OCA - Orange County Chapter

2008 Organization of Chinese Americans Orange County Chapter Officers

President: Ellen Lu
Ellen is the associate director of community relations for the University of California, Irvine, Community and Government Relations. She supports the university in building relationships, upholding the university’s image and generating support for UC Irvine’s mission of education, research and public service. Ellen develops and implements UC Irvine policies concerning community interaction, with emphasis toward the region’s ethnic communities and regional clusters. In addition, she identifies activities and programs at UC Irvine and in the community that provide opportunities for interaction and partnership.Ellen graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a major in biology and a minor in Chinese literature. She is a proud alumna of Kappa Zeta Phi Sorority at UC San Diego. Her passions are helping others through community service and building relationships with colleagues. She enjoys cooking, baking, tennis, bowling and traveling. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Ellen moved to Los Angeles in 1997. She currently lives in Irvine.

Vice President: Yao Lee
Yao is a web developer at DLink where he develops applications for internal use as well their support site.
Yao received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine in computer engineering where he was a part of the Engineering Student Council. He was also involved in the UC Irvine Chinese Association where he served as the Sports Coordinator. He went on to receive a master’s degree from the University of Southern California in electrical engineering specializing in computer networks.
Yao is an avid sports fan and enjoys many sports especially basketball. Born in Taiwan, Yao moved to the U.S. at very young age and grew up in Palos Verdes Estates. He current lives in Irvine.

Secretary: Eileen Tao
Eileen Tao works as a senior system engineer for Motorola where she leads the develop project team to design Motorola digital justice system for clients all over the world. Eileen received her Master’s in Computer Science from Bradley University, and also a Master’s in IT Project Management from The George Washington University. Prior to joining Motorola, Eileen worked as an IT specialist in Honeywell Inc.. She is an active member of Project Management Institute (PMI) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).In addition to being an officer of OCA-OC, Eileen currently serves as the president and board of director for the Association of Chinese Scientists and Engineers (ACSE) Los Angeles Chapter. Born and raised in Shanghai China, Eileen came to US to pursue her advanced education, in her spare times, she enjoys dancing, swimming and reading good books.

Treasurer: Ken Ngo
Kenneth Ngo graduated from the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. While at UVa, he was the chairman of the Chinese Student Association for many years. He organized dance parties, picnics, hikings, performances, etc. He joined OCA-Nova after graduation and found it to be a great network to meet other professionals. Since arriving in California, he found out that there is a OCA chapter in Orange County and attended many of its functions. This year he decided to take a more active role and help out organizing more meaningful and fun events.

Membership Chair: Alex Quong
Alex Quong is a software engineer for Boeing. He works on projects which defend the country. In his spare time, he is also the former OCA-OC Vice President. This involves defending Asian American civil rights. Alex, a.k.a. “the Defender.” He was born and raised in California and therefore, is ideally suited to serve on OCA, which stands for Organization of Chinese AMERICANS (emphasis added). Growing up in Palos Verdes, he decided to travel far from home and acquired his B.S. in Computer Science from Santa Clara University (Go Steve Nash!). From there it was on to UC Irvine for a M.S. in Applied Mathematical Statistics.
After graduation, it was time to pay back those student loans (see first paragraph). Since work is not that fulfilling (is it ever?), he has joined OCA-OC to meet friends! Seriously though, with his extensive knowledge of the Asian American community in Southern California and his first-hand knowledge of being a banana, he feels OCA-OC is the ideal outlet to improve the lives of Chinese and Asian Americans in Southern California and Orange County specifically. Not only did he serve as former Vice President for OCA, he also served with Young Generation Asian Professionals (YGAP) in many capacities.

Information Technology Chair: Albert T. Wong
Albert T. Wong is proud to serve as an officer in Organization of Chinese Americans - Orange County Chapter. He currently works for IBM as an IT Architect designing, building and deploying innovative solutions for clients around the world and was a past president of the UC Irvine Alumni Association Information and Computer Science Chapter. He enjoys traveling all over the world, eating at local mom and pop restaurants, shopping at unique stores, learning about anything and everything, donating time to worthy causes and helping his family’s business.

Legal Counsel: Betty Chu-Fujita, Esq.
Betty Chu-Fujita is a Deputy Attorney General for the Office of the Attorney General, California Department of Justice. She defends state agencies and employees in civil litigation. In 2007, Ms. Chu served as the President of OCA-OC and looks forward to joining the Board of Directors as Legal Counsel.
Ms. Chu received her law degree from Loyola Law School and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from UCLA. While in law school, she was elected as Social Chair, Vice President of Entertainment & Sports Law Society and the American Bar Association Student Representative. A recipient of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association Fellowship, Ms. Chu previously clerked at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC).
Prior to pursuing her legal career, Ms. Chu worked in major advertising agencies as a Media Planner and Buyer where she handled print, broadcast, and online media negotiations. She regularly interfaced with key managerial executives to discuss media placements and marketing opportunities. She was one of only a few selected to represent her agency at the prestigious American Advertising Association of America (AAAA) competition.

Advisor: Jhemon Lee, M.D.
Dr. Jhemon Lee is Vice Chair of the Department of Diagnostic Imaging of Los Alamitos Medical Center and a partner in Los Alamitos Radiology Group. Jhemon grew up in Maryland, received his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Sciences at Harvard University, and obtained his medical degree from the University of Maryland. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of Chicago, where he was chief resident, and a fellowship in abdominal imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Jhemon is a former president of OCA-Orange County and was on the steering committee for the 1997 OCA National Convention in Chicago. He is President of the Advisory Board for the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA). He has been involved in the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) for over ten years. His most recent position in NAAAP is Co-Chair of the 2008 NAAAP National Convention in Los Angeles; past roles include serving as its National President, the President of its Chicago chapter, and on the board of its Boston chapter. He has been a board member, Director of Professional Development and founder of the Healthcare Special Interest Group for Asian Professional Exchange (APEX) in Los Angeles. Honors include being named to “Who’s Who in the World,” “Who’s Who in America” and “America’s Top Physicians,” and a NAAAP National Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jhemon also does acting and improv comedy on the side, as a member of the Advanced Team of Cold Tofu Improv, and taking classes with East West Players’ Actors Conservatory, including studio project performances of “The Laramie Project” and “Twelfth Night.” His latest hobby, believe it or not, is cooking.

 Officer: Rex Chen
Rex Chen is a graduate student researcher at UC Irvine in the School of Information and Computer Science. He works part-time at Linksys-Cisco as a Product Engineer, and was a Software Engineer at Qualcomm prior. He is an engineer at heart with an entrepreneurial spirit, having won the UCI hITEC technology competition in 2003. Among other things, he is grateful to have met some wonderful mentors who have provided invaluable learning capacities and wisdom in life. He likes trying out new adventures and enjoys carrying conversations with people to talk about inspirational things on the world in large. Currently, he is learning ballroom dancing, and in particular, enjoys dancing Tango and going to milongas.

2008 Organization of Chinese Americans Orange County Chapter Board of Directors

Betty Chu-Fujita
Bio above

Jhemon Lee
Bio above

Alex Quong
Bio above

Howard Wang
Dr. Howard Wang received a B.A. in Biology from the University of Oregon, and a M.S. in Clinical Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After a brief career in teaching clinical mycology at the Mayo Clinic and conducting research in Legionnaires’ Disease at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he found his calling in education, and obtained both a M.A. and a Ph.D. degree from UCLA in Higher Education Administration.Dr. Wang is the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Executive Director of the Student Health and Counseling Center at the California State University, Fullerton. He served as the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs for two years at the California State University, San Bernardino; and as the Chief Executive Officer to the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Development and Health Division at UCLA for more than a decade. His tenure in student affairs work includes managing many student services areas, including student health services and counseling and psychological services. He also served as an advisor to several student groups, including the International Golden Key Honour Society. He is often invited to China to provide training on student development theories, student affairs administration and governance, and other selected topics on the U.S. higher education systems. One of his presentations, “Student Affairs Management in Higher Education,” became part of a chapter in a book published by the Zhongshan University Press in 2005. An article, “Student Affairs in China,” was published in the Fall 2004 issue of Leadership Exchange magazine published by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. He was also a member of the writing team for the 1998 “International Student Affairs and Services Manual” published by the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) and is currently one of the editors for the 2nd edition of the same manual.
Dr. Wang became involved (since 2005) in a bill that was recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush into law, designating eligible higher education institutions with 10% or more financially needy Asian Pacific American students as “Asian American and Native American Pacific Islanders Serving Institutions.” He worked with a number of colleagues in higher education and helped draft the “Findings” section in several legislative proposals during the early stages of the proposed bill; and with several community organizations and business leaders to help rally the passage of this bill. The current law will provide federal funding to eligible community colleges and universities for academic support services as well as community outreach programs to better serve the Asian American and Pacific Islander students. He is continuing his efforts in educating the community on this law, and work with his colleagues to insure its fair implementation.

Amy Wang
Amy Wang was born in Tainan, Taiwan. She came over at the age of five and grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (go Longhorns!) with a double-major in Sociology and Asian American Studies and a minor in Business. She currently works as a Product Marketing Coordinator for Norman International Company, where she manages new and existing product lines. She previously served as Treasurer and Public Relations Director for OCA-OC and now looks forward to serving as a Board member.