CHINA NOW FOR TEACHERS COMMITTEE

  • Lucille Lee, Program Chair, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    Under Lucille’s leadership, Teachers Workshop has steadily grown since its 2013 inception. She was instrumental
    in starting the other CHINA NOW | For Teachers’ Lesson Plan Contest, the Curriculum Development
    Program, and website /resources library for modern China. Lucille joined the 1990 Institute as a
    director in 2007 and until 2013 worked on the Institute’s Microfinance Project. In her previous life, Lucille
    spent 30 years at IBM, contributing to the development of many of IBM’s firsts, including the first airline
    reservation system (SABRE), the SQL data query language, and internet standards. Lucille and her son founded a number
    of internet companies, among them eCircles.com, a social networking website. Lucille earned her BA in Mathematics
    from Hunter College, and MS in Applied Mathematics from Harvard/Radcliffe. Lucille’s husband, Billy Lee, was a founding
    Board member of the 1990 Institute.
  • Paul Cheng, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    Paul has helped to guide the coordination of Teachers Workshop speakers and presentations since 2013.
    He has been a consulting administrator/associate superintendent (ret.) with the Fremont Union High
    School District since 2007. Previously, he served 34 years with the San Francisco Unified School District in
    various teaching, curricular and administrative capacities, including 16 years as principal of Lowell High
    School. He received his BA in Political Science and MAT in Social Sciences/Secondary Education from
    Harpur College/SUNY-Binghamton and MA in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University. His interest
    in China—its tumultuous history and rise—is deeply personal, as his maternal grandfather served with the Qing military
    and his father fought in the early battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
  • Alice Chiang, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    Alice is a retired IBM software engineer whose focus has always been in making software products and
    websites easier to use. For Teachers Workshop, she applies her user experience expertise to lead participant
    survey efforts, process and operations improvements, and assist with collateral development and
    content messaging. As a 1990 Institute Board Member for over a decade, her work with China includes
    coordinating an education support program with her local church, enabling 100 girls in China’s Shaanxi
    Province complete 4th grade through high school. Alice has a BA in History from Wellesley College, a MA in Education
    from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from City University of New York.

 

  • Irene Han, Teachers Workshop Intern
    Irene was both a student participant and teacher’s assistant for America China Exchange, a former 1990 Institute-
    sponsored summer exchange program focused on teaching English to elementary school students
    in Qiaoqi, China. She has spent numerous high school summers in China and has been a freelance writer
    for the Beijing-based International New York Times edition since 2015. Irene will be attending Stanford in
    the fall.

  • May Koo, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    Since Teachers Workshop’s 2013 inception, May provides guidance on content and assists with sourcing
    speakers. May and her husband George Koo (a China business consultant) are engaged in helping the
    people of the U.S. and China understand each other and are involved with numerous U.S.-China organizations.
    Her father led the first-ever delegation of Chinese American scientists to China. May immigrated to
    the U.S. as a child and returned to China for the first time in 1974. Since then, she has made frequent trips
    to China and witnessed the dynamic change taking place. She is a Bryn Mawr alum with a degree in Physical Chemistry,
    and worked at Stanford University’s Microbiology and Immunology department for over 25 years. She is also a Board
    Member of the 1990 Institute.
    Lucille Lee, Program
  • Monica A. Lee, Program Strategy, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    As the Institute’s Executive Director since 2015, Monica is keen on helping foster the next generation of
    China-savvy students, teachers and young professionals. She helped create its Youth Voices on China
    video contest, expand CHINA NOW | For Teachers, and launch the Institute’s speaker series and annual
    Gala + Symposium. An entrepreneur and former early stage venture capitalist, Monica has held business
    development, marketing and fundraising roles for founding teams in areas such as fintech/student loans,
    coffee technology, online auctions, social media, e-commerce and education arenas. She also helped negotiate
    a China retail joint venture partnership for one of her medical device VC portfolio companies. Monica earned her MBA at the
    MIT-Sloan School and graduated from Harvard College. She is also a Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance board
    member, and an advisor to two US-China media firms, Radii China and SupChina.
  • Sandra Pan, Program Strategy, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    As Chairwoman of the 1990 Institute, Sandra supports the Teachers Workshop both strategically and operationally.
    Prior to retirement, she worked in numerous executive roles in the financial industry for over four
    decades, in both global and independent firms. Having lived in three continents, Sandra understands the
    value of having a global understanding and being a global citizen. She also speaks two languages, is fluent
    in three Chinese dialects, and is a frequent traveler to China. Sandra earned her BA in Economics
    from UCLA and was a board member of Asian Business League of San Francisco. She is a mentor for Ascend – Northern
    California, a pan-Asian leadership organization.
  • Marisa Wong, Program & Operations Coordinator, The 1990 Institute
    Marisa provides production support to all of 1990 Institute’s programs. A recent University of Oregon
    graduate, Marisa holds a BA in Journalism PR and has previously work with local nonprofits such as Family
    House and the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program. She studied abroad at the Harbin Institute of Technology
    and speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.
  • Grace Yu, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
    Grace is 1990 Institute’s Vice Chair and plays a key role in shaping the Teachers Workshop curriculum content
    and overall program effectiveness. Having immigrated to the United States as a teenager, she has always
    believed that a strong U.S.-China relationship is good for the world. Grace also has a twelve-year
    history of working in public education, having served in various roles in several of Palo Alto Unified School
    District’s Parent-Teacher Associations. Before her PTA involvement, her 15-year high tech career included
    various roles at IBM and Sun Microsystems. She holds a BA in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Stony Brook, MBA in Finance
    and a MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

TEACHER ADVISORY GROUP (TAG)

  • Gregory Adler
    Greg Adler’s first exposure to Asia was as an ex-pat working in the banking and computer industries.
    Now, after a 15-year career as a high school social studies teacher, he has become involved in teacher
    mentoring, curriculum development and global education programs. His student entrepreneurship project-
    turned-company, “San Jose Walks & Talks,” which offers student-led tours, has been featured in various
    Bay Area media.
  • Pat Ajemian
    Pat Ajemian is currently a supervisor for secondary education credential candidates at Sonoma State University,
    Department of Curriculum Studies and Secondary Education. She taught Modern World History,
    U.S. History, American Government, Contemporary World Studies, and English Language Learners at Mills
    High School in Millbrae for 27 years and retired in 2014. She studied Chinese History in college and has
    traveled to China a number of times.
  • Lisa Ernst
    Lisa Ernst is an educator at Alice Fong Yu K-8 Chinese Immersion School in San Francisco Unified School
    District. As a classroom teacher for over 28 years, she teaches 6th grade in a multiple subject classroom
    with an emphasis on integration of content through STEAM. She has participated in numerous fellowships
    from Stanford, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Yale National Initiative. Through these programs
    she has developed and presented new curriculum that have enabled her to secure over $25,000 in grants
    to fund her classroom.
  • Ken Klieman
    Ken Klieman, the author of Building an Empathy-Based Classroom, has taught over 5000 students and
    trained over 1500 other teachers over the past two decades. Ken has been recognized for his work by
    being the only person ever to be a California Teacher of the Year and a Comcast All-Star Teacher of the
    Year. He has been a leading teacher trainer for the NEA and CTA, a contributor to the Smarter Balanced
    Digital Library, and an evaluator for the Innovation Lab Network Performance Based Assessments Resource
    Library. These involvements have solidified his pedagogical approach focusing on community
    building through performance-based, student-inquiry projects.
  • Sushu Xia
    Sushu Xia was born in Shanghai and moved to the U.S. at age 6, thus making her part of that nebulous
    group of “1.5” generation Chinese-Americans. After briefly teaching middle school history in San Jose,
    she spent 6 years at Menlo School, where she taught World Religions, Modern World History, Asian Studies,
    and Mandarin 1. For the past 3 years, she has been working at a company that designs Chinese language
    curriculum for heritage speakers, but is very glad to return to teaching 9th and 10th grade World
    History starting in August at Nueva School.
  • Pete Hammer
    Bio coming

 

 

 

 

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