Team

CHINA NOW FOR TEACHERS COMMITTEE

• Lucille Lee, Program Chair, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  Under Lucille’s leadership, Teachers Workshop has steadily grown since its 2013 inception. She was instrumental
  in starting the other CHINA NOW | For Teachers’ Lesson Plan Contest, the Curriculum Development
  Program, and website /resources library for modern China. Lucille joined the 1990 Institute as a
  director in 2007 and until 2013 worked on the Institute’s Microfinance Project. In her previous life, Lucille
  spent 30 years at IBM, contributing to the development of many of IBM’s firsts, including the first airline
  reservation system (SABRE), the SQL data query language, and internet standards. Lucille and her son founded a number
  of internet companies, among them eCircles.com, a social networking website. Lucille earned her BA in Mathematics
  from Hunter College, and MS in Applied Mathematics from Harvard/Radcliffe. Lucille’s husband, Billy Lee, was a founding
  Board member of the 1990 Institute.
• Paul Cheng, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  Paul has helped to guide the coordination of Teachers Workshop speakers and presentations since 2013.
  He has been a consulting administrator/associate superintendent (ret.) with the Fremont Union High
  School District since 2007. Previously, he served 34 years with the San Francisco Unified School District in
  various teaching, curricular and administrative capacities, including 16 years as principal of Lowell High
  School. He received his BA in Political Science and MAT in Social Sciences/Secondary Education from
  Harpur College/SUNY-Binghamton and MA in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University. His interest
  in China—its tumultuous history and rise—is deeply personal, as his maternal grandfather served with the Qing military
  and his father fought in the early battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Alice Chiang, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  Alice is a retired IBM software engineer whose focus has always been in making software products and
  websites easier to use. For Teachers Workshop, she applies her user experience expertise to lead participant
  survey efforts, process and operations improvements, and assist with collateral development and
  content messaging. As a 1990 Institute Board Member for over a decade, her work with China includes
  coordinating an education support program with her local church, enabling 100 girls in China’s Shaanxi
  Province complete 4th grade through high school. Alice has a BA in History from Wellesley College, a MA in Education
  from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from City University of New York.

• Irene Han, Teachers Workshop Intern
  Irene was both a student participant and teacher’s assistant for America China Exchange, a former 1990 Institute-
  sponsored summer exchange program focused on teaching English to elementary school students
  in Qiaoqi, China. She has spent numerous high school summers in China and has been a freelance writer
  for the Beijing-based International New York Times edition since 2015. Irene will be attending Stanford in
  the fall.
• May Koo, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  Since Teachers Workshop’s 2013 inception, May provides guidance on content and assists with sourcing
  speakers. May and her husband George Koo (a China business consultant) are engaged in helping the
  people of the U.S. and China understand each other and are involved with numerous U.S.-China organizations.
  Her father led the first-ever delegation of Chinese American scientists to China. May immigrated to
  the U.S. as a child and returned to China for the first time in 1974. Since then, she has made frequent trips
  to China and witnessed the dynamic change taking place. She is a Bryn Mawr alum with a degree in Physical Chemistry,
  and worked at Stanford University’s Microbiology and Immunology department for over 25 years. She is also a Board
  Member of the 1990 Institute.
  Lucille Lee, Program
• Monica A. Lee, Program Strategy, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  As the Institute’s Executive Director since 2015, Monica is keen on helping foster the next generation of
  China-savvy students, teachers and young professionals. She helped create its Youth Voices on China
  video contest, expand CHINA NOW | For Teachers, and launch the Institute’s speaker series and annual
  Gala + Symposium. An entrepreneur and former early stage venture capitalist, Monica has held business
  development, marketing and fundraising roles for founding teams in areas such as fintech/student loans,
  coffee technology, online auctions, social media, e-commerce and education arenas. She also helped negotiate
  a China retail joint venture partnership for one of her medical device VC portfolio companies. Monica earned her MBA at the
  MIT-Sloan School and graduated from Harvard College. She is also a Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance board
  member, and an advisor to two US-China media firms, Radii China and SupChina.
• Sandra Pan, Program Strategy, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  As Chairwoman of the 1990 Institute, Sandra supports the Teachers Workshop both strategically and operationally.
  Prior to retirement, she worked in numerous executive roles in the financial industry for over four
  decades, in both global and independent firms. Having lived in three continents, Sandra understands the
  value of having a global understanding and being a global citizen. She also speaks two languages, is fluent
  in three Chinese dialects, and is a frequent traveler to China. Sandra earned her BA in Economics
  from UCLA and was a board member of Asian Business League of San Francisco. She is a mentor for Ascend – Northern
  California, a pan-Asian leadership organization.
• Marisa Wong, Program & Operations Coordinator, The 1990 Institute
  Marisa provides production support to all of 1990 Institute’s programs. A recent University of Oregon
  graduate, Marisa holds a BA in Journalism PR and has previously work with local nonprofits such as Family
  House and the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program. She studied abroad at the Harbin Institute of Technology
  and speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.
• Grace Yu, Program Advisor, CHINA NOW | For Teachers
  Grace is 1990 Institute’s Vice Chair and plays a key role in shaping the Teachers Workshop curriculum content
  and overall program effectiveness. Having immigrated to the United States as a teenager, she has always
  believed that a strong U.S.-China relationship is good for the world. Grace also has a twelve-year
  history of working in public education, having served in various roles in several of Palo Alto Unified School
  District’s Parent-Teacher Associations. Before her PTA involvement, her 15-year high tech career included
  various roles at IBM and Sun Microsystems. She holds a BA in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Stony Brook, MBA in Finance
  and a MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

TEACHER ADVISORY GROUP (TAG)

• Gregory Adler
  Greg Adler’s first exposure to Asia was as an ex-pat working in the banking and computer industries.
  Now, after a 15-year career as a high school social studies teacher, he has become involved in teacher
  mentoring, curriculum development and global education programs. His student entrepreneurship project-
  turned-company, “San Jose Walks & Talks,” which offers student-led tours, has been featured in various
  Bay Area media.
• Pat Ajemian
  Pat Ajemian is currently a supervisor for secondary education credential candidates at Sonoma State University,
  Department of Curriculum Studies and Secondary Education. She taught Modern World History,
  U.S. History, American Government, Contemporary World Studies, and English Language Learners at Mills
  High School in Millbrae for 27 years and retired in 2014. She studied Chinese History in college and has
  traveled to China a number of times.
• Lisa Ernst
  Lisa Ernst is an educator at Alice Fong Yu K-8 Chinese Immersion School in San Francisco Unified School
  District. As a classroom teacher for over 28 years, she teaches 6th grade in a multiple subject classroom
  with an emphasis on integration of content through STEAM. She has participated in numerous fellowships
  from Stanford, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Yale National Initiative. Through these programs
  she has developed and presented new curriculum that have enabled her to secure over $25,000 in grants
  to fund her classroom.
• Ken Klieman
  Ken Klieman, the author of Building an Empathy-Based Classroom, has taught over 5000 students and
  trained over 1500 other teachers over the past two decades. Ken has been recognized for his work by
  being the only person ever to be a California Teacher of the Year and a Comcast All-Star Teacher of the
  Year. He has been a leading teacher trainer for the NEA and CTA, a contributor to the Smarter Balanced
  Digital Library, and an evaluator for the Innovation Lab Network Performance Based Assessments Resource
  Library. These involvements have solidified his pedagogical approach focusing on community
  building through performance-based, student-inquiry projects.
• Sushu Xia
  Sushu Xia was born in Shanghai and moved to the U.S. at age 6, thus making her part of that nebulous
  group of “1.5” generation Chinese-Americans. After briefly teaching middle school history in San Jose,
  she spent 6 years at Menlo School, where she taught World Religions, Modern World History, Asian Studies,
  and Mandarin 1. For the past 3 years, she has been working at a company that designs Chinese language
  curriculum for heritage speakers, but is very glad to return to teaching 9th and 10th grade World
  History starting in August at Nueva School.
• Pete Hammer
  Bio coming