Board Member Bios

Meet Our Board

Patricia Kinaga, Co-Founder and Chair

Ms. Kinaga, a partner with Kinaga Pocaro, LLP, has practiced employment law for over 20 years, focusing on discrimination issues, including state and Federal employer obligations. She also provides advice to employers on accommodation issues, and has served as a speaker on the ADA and Fair and Employment and Housing Act. A former member of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, she was Co-Chair of the First Regional Conference on Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities in 1999, participated as a speaker at the Second Regional Conference in 2002 and served as Co-Chair of the Third Regional Conference in 2005. Ms. Kinaga has served on the advisory council for Asian Rehabilitation Services, Inc., and is also co-founder of two non-profit agencies serving Asians and Pacific Islander Americans. She has received community service awards from numerous organizations, including the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund. She received her B.A. cum laude from UCLA, her M.A. in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley, and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Erica C. Jones, M.P.H., Vice Chair.

Ms. Jones is employed by the Public Health Institute of Oakland where she has been the Principal Investigator and Director of the Pacific Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center, currently called DBTAC-Pacific ADA Center. The DBTAC-Pacific ADA Center is one of ten Regional centers nationally set up to provide information and referral, training, consultation, and technical assistance to the business, state and local government, and disability communities about their responsibilities and rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Center serves California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, the Pacific Basin and includes over 60 consultants, a small staff and subcontracts with more than 38 entities region wide.

Becky Nguyen, Secretary

Ms. Nguyen has been with United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County for over five years, helping families of children with all special needs through such programs as Parent Connection, Respitality, and Respite Connection. She is a member of the Community Advisory Executive Committee for the West Orange County Consortium for Special Education, the Autism Resource Circle, the Community Advisory Committee at Ocean View School District, and the Community Advisory Council for the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Johnna Cho

Johnna Cho is Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, for Warner Home Video, the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. Ms. Cho handles and advises on a variety of the company’s legal issues, focusing on legal matters relating to home video and digital distribution in Asia. Prior to joining Warner Home Video, Ms. Cho was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Graham & James (now known as Squire Sanders), and worked on corporate transactions primarily for the firm’s Japanese clients. She currently serves as the Executive Sponsor for the Network for Asian Pacific Americans, the affinity group for Asian and Pacific Islander American employees at Warner Bros. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

June Kuehn

June Kuehn is the Rehabilitation Administrator II for the Orange San Gabriel District Department of Rehabilitation. She has held this post since October 1999 implementing a Region wide effort to recruit Asian Counselors to serve the underserved/unserved Asian disability community. She developed the Asian Taskforce, which is comprised of over 40 Asian bilingual Counselors and Supervisors in the Southern Region to work on services to the Asian disabled consumer as well as improving and developing resources for this population. Prior to this position Ms. Kuehn was a Rehabilitation Supervisor as well as a Senior Rehabilitation Counselor for the Greater Los Angeles District. She has been with DOR for 31 years. Ms. Kuehn volunteered for both Asian Rehabilitation Services and Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center in Los Angeles, California. She has a Masters Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Cal State Los Angeles as well as a Bachelors Degree from UCLA in Sociology.

Stewart Kwoh

President and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, the largest and most diverse legal assistance and civil rights organization targeting Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S. APALC provides services for over 15,000 individuals per year including those who seek to become U.S. citizens and who seek relief from domestic violence or cutoffs from government benefits. Mr. Kwoh, who was the first Asian American to be named a MacArthur Foundation fellow, has been called one of the nation's "premier advocates for Asian Americans." He also is vice-chair of the board of directors for the Asian American Justice Center which was co-founded by APALC in 1991. Mr. Kwoh earned his B.A. at University of California, Los Angeles and his law degree from the UCLA Law School.

Guy Leemhuis, Treasurer

Guy Leehmus was former Multicultural Affairs Director for Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (PAI). He has extensive knowledge of Special Education laws and has conducted hundreds of trainings throughout California on special education law. Mr. Leemhuis is also a cultural diversity and disability lecturer/trainer to many disability organizations. He is a community activist in many human rights costs. He is now in private practice specializing in family law, special education, and disability rights law in Culver City.

Marcella Low

Mrs. Low is the Southern California Gas Company’s Public Affairs Manager. She is the Company liaison for the Asian Pacific community and covers the Chinatown and Little Tokyo communities within the City of Los Angeles. As Public Affairs Manager, she is the utility's principal contact with local elected officials, civic and community groups and the news media. Ms. Low serves on the following boards: Asian Pacific American Legal Center; Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies; Center for Asians United for Self-Empowerment and the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the Advisory boards of: Asian Pacific Women’s Center; Torrance Education Foundation; Little Tokyo Service Center; and Pediatric Therapy Network. In 2003, Marcella was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Board of Trustees for the California Health Professions Education Foundation. Ms. Low holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from California State University, Long Beach.

Edmond Hsin-tung Pi, M.D.

Mr. Hsin-tung Pi is a psychiatrist, selected by his peers in “The Best Doctors in America (Psychiatry) since 1994 and “America's Top Doctors” since 2001. As a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Associate Chair for Clinical Affairs, he teaches at USC, and previously taught at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and at UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine. He is an accomplished researcher in the field of cross-cultural psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and movement disorders, with more than 150 publications. Dr. Pi is listed in the Who’s Who in the World, in America, in Medicine and Healthcare. He serves on the Board of Directors of China AIDS Fund, Inc. and is an esteemed member of the Committee of 100.

Kelvin Quan

Kelvin Quan, JD MPH is the Assistant Dean for Business at the U.C. Berkeley, School of Public Health. Previously, he was a senior executive for the Public Health Institute, San Francisco Health Plan, Alameda Alliance for Health, and Chinese Hospital.

Mr. Quan was the Board President of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and Board member or founder of community organizations, such as Self-Help for the Elderly Home Care, Asian Health Care Leaders Association, and Bay Area Asian Health Alliance. Mr. Quan is a member of the Public Health Alumni Association board and was the Board President of the Graduate Program in Health Management at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a member of the California State Bar since 1993. In 2002, Mr. Quan was the recipient of the “Spirit of Public Health” from the University of California, Berkeley. He also received awards from Self-Help for the Elderly, the State Bar of California and the Asian American Bar Association.

Mr. Quan served as a member of national advisory groups and expert panels for the U.S. Office of Minority Health, National Health Law Program, Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care, and the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. His topics include business, quality, financial and legal issues with regards to culture, language and disparities in health care. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences on these topics and has authored book chapters, articles and other publications on these and a variety of other health care related topics.

Bill Tamayo

Mr. Tamayo directs the EEOC’s San Francisco District with jurisdiction over Northern California, Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana. EEOC enforces the civil rights laws against employment discrimination including Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Prior to the EEOC, he was the Managing Attorney for the Asian Law Caucus, authored numerous articles on civil rights, including disability rights. He has served community organizations including as vice president of the Asians and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and is the recipient of countless awards, including those from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. He received his law degree from UC Davis.