Christopher Huang

Commissioner

Christopher Huang is a photographer and videographer with extensive experience in creating impactful visual narratives. He works with artists, public figures, leaders, companies, C-level executives, entrepreneurs, educators, politicians, performers, organizations, and students, among others, capturing their stories.

Christopher grew up knowing how frustrating and harmful it is to have Asian and Asian American stories told inaccurately, in a dehumanizing manner, by a media and entertainment industry that is white male dominated. Experiencing this developed his empathy for other marginalized and dehumanized people, and motivated him to tell these stories responsibly and accurately with a meticulous eye for detail. Those experiences have motivated him to continue creating cross-cultural bridges between communities.

Some of his career highlights include being hired to photograph some of the Asian American public media figures who helped inspire him to pursue a creative path. He is especially proud of inspiring younger POC storytellers to take control of their own narrative.

Christopher also gives keynotes and leads workshops on creating more empathetic and effective leadership with body language, both at the interpersonal and marketing level of the organization, promoting a culture that stresses equity, inclusion, and belonging. Even among those who do the basic step of talking about the importance of DEIB and show images with “diversity” in their organization’s branding, which is not as common as it should be, there is often a glaring disconnect in what they say and write compared to what they convey in body language.

His work can be seen at christopherhuang.com

Amy Goh

Commissioner

Amy Goh (she/her) is as a Certified Nurse-Midwife and PhD candidate. She is also Adjunct Faculty at Thomas Jefferson University’s Midwifery program. As a child of immigrants from South Korea, her decade long career as a midwife in the Boston area has focused on providing quality midwifery care for immigrant communities and communities of color. Most recently she received a grant to undertake an analysis of Asian American birth outcomes from the American Association of Birth Centers’ Perinatal Data Registry. Previous to her midwifery career, Amy worked to improve and better understand the complexities of health and rights in global communities. After her stint as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cape Verde, she completed her MPhil thesis in International Development on the socio-political aspects of maternal mortality in Brazil. Amy is a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and is on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Birth Centers. She was a former Health Equity Fellow through Cambridge Health Alliance’s Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy and a previous Duke-Johnson and Johnson Nurse Leadership Fellow.

Leo L. Hwang, Ph.D

Commissioner

Dr. Leo L. Hwang is the Assistant Academic Dean in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Hwang is particularly interested in using participatory action research and asset based community development as a model for enhancing how we engage in racial justice work in higher education. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts in Geosciences, an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his B.A. in English and Fine Arts from the University of the South.

His work has appeared in The Racial Equity & Justice Institute Practitioner Handbook, The Handbook of Diverse Economies, Human Being & Literature, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism, Route Nine, Rethinking Marxism, Solidarity Economy I: Building Alternatives for People and Planet, Meat for Tea, The Massachusetts Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Rivendell, Fiction, Gulf Coast and other journals and publications. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Mount Holyoke College; Greenfield Community College; and Westfield State University; and he served as Dean of Humanities, Engineering, Math, and Science at Greenfield Community College.

Meenakshi Bharath

Meena grew up in New Delhi, India and moved to the United States two decades ago. Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is home and she enjoys getting to know people, their interests and passions. She is a strong believer in our shared common humanity. She focuses on this belief and her guiding principles of dharma and karma, in the community building work that she does every day.

Meena has many interests. Education and impact of sound education in the lives of young people and society is of deep interest to her. She has served on local, regional and state level educational bodies. She is a strong advocate for personalized education plans for all learners, celebrating strengths, building supports, and varied paths to learning. She has served in many volunteer capacities including as Chair, DESE’s Gifted & Talented Education Advisory Council; Chair, Hopkinton Public School Committee; Member, Education Committee, Christa McAuliffe Charter School; Member, The Education Cooperative (TEC). Through all these roles, she has had an opportunity to learn, collaborate with many wonderful people, and influenced hearts, minds and policies for better outcomes. She takes great pride in her contribution in the formation of AAPI Commission’s first Youth Council, which elevates youth voices and promotes civic engagement.

Meena currently works in the financial industry as a Program Manager. She is very grateful for her family, life experiences and support of her friends and community which have made her life rich and fulfilling.