OCA - Orange County Chapter

2006 Organization of Chinese Americans Orange County Chapter Officers

President: Jhemon Lee, M.D. [email]
Dr. Jhemon Lee is Vice Chair of the Department of Radiology of Los Alamitos Medical Center in Los Alamitos, California. He is also a radiologist at the MemRAD Medical Group based in Long Beach, California. 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.

In addition to being president of OCA-Orange County, Jhemon 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; 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. He was on the Steering Committees for the 1997 OCA National Convention and the 2000 APEX/NAAAP National Conference. Honors include being named to “Who’s Who in America” and “America’s Top Physicians,” and a NAAAP National Lifetime Achievement Award. This past year, he has also dabbled in decidedly non-medical pursuits, such as taking acting classes with East West Players and being a part of the Lab Workshop of Cold Tofu, an Asian American improv comedy troupe.

Vice President: Alex Quong
Alex is a Software Engineer 3 at Northrop-Grumman. He used to be Application Software/Programmer Analyst External 3 but this exciting change in title did not occur via lateral promotion but rather through a company reorganization. This happens quite often, so it is no wonder the company no longer issues him new business cards. When he is not playing Freecell and Minesweeper, he is mastering the new Spider Solitaire. Actually, he can’t really tell you what the heck he does because then he might have to kill you, but it does involve sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer all day.

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 girls! 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. Before his stint in OCA, he served with Young Generation Asian Professionals (YGAP) in many capacities. His service with YGAP was definitely to meet girls.

Secretary: Vicki Ta
Vicki Ta was born in Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War. Due to ethnic persecution, she and her family fled Vietnam and became refugees in the Philippines. They immigrated to Chicago, Illinois in 1980. Aware that she is more fortunate than most, Vicki has been an active volunteer for countless organizations since high school. During her senior year at Whitney M. Young high school, Vicki was an Operations Officer in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. At Wilbur Wright College, she joined Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society of the Two Year College and served as the chapter’s recording secretary. The following year, Vicki served as chapter president before graduating from Wilbur Wright College with two Associate degrees.

Thanks to opportunities and support from professors like Ginia Jahrke, she became a Gates Millennium Scholar, transferred to Northwestern University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Language and Civilization without incurring any student loans. Vicki currently lives in Southern California and works at Norman Shutters as a Procedure Coordinator. She also actively volunteers for the Organization of Chinese Americans Orange County Chapter as Secretary, TransViet Imex Corporation as Public Relations Manager, and sporadically for a few other non-profit organizations. Vicki Ta plans to continue serving in the community and hopes to make a difference in others’ lives, similar to what others have done for her. She also looks forward to new challenges in 2007 that offer personal and professional growth.

Treasurer: 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!). She double majored in Sociology and Asian American Studies and minored in Business. She currently works in Product Marketing for Norman International Company, and hobbies include movies, sports, trying new cuisines and Asian American literature.

Board Member: Albert T. Wong [email] [blog]
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.

Board Member: Jude Wu
Born a vivacious Rooster in 1981, from the bustling island of Taiwan, Jude Wu immigrated with her parents to Toronto, Canada in 1990. Despite knowledge of only Taiwanese and Mandarin, she swiftly integrated into the serene Canadian society, where not only did she discover English, but also became familiar with Cantonese.

After graduating from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in December 2003, she moved unaccompanied to California where she now enjoys the weather immensely. Jude spends most of her time reading, exercising her thumb and learning new languages. She joined OCA-OC in November 2005 as a Board Member and is optimistic about her involvement and the direction of the chapter.

Board Member: Natalia M. Yamashiro
Natalia M. Yamashiro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came to the United States at the age of thirteen. Graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Finance and Spanish. Currently a history graduate student at Cal State Fullerton where she works at the International Education & Exchange Dept. Natalia’s previous work experience are in the workers’ comp and in the auto insurance arena. In her spare time Natalia is an oral historian for J.A. Living Legacy where she interviews prominent members of the Japanese-American community.

Board Member: Pei-Chi Chou
Pei-Chi is currently employed as an Inside Sales Manager for American Bright Optoelectronic Corp., a leading supplier of LED’s for all sorts of applications. She graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 2001 with a degree in economics. She was born in Taiwan but has grown up in Los Angeles, California since the age of eight. Her hobbies include but are not limited to movies, karaoke, shopping, gourmet food and working out. Being involved in the Asian American community has been one of her passions. She will be attending Pepperdine University for a Masters of Business Administration beginning in the fall of 2006.