Himalayan Youth Summit 2011
August 20th, 2011
HIMALAYAN YOUTH SUMMIT
Listen, Learn, Get Involved
SPEAKER BIOS
Dr. Sadhana Adhikari is a licensed Clinical
Psychologist. Her experience has been working in
elementary and middle schools, community mental
health settings, in the Mental Health Children’s and
Adult Departments, and the Adolescent Program for
Chemical Dependency at Kaiser Permanente
Stockton. Her specialty is working with people who
have chemical abuse/dependency issues. Her pre and post-doc
internships have been in Outpatient Chemical Dependency
treatment facilities. Her professional interests are varied within the
scope of psychology because she likes working with clients who
have diverse needs.
Dr. Pradhyumna Amatya earned his Ph.D. in
Human Dimensions of Management from Utah State
University and a Masters in Philososphy in Public
Administration and Policy Analysis from University of
Hong Kong. He received 'Best M.Phil.Dissertation' by
Hong Kong Political Science Association in 2002. He
also holds an M.S. in Economics and Statistics, with
gold
medal
for
academic
excellence,
from
Marathwada University, India. Pradyumna considers himself a global
person with an ability to work effectively and to communicate
clearly in multi-cultural and diverse socioeconomic settings. He was
born in Nepal and was brought up partly in India. Currently, he
teaches graduate level courses pertaining to Environmental
Economics and Policy at California State University Monterey Bay.
Srijana Angdembey is Manager for Energy &
Sustainability programs at Cisco Systems. She
drives several green initiatives as part of the Green
Task Force, and operationally supports Cisco’s
EcoBoard, which is responsible for setting overall
corporate strategy on sustainability. Prior to her
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current role, Srijana served as Environmental Policy and Emerging
Markets Manager for Government Affairs at Cisco. Srijana has a BA
and MA from San Francisco State University in International
Relations, focusing on Third World Development and International
Trade Policy. She is a founder of Friends of El Shadai, a nonprofit,
which supports street children and HIV/AIDS orphans in Uganda.
Dr. Milton Chen is CEO of vsee.com, a video
collaboration software that makes remote work less
lonely and more productive. VSee allows your
team to work from different locations as if they are
in same bullpen. VSee is used by over 6000
enterprises such as IBM, Shell, NASA, and Navy
SEALs. VSee is funded by National Science
Foundation and investors include Salesforce.com.
Milton’s pioneering PhD research at Stanford University has led to
more than 100 invited talks to countries ranging from Iceland to
Nigeria to Saudi Arabia. Milton received a bachelor’s degree in
Computer Science from UC Berkeley and PhD in Human Computer
Interaction from Stanford University. He is a 2006 recipient of
DEMO God award and is co-author of XMPP video standard.
Angelo Ercia is CHAA’s Community Health
Specialist. Born in the Philippines and grew up in
Vallejo, CA, he received his undergraduate degree
in Human Development from UC-Davis and MPH
degree from The University of Arizona School of
Public Health. He has worked in college health and
several non-profit organizations as a health
educator and community health specialist. Coming from a
disadvantaged background but being fortunate to pursue higher
education has made him passionate about working on social justice
issues that impacts underprivileged communities.
Loa Niumeitolu is a queer first generation
immigrant from Tonga, a country near Fiji and
Hawai’i. She
is a founding member and Coordinator of OLO, One
Love Oceania, a queer Pacific Islander women’s
support, art and activist group based in the Bay
Area. In their performances, OLO tells stories about
being queer and Pacific Islander through original music, theater,
poetry, and dance. OLO also does programs with Pacific Islander
women and men in prisons. Niumeitolu works with Samoans,
Tongans, Hawaiians, Chamorro and other Pacific Islanders in her
role as a Pacific Islander Advocate at CHAA. She holds Master’s
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degrees
in
English
from
Simmons
College
in
Boston
andInternational Development from Clark University in Worcester,
Massachusetts.
Mukhiya Gurung is the Founder & CEO of iSolve
Marketing, an internet marketing agency that helps
small local businesses solve the pains of marketing
their business on the web in the 21st century. He
worked for over 10 years in Corporate America before
deciding to launch his own company in early 2011.
Since then, he has not looked back. He’s passionate
about studying and promoting entrepreneurship and principles
around achieving personal economic freedom. He holds a broad
range of experience growing up in Nepal, India and in the US, and
is an avid learner….and says “if you’re not learning n’ growing then
you’re literally dying….”
Sean Kirkpatrick is the Associate Director of
Community Health for Asian Americans, and
oversees
CHAA’s
Community
Engagement
programs. Sean is a Cultural Anthropologist, with
an MA in Urban and Medical Anthropology from the
University of Memphis, and was a PhD candidate in
Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis on
Southeast Asian cultures and histories at University of WisconsinMadison. Sean speaks, reads and writes Thai and Lao. He was a
Fulbright Scholar in 1997-98, conducting fieldwork in Bangkok and
Chiang Mai, Thailand. Sean has been with CHAA since 2003.
Amy Lam is a writer, mother, psychologist, and
lover of nature. She was born in Canada to parents
from Hong Kong and grew up in New York. Her
multicultural
upbringing
has
brought
along
complexity, intersections, and sometimes confusion.
Amy has spent the past six years in self-healing
from physical injury and psychological trauma
including childhood sexual trauma. Her journey has involved finding
her voice, reconnecting with her children and family, and coming
home to herself through poetry, Zazen, and intuitive energy
healing. She is currently the program director of Street Level Health
Project, an organization that serves as an entry point into the
health care system for those most often overlooked and neglected,
namely the hard-to-reach, medically uninsured, and newcomers.
She is a cultural psychologist by training with her area of research
focused on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health of Asian
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American young people. Amy is committed to promoting health and
healing within communities of color. She hopes to share her story
and empower others to find health and healing for themselves.
Tenzing Tekan Lama, Born in Kathmandu and
having been to boarding school in India, Tenzing
came to the United States and studied Finance &
International Business at Georgetown University. He
worked for 3 years as a financial analyst, first at
Goldman Sachs in New York, then at the
International Finance Corporation, the private sector
arm of the World Bank. After finishing his MBA at Harvard in May
last year, he has recently joined San Francisco office of Bain & Co, a
management consulting company. He loves to read, hike, and hang
out with friends during his free time.
Beatrice Lee, MPA, is Executive Director of
Community Health for Asian Americans, a nonprofit
community-based organization established in 1996
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for the
historically underserved Asian and Pacific Islander
communities living in the East Bay Area. Ms. Lee is
an advocate for systemic approaches to culturally and linguistically
competent mental health and substance abuse care for the
disadvantaged immigrant and refugee populations. Her background
includes working in mental health, substance abuse and social
services in the API community in the Bay Area for over 20 years.
Ms. Lee has extensive systems and program development,
implementation, and administrative experience.
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, City of Richmond:
Gayle McLaughlin was elected Mayor of the City of
Richmond on November 7, 2006. Mayor McLaughlin
holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology,
graduating summa cum laude. Gayle has a
background as an educator, and professional
experience in nonprofit leadership organizations
promoting literacy, social justice, and environmental health. Gayle
has also been involved in nonprofit research and data-driven
projects addressing the needs of disadvantaged youth. Born in
Chicago, Illinois, into a working class union family, she was elected
to the Richmond City Council in 2004 and has dedicated her political
career to improving the living conditions of all the residents of
Richmond.
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Olga Murray is the president of Nepal Youth
Foundation (NYF). The kids of NYF call her "Olga
didi," meaning "older sister." Olga is living proof
that getting older doesn't mean slowing down,
not that she ever did. Olga migrated from
Transylvania when she was six years old. She
attended Columbia University and George
Washington University, where she was one the
few female students pursuing a law degree.
When she realized that no law firm would hire a woman, she
knocked on the door of the California Supreme Court, where she
became a research attorney for Chief Justice Phil Gibson. During her
37-year tenure at the Court, Olga helped to write important
decisions in the areas of civil rights, women's rights, and
environmental policy. She retired in 1992 to launch yet another
career – helping impoverished children in Nepal. Olga spends most
of each year in Nepal overseeing NYF's projects, and the rest of her
time in Sausalito, California raising funds for NYF – redefining just
what a didi can do.
Suraj Pant - Suraj is currently a senior majoring in Economics at
Reed College in Portland, Oregon. For summer ’11, he won the
Davis Grants for Peace to establish an economically self-sustaining
computer lab in Hungi – a rural village in Nepal. His previous
experiences include working with Habitat for Humanity and Hands
On to construct homes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He also
planned and organized different projects and initiatives while
serving as the President of Society for Open Nepal, Budhanilkantha
and Kathmandu Chapters.
Ram Lacchi Rana- Born in Tirobari village in
Sarbang Bhutan, Ram Lacchi left Bhutan in 1992
when she was 13 years old and lived in the refugee
camp in eastern part of Nepal for around 18 years.
She completed her high school in the refugee camp,
higher secondary education in Jhapa, and
completed her BA in Patan Multiple College while
working as an elementary teacher. She then finished her Masters
degree in Sociology in Padma Kanya College, Kathmandu. While in
the refugee camp, she worked with women volunteer group
advocating for women’s rights and creating awareness among
teenage girls regarding need for higher education and against
trafficking and teen pregnancies. She moved to United States in
2008 with her six months old child and worked as a nurse’s
assistant in a nursing home for two years. At present, she works as
a Nepali translator in Alameda County Medical Center for Bhutanese
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resettlement program and continues to advocate for women’s right
and community empowerment.
Zack Reidman works with communities to grow and
access real food in the urban environment. He
partners with a number of organizations including
CHAA, Refugee Transitions, the International Rescue
Committee, Oakland International High School, and
People's Grocery to collaboratively develop culturally
appropriate urban agriculture opportunities with the
Bay Area's new immigrant communities.
Lobsang Sangay, was elected Tibetan Prime
Minister in Exile, on April 26, 2011. He is a Tibetan
legal scholar, and an expert on Tibet and
international human rights law, democratic
constitutionalism and conflict resolution. Mr.
Sangay grew up in a Tibetan settlement in
Darjeeling, India. He completed his B.A. (Honors)
and LLB from Delhi University. In 1992, he was
elected as the youngest executive member of the Tibetan Youth
Congress (CENTREX). As a Fulbright Scholar, he obtained his
Doctorate in Law from Harvard Law School being the first Tibetan to
receive this degree. His dissertation, Democracy and History of the
Tibetan Government-in-Exile from 1959-2004, was awarded the
Yong K. Kim' 95 Prize for Excellence
Sapana Sakya began her career as a journalist in
Thailand covering environmental and women’s
issues in Southeast Asia. Soon after she worked for
UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme,
where she coordinated international youth summits
that educated young ambassadors on ways to
effectively lobby their own governments on
environmental
issues.
After
attending
UC
Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, she worked as a
documentary filmmaker producing and directing a series of films
including, “Daughters of Everest”, an award winning film about the
first Nepali women’s Everest expedition. Currently she is Public
Media Director at CAAM (The Center for Asian American Media)
where she oversees CPB and other funding initiatives supporting
media makers. Sapana aspires to bring stories from diverse
perspectives to the public media sphere.
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Bineet Sharma is the founding president of
Computer Association of Nepal-USA (CAN-USA),
and has been active in community service since
1995 in the Bay Area. He is a Silicon Valley
entrepreneur and is currently responsible for
operations at Soffront Software, Inc., a cloud based customer
relationship management (CRM) Software Company in Fremont.
Tenzing Tetong is a Distinguished Fellow, Tibetan
Studies Initiative, at Stanford University. He
teaches in the History Department and Continuing
Studies Program, and is an Executive Committee
member of CCARE (Center for Compassion &
Altruism Research and Education), an initiative of
the Stanford School of Medicine within Stanford
Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences. Mr.
Tethong is a former Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
in New York (1973-1986) and Special Representative of His Holiness
in Washington, D.C. (1987-1990).
Dr. Tenki Tenduf-la is from Darjeeling and was
educated in Loreto Convent and St.Joseph's
College, receiving her B.Sc through Calcutta
Univ. She graduated from Columbia University's
College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1957 and
subsequently completed an internship at U.C.
Moffett Hospital in San Francisco and a residency at
Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. She later certified for the Family
Medicine Boards and recertifield twice thereafter. She spent her
career in Family Medicine working with an indigent population in
Contra Costa County.
Jain Thapa is a student at San Francisco State University, majoring
in International Relations. Jain is a Bhutanese refugee, living in
America since 2003. He currently resides in Alameda, California.
Richie has been actively involved in advocating for the Bhutanese
community and promoting community welfare.
Nisha Thapa is a co-founder and president of
Sahayeta.org, which provides free primary health
care services to uninsured Himalayan communities
in the Bay Area. She is a board certified Family
Nurse Practitioner and currently works at Alameda
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County Medical Center and Alliance Medical Group. She has been
recognized by California Senate and California Congressional district
for her outstanding work at Davis Street Family Resource Center.
Nisha is a key member of U.S Nepali Disaster Preparedness Task
Force and is actively involved in raising funds for various
organizations. Nisha is dedicated to working in public health arena
locally and globally and has reached out to communities in Nepal,
Laos, India and Burma.
Sujit Thapa completed his undergraduate in
Electrical engineering in the UK, where he was
recipient of the British Government’s ODA
scholarship, and completed his Masters in Electrical
Engineering in the United States. After graduation,
he has worked in three multinational technology
companies, leading teams and projects to bring
communications solutions to the world. Currently he is a
Departmental Fellow at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC
Berkeley, where he is pursuing a Masters in Public Policy and
his interests are in economic development, innovation policy,
education policy, non-profits, and public leadership. Prior to
Berkeley, Sujit was a team leader at Cisco Systems, where he
managed a team to develop Cisco's flagship Communications
product, the Catalyst 6500- the most widely used network switch in
the world. Sudip is also involved in leadership endeavors in nonprofit organizations in the Bay area and in Nepal to mobilize and
empower the youth in communities. He has focused on combining
education, technology, and social entrepreneurship to create
positive impact in communities through a non-profit he co-founded,
Society for Open Nepal (SFON). From 2002-2004, he was the
president of Nepal Association of Northern California (NANC), where
he was instrumental in spearheading innovative programs and
projects, significantly
building community
enthusiam
and
participation.
Dechen Tsering is the Community Resources
Director at CHAA. Dechen served as the President
of the Tibetan Association of Northern California
(TANC) from 2008-2010. She is the first outlesbian Tibetan elected to this position. As TANC
President, Dechen spearheaded a creative arts
project called the Tibetan Memorial Quilt Project
under the auspices of TANC in honor of Tibetans
who perished under the political occupation of Tibet. This project
aims to complete 50 colorful quilts sewn by Tibetans living in the
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US, Canada, and India for exhibitions all over the world to raise
awareness about the political situation inside Tibet. In addition to
her activism, Dechen served as member on the Community
Advisory Committee for Asian Pacific Islanders Health Connections
in Alameda County. Dechen has over 12 years of experience in
philanthropy, nonprofit management and community health
education. Raised in Nepal, India and the United States, Dechen has
a bachelors degree in environmental studies and a masters degree
in public health with concentration in international health. Dechen
has worked with non-profit organizations, community coalitions and
medical facilities in the United States and Asia on key issues such as
community and environmental health, health access and reform,
gender and reproductive rights, immigration and minority rights and
other human rights and social justice issues. Dechen will be
facilitating a workshop on Identity: Asking the Tough Questions.
You might find you are not alone in the quiet queries about identity
and that it can be a fun and self-liberating sharing after all !
Aran Watson, RYSE Community Mental Health Specialist, has
worked for over a decade supporting youth development and
empowerment work in the Bay Area as well as organizing with
young people for educational justice, housing and economic rights,
and against multiple forms of oppression. Aran received a BA in
Peace & Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley, and is currently
completing a PhD program in Clinica Psychology at Alliant
International University. Aran was worked as a counselor and inhome family therapist in West Contra Costa County over the last
three years and continues to seek community solutions to the
widespread trauma, violence, and oppression that affect our
community.
CREATIVE HEADS PROFILE
Smriti Gurung is a multitalented woman. She is a
registered nurse, Miss Nepal-USA 2001 and is
passionate about dancing and fashion and
accessory designing. Smriti gets her inspiration
from the world and everything in it. She holds a
bachelor’s degree in Life Science and a diploma in
Fashion Designing. An active member of her
society, Smriti has participated in and helped organize numerous
Nepali cultural programs and charities. Smriti is the creative head
behind the Fashion Designer Showcase and the Singing Challenge in
our entertainment section. The Fashion Designer Showcase takes
inspiration from traditional Nepali clothing, outfits that are unique,
colorful, and vibrant. The fundamental idea being to retain ethnic
Nepali influences while embracing modern ideas. Smriti takes great
Himalayan Youth Summit 2011
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pride in designing pieces that make the people who wear them feel
both good about themselves and fashionably chic. This showcase is
a tribute to the origin of its designer: Nepal.
Yuvak
Tuladhar: Having completed his
Bachelors of Fine Arts in India and then Masters
of Fine Arts in in Savannah College of Art and
Design, Savannah, GA, Yuvak Tuladhar has
created quite a name for himself in the art
world. He has held art exhibitions in Nepal,
India, Japan, US and various other countries.
About his paintings, Yuvak says “Images of gods
and deities from every culture have been a source of inspiration for
my art. They are my window through which I seek wisdom from the
past. When I paint these images I am transported back in time to
this amazing land of beauty and mystery. The natural aging
process, created by the sun, wind, rain and heat on these
sculptures makes me aware of the power of the environment. I
enjoy the evidence of wear and tear, the discoloration made by
nature and by people touching an object over and over for hundreds
or thousands of years. My journey has many dimensions and yet I
have limited myself to expressing it in two dimensions through my
paintings. I aim to inspire the feelings or convey a message through
these old figures”. Yuvak’s creations will be displayed during the
event.
Surya Chataut: Born and raised in Nepal,
Surya has a profound passion for art. Due
to limited access to resources and cultural
norms,
he
became
entwined
with
photography later in his adulthood. By
profession, Surya is a software engineer
with a degree in Electrical Engineering but
his passion lies with photography. A
photographer that continually captures the emotions within, and the
landscapes that surrounds us. Through his photography Surya
aspires to enable people to go back in time and experience the
emotions when the moments are long gone. Surya is leading the
photography project with an aim to capture the Himalayan essence
that will be displayed in the event.