People
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of ARFC provides oversight and support for ARFC. They are actively involved in fundraising for our work, including through personal donations, doing donor outreach and hosting events. The current Board consists of six members bringing various important skills to the development of ARFC. These members include:
Daniel Y. Chin
Dan Chin was previously the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer/Chief Accounting Officer for Marelich Mechanical Co., Inc., an EMCOR Company (Fortune 500, NYSE symbol, EME), responsible and accountable for all accounting functions for the corporate office in Hayward, CA and 5 West Coast divisional offices, with consolidated annual revenues over $250 Million. In the San Francisco/San Jose Bay Area, his volunteer work includes serving on the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Board from 1995 to 2002, as Co-Chair 2.5 years, Board Advisor 2.5 years & Treasurer 2 years; Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center - Brothers Campaign Co-Chair 2001; GAPA George Choy Scholarship Fund Chair (Horizon Foundation-Fiscal Sponsor) 2000, and South Bay Queer & Asian Chair & Advisory 1993-96. He received his BA in Economics with a minor emphasis in Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley in 1987.
Perry Chen
Board Secretary
Perry Chen is one of the founders of the pear-e consulting group with several colleagues who leverage their knowledge and experiences in the field of children, youth, and families, to support a variety of entities in the public education, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. From 2000-2005, Perry was the Executive Director of OASES (Oakland Asian Students Educational Services), a nonprofit corporation that empowers youth who have limited resources to maximize their potential. Under his leadership, OASES expanded to serve over 400 youth and families in low-income neighborhoods, and piloted key initiatives in parent & guardian education, bridging the digital divide, and services for new immigrant teenagers. Over the years, Perry has also developed an expertise in law, civil rights, and community organizing. He has held past positions as a corporate litigator (Morrison & Foerster LLP), a legal aid counsel (Harvard Legal Aid Bureau), and a public interest law professor (New College School of Law). Mr. Chen has received numerous community leadership awards and has served on several community boards & commissions. He graduated with honors from Harvard University and Harvard Law School.
Teresa Law Spitzer
Board President
Teresa Law Spitzer was born and raised in southern California, the only child of Chinese parents who immigrated to the US from Hong Kong and Guangzhou after World War II. She received her MBA from Columbia University in 1981 and started a career as an international banker in Taipei, Taiwan; Hong Kong and Singapore. After leaving the financial services world in 1998, she worked as an executive recruiter. In 2000, she moved to Shanghai, and was involved with the Shanghai American School as an economics lecturer and active member of the Board of Directors. Since moving back to the US with her family in 2003, she has volunteered with the International Museum of Women and worked with the Branson School, an independent high school in Marin, as well as mentoring a Tibetan political refugee and her family, who recently came to this country.
Noel Sanborn
Board Treasurer
Noel Sanborn has a long and deep connection to China having married a Hong Kong-Chinese wife and later living in Hong Kong for 12 years. He has traveled extensively in the PRC since 1981 and seen dramatic changes as well as continued grinding poverty. Noel brings a pragmatic business perspective to ARFC. He has a BBA in finance and marketing and an MBA. He began his career with a consulting firm advising on economic development projects in Africa and the Middle East. His work in Asia was primarily providing financial and management assistance to small, rapidly growing companies. In 1999, Noel settled in Palo Alto with his wife and three boys though he continues to have family and business ties to Asia. In his spare time he is involved with the Palo Alto schools, advocates for a couple of Middle East peace organizations and is affiliated with another organization that, like ARFC, is seeking to stem the tide or AIDS in China.
Andy Wong
Andy Wong is the Founder and Director of API Equality, a statewide project working to build support for marriage equality for same-sex couples in California's Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities. Through his efforts, Andy has helped to build a broad-based coalition of over 50 API organizations in support of marriage equality, garnered extensive media coverage of the issue in the API and English language press, and equipped numerous API individuals and organizations with the tools to be effective advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) couples and families. Andy regularly confers with national and statewide leaders in the LGBT movement on how to win the freedom to marry and currently serves on the Board of the Equality for All Campaign, which is working to defeat any potential ballot measures to ban partnerships rights for same-sex couples in California's state constitution in 2008, and the Executive Committee of the Let California Ring Campaign, which is working to educate Californians on why they should support marriage equality for same-sex couples. Along with his dedication to advancing LGBT equality, Andy is committed to promoting the health, safety, and welfare of women and children. He currently sits on the Children and Youth Cabinet of the United Way of the Bay Area, was a former Susan Schechter Leadership Development Fellow at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and previously served on the board of ACCESS/Women's Health Rights Coalition. Andy received his BA in Political Science and Women's Studies from Swarthmore College in 2002.
Board of Advisors
Tri D. Do, MD, MPH
Tri Do is an HIV physician, researcher, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. His research has focused on HIV testing among Asian and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. and the initiation of antiretroviral therapy in patients with a delayed and severe diagnosis of AIDS. He has also assisted in the formation of Vietnam's first anonymous HIV testing site. He played a leading role in the creation of a consortium of community based organizations, researchers, and a national advocacy organization. Through a government-funded research grant, this consortium will conduct the first national HIV testing study among API men who have sex with men in the U.S.
Max Lau
Max Lau is the publisher and editor of Noodle Magazine, the first major periodical in the US published quarterly with the perspective of gay Asian and Pacific Islander men. Noodle takes an irreverent voice in satisfying both lifestyle and community-oriented interests of gay API men. He co-founded the Cal Asian Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Alliances You-nited, (a.k.a. CAL B GAY) while at Berkeley, was past co-chair of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA) and organized the First National Queer API Student Conference at Cal and the First US-Tongzhi Conference at UCSF.
Steve Lew
Mr. Lew has been involved in HIV work in Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S. over the past 17 years, as a community activist, public policy advocate, service provider and organizational capacity builder. He co-founded the GAPA Community HIV Project (GCHP) in 1989 and led the Living Well Project as executive director through 1996. Throughout this time, Steve has served on local and national public policy advisory bodies including President Clinton's HIV AIDS Advisory Council, from 1995 ñ 1999. As a senior staff consultant at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, Steve continues to work with HIV nonprofits in building organizational capacity, particularly in the areas of fund development, strategic planning and board development. Mr. Lew also serves as an officer of the board of directors of Project Inform, a national HIV treatment information and advocacy organization in the U.S.
Fengshi Wu
Fengshi Wu is an assistant professor with the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Chinese University of Hong Kong. She obtained her Ph.D. in political science from University of Maryland, College Park with specializations in international relations and comparative politics. Prof. Wu's research interests include transnational advocacy, social movements, and global environmental and public health politics. She has been doing research on AIDS prevention and relief work in China since 2003 and presented and published a number of papers on the topics of transnational advocacy networks and environmental issues in China. She served as project consultant for the U.S.-China Environmental Relations Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center from 2001 to 2002 and was awarded the Graduate Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences in 2003.
Personnel
At present, ARFC has three staff that carry out the work of the organization.
Humphrey Wou
Program Director and Board Member
Program Director and Board Member Humphrey Wou, is one of the founders of ARFC, bring years of experience in NGO and foundation work. He has served as Program Director since the founding in 2003 and serves in this position as a volunteer. He is responsible for site visits to China, communication and technical assistance to grantees in China, overall outreach and public relations, and the liaison to the Board of Directors. Mr. Wou is a Hong Kong born Chinese-American who speaks three Chinese dialects, is passionate about traveling to China and interviewing Chinese grassroots NGO leaders. He also shares his knowledge of the emerging NGO movement and creates opportunities for visiting activists to meet with U.S. colleagues. Currently, he wears these hats: board member and secretary, W.C. Kenney Watershed Protection Foundation; board member and secretary, Exloco; board member, Earth Island Institute; chairperson, China Working Group of ECOLOGIA; and co-chair, AIDS Relief Fund for China.
Elsa Fan
Grants Program Coordinator
Elsa Fan is the newest staff member to ARFC having just joined us in August 2007. Elsa Fan is currently the Grants Program Coordinator for AIDS Relief for China. She is also pursuing her PhD in Anthropology at the University of California at Irvine. Prior to this, she was the Asia program officer with the Global Fund for Children, managing the grantmaking portfolio for the region. She served as a program officer for the UN Development Programme in China and Timor-Leste for several years and was a project officer for the Development Organisation of Rural Sichuan, where she worked to implement rural development projects in Sichuan Province. Elsa received a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in anthropology and psychology and a master's degree in development studies and anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Elsa is fluent in Mandarin. Elsa is the ARFC China Coordinator, helping to oversee and support our efforts in China. She is supporting efforts with our local advisors and providing additional support to our grantees
Erik Schnabel
Development Associate
Erik Schnabel serves as the Development Associate of ARFC and is one of the first paid staff positions. He brings over 10 years of experience in working with NGOs, particularly on fundraising, program and organizational development and international development issues. He has worked as a fundraising consultant and staff member to numerous international organizations. From 2002-2005, he was Development Director at the SHARE Foundation supporting community development and advocacy programs in El Salvador. Previously, he served as the Program Director for the Queer Youth Training Collaborative, a leadership development and job training collaborative for LGBT youth. He has a BA from Antioch College in International Relations, and is currently pursuing an MA at CIIS in Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Volunteers
Christopher Auyeung, Charles "Chas" Belov, Mark Jacobsen and Andres Tong contributed to the design and implementation of this web site. In the past two years numerous volunteers have supported ARFC with generous contributions of their time, energy, and talents.