CACF Welcomes Five New Board Members
January 20, 2022
NEW YORK -- The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) is pleased to welcome five new members to our Board of Directors. These new Directors represent the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience and will play a pivotal role in furthering CACF’s mission of making New York City a more fair and equitable place for all of its residents.
“We are proud to welcome these experienced leaders to our Board,” CACF’s co-executive directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung said in a statement. “Each of our new Directors has displayed a deep commitment to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, especially when it comes to CACF’s core commitments to education, healthcare access and budget equity.”
The appointments of new Members Art Chang, Yvonne Choi, Matthew Lee, Angela Tolosa and Cynthia Solis Yi are effective immediately.
New Board member Art Chang is an entrepreneur and former 2021 candidate for New York City mayor. "I'm honored and delighted to join the Board of CACF to help build a unified AAPI community too powerful to ignore, working in solidarity with other diverse communities,” said Chang. Prior to his mayoral run, Chang created a successful legal knowledge management program at JPMorgan Chase as a Managing Director and founded and led Tipping Point Partners, a tech startup incubator that created products/companies in voter engagement, campaign finance, child welfare, television, publishing, music, fashion, and e-commerce.
Yvonne Choi is the Co-Founder and Chief Talent & Diversity Officer at Mogul, a technology and services company that provides talent, booking and management solutions for the real estate industry. Prior to Mogul, Choi was the Chief Brand Officer at Red Lion Hotels Corp, where she oversaw the development of RLHC’s upscale brands. “As an Asian American immigrant, I am incredibly proud and honored to join CACF and to support their 30-year cause of serving AAPI immigrant families,” said Choi. “As an additional Asian American voice to their already strong chorus of advocates and community members, I look forward to collaborating with the team, their community and new Directors to propel CACF’s groundswell movement.”
Joining them is Matthew Lee, who is currently the head of Global Innovation for Banking Financial Services at Cognizant, a Fortune 200 world leader in technology consulting. Having immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea at a young age, he continues to be grateful to the nurturing acculturation networks in the public school system. He is a passionate champion for key child development building blocks of engaged parenting and school-based support, leading him to become an elected board member at his children’s schools. “It’s gratifying to have this opportunity to serve the community and give back in a way that honors those who had helped my family when we first arrived in America,” said Lee.
Fellow Board member Angela Tolosa is currently a project manager at Evidence-Based Associates, where she works on initiatives designed to improve outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system. Previously, she was the NYC Criminal Justice Agency's Director of Operations. Before joining CJA, she served as the the Assistant Commissioner for Program Operations at the Division of Youthful Offender Programming at the New York City Department of Correction (DOC), where she was responsible for the operation of initiatives designed to support the reentry and rehabilitative efforts of adolescents and young adults held in DOC custody. “Joining the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families is immensely exciting and critical for me in today's world.” she said. “I look forward to leveraging my experience in justice issues and public/private sector work to provide advice as CACF continues to work with community allies and to fight for equity for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”
Cynthia Solis Yi is the Chief Revenue Officer at La Cocina, a nonprofit organization working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants and people of color. An experienced entrepreneur, Cynthia built and launched the eCommerce, retail and wholesale channels for Dualitas, a VC-funded, consumer fashion startup in Palo Alto. "I am honored to be joining the board of CACF, and thrilled to be part of an organization that has been advocating for Asian American and Pacific Islander children and families for many years,” said Solis Yi. “It is my privilege to serve our community by serving on the CACF board, and I look forward to working with the other CACF board members to build a powerful community supporting equity and opportunity for all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders."###
