currently, he is an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia and majoring in Japanese. He loves his name.
Joanne Li 李亚君
Joanne is a second-gen Shanghainese-‘Canadian’ settler born and raised on the unceded and stolen lands of the Coast Salish peoples. As a systemic and equity-centred designer for the public sector, she’s most energized by (re)imagining just, liberated, and decolonized spaces and systems for diasporic and underrepresented communities. She’s excited to support hua in cultivating spaces for youth to feel empowered in their positions and identities for social change. In her downtime, she’s a bookstore gremlin, Posca collector, and full-time pastry glutton.
Jessica Wang 王衍華
Jessica is a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian born and raised on the unceded traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples. She’s honoured to be a part of hua foundation’s culturally-centered work to support youth capacity. She spends her days working as a consultant supporting local government and Indigenous governance, which extends into her work at hua, where she seeks to bring everyone around the table. She enjoys going for walks in the forest, planning trips in excruciating detail, collecting cookbooks, and baking treats.
Yara Younis يارا يونس
Yara is a Palestinian refugee, born and raised in the United Arab Emirates. Now, having spent years contemplating and unlearning colonial narratives, she considers the meaning of statelessness and her West Asian identity, as well as how systems of power co-opt and shape refugee experiences. Yara is currently the Project Manager at the RADIUS Refugee Livelihood Lab. In her free time, Yara enjoys powerlifting, reading, music, sharing a meal with friends, and taking long walks.
Special Projects
Louis Lapprend (Chinatown Today)
Carmut Me (C19help.ca)
Christa Yeung (C19help.ca)
Daphne Tse (Community engagement team; C19help.ca)
Joyce Deng (Community engagement team)
Suki Xiao (Community engagement team, Asian Community Convener)
Mimi Nguyễn (Community engagement team; Language Access Project)
Kailey Tam (Language Access Project)
Guneet Pooni (anti-racism + solidarities; Language Access Project)
Kathleen Zaragosa (Asian Community Convener, Language Access Project)
Joty Gill (Asian Community Convener)
Victoria So (Asian Community Convener)
Jackie Sarvini (anti-racism + solidarities)
Olivia Lim (anti-racism + solidarities)
Mandy Huynh 黄闵媛 (anti-racism + solidarities)
Founding Former Staff
Claudia Li 李妍蕙
Co-Founder
Claudia was inspired to find a way to cook the dishes and tell the stories she grew up with, and also pass it onto the next generation. She co-founded Shark Truth—the origins of hua foundation—where she was pivotal in shifting the conversation around shark conservation in Canada.
Bard Suen 孫百忻
Co-Founder
Bard holds an honours degree in Sociology from the University of British Columbia, with a focus on the environment, food studies, and racial and ethnic inequality. He completed a thesis on food stigma and Chinese modernist restaurants in Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Former Staff and Board Members
Candace Cheung 張婉雯
Past Board of Directors (Sales & Marketing)
Amanda Huynh 黃珮詩
Past Board of Directors
(Education & Food Experience Design)
Angie Chan
Past Board of Directors
(Public & Non-Profit Management)
Miranda Eng 伍文莊
Past Board of Directors
Emily Huynh
Past Board of Directors
Elaine Su 苏依泠
Past Board of Directors
Leo Yu 于華
Past Staff (Director of Community Giving and Operations) ; past Board of Directors
Jackie Wong
Past Staff (Race & Equity Project Director; director of communications); past Board of Directors
Nicole So
Past Staff (Intergenerational and Intercultural Engagement Coordinator)
Megan Lau
Past Staff (Associate Director of Communications and Development)
Alan Chen 陈晓征
Past Staff (Chinatown Food Security Coordinator)
Angela Ho 何嘉雯
Past Staff (Chinatown Food Security Coordinator)
Emily Tso
Past Staff (Creative Director)
Gillian Der
Past Staff (Chinatown Food Security Coordinator)
Vyas Saran
Past Staff (Race & Democracy Organizer)
Emily Tsang 曾泳伃
Past Staff (Chinatown Cares Grocery Program)
Amanda Wan
Special Projects (Chinatown Today Volume 1 Editor)
Kaitlin Fung 馮嘉欣
Special Projects (Food Summit Director)
Amelia Huang
Special Projects (Community engagement team)
Kathy Thai
Special Projects (Community engagement team)
Brook Xiang
Special Projects (Chinatown Cares Grocery Program)
Kayla Isomura
Special Projects (Chinatown Cares Grocery Program)