Cianna Winnick is a public accountant with Weiner and Rice, PC in Newton, MA who specializes in individual, small business, and non-profit taxes. As ASPIRE’s Treasurer, she is responsible for handling the organization’s finances. She is also Chair of the Events Committee.  Cianna earned a B.S.B.A. in International Business from Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Upon graduation, she worked for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington, D.C.  There she promoted equal access for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to governmental programs and contracting opportunities.  In her spare time, she enjoys going to the movies and playing with her fun-loving dogs.  Cianna is fully dedicated to ASPIRE’s mission of helping young Asian American women develop leadership skills that will carry them through their lifetime.

Delia Cheung Hom is an educator and activist who currently serves as the Director of the Asian American Center at Northeastern University (http://www.northeastern.edu/aac/) Delia's passion for working with Asian American students stems from her experiences as an undergraduate at Vassar College, where she graduated with a BA in Cognitive Science. Delia also earned an MA in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University, and most recently, an MA in Education from Claremont Graduate University. After spending time on the west coast, Delia has come back to her home state of Massachusetts. She is involved with Boston Progress Arts Collective, a local API* arts organization (http://bostonprogress.org/). When she's not at work, Delia enjoys being a feminist, reading, blogging, and doing number puzzles in her head.

Erica Lee is currently a doctoral student in the Clinical Science program at the University of California, Berkeley, where she researches risk and protective factors for Chinese American immigrant children and conducts psychotherapy with children, adolescents, and families. She was previously a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she studied schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She received her BA in Psychology from Cornell University in 2003, where she worked at a child and adolescent partial hospital, with high-risk elementary school children, and with families affected by domestic and dating violence. In Boston, she volunteered with the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Asian Task Force for Domestic Violence, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Chinese American Mental Health Outreach Project. Erica is passionate about improving child and family mental health, and she hopes to continue supporting minority families from underserved backgrounds through her research, clinical, volunteer, and advocacy work. She served as Director of ASPIRE's Youth Leadership Program from 2005-2008.

Jane Lee is a Corporate Affairs Manager and Project Assistant at RES Group Inc. Before college, she wanted to become a doctor because the idea had been introduced to her throughout her life. However, during college, she slowly began to realize that she wanted other things from her life. She left her hometown of Leonia, New Jersey to attend Boston University as a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major. Although she has a degree in science, she is pursuing a career in project management. Jane has been part of ASPIRE since Fall 2007, starting off as the Marketing/Communications Chair. In 2008, Jane took on the role of 2009 Conference Director and continues to fulfill the role for the 2010 Conference. She is now a Board Member. Her passion for ASPIRE is very strong since she believes in the power of sharing experiences to improve the lives of future generations of Asian American females.

Karen S. Young is a determined trailblazer and entrepreneur, having her hands in launching advocacy and arts projects such as Youth on Board, Odaiko New England, and most recently,The Genki Spark: Taiko Projects with Attitude. After receiving her BA in Human Ecology at Humboldt State University in California, Karen's first job involved traveling the US organizing and training 1,000's of college activists before arriving in Boston in 1993. With over twenty years of experience, Karen has used her skills as a trainer, counselor, facilitator, and consultant to address issues of education reform, public policy, oppression, and youth development on local, national, and international levels. Combining her expertise as an entrepreneur and performing artist, Karen's current passion lies with using the art of Japanese Taiko Drumming to strengthen the community, connect with others, and share the history and current realities of Asian Americans.

Kozue Sawame is Development and Communications Manager at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK), a nonprofit organization based in Boston and Lowell serving survivors of domestic violence and raising awareness of the issues. Originally from Hokkaido, Japan, Kozue earned her bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Communications from Hosei University, Tokyo. She moved to the U.S. to attend graduate school at Georgetown University in 2004. After completing her master’s degree in Communications, Culture and Technology, she moved to Boston in 2007. To contribute more to Boston’s Asian Community, she joined ASPIRE in the fall of 2007 as the conference external relations chair. Since then, Kozue has been happily taking on various roles and tasks for the organization. Kozue loves traveling and learning about different cultures. Kozue also remains connected to Japan and its nonprofit growing sector. She wrote articles about her own experience as a fundraiser in the U.S. for a Japanese magazine published by the Japanese Fund Raising Association, and is an active supporter of the Japanese Women’s Leadership Initiative, a Japan-U.S. nonprofit organization through which Japanese women attend a month-long program in Boston to learn nonprofit management and leadership skills.

Qingjian (QJ) Shi was born in Shenyang, China and moved to the United States a week before her 10th birthday. Ms. Shi is currently a graduate student at the Smith College School of Social Work. In her previous work, Qingjian acted as the Director of Education and Outreach at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) where she provided cultural competency trainings to community-based organizations, service provides, and law enforcement agencies. Ms. Shi engaged community organizations and service providers in conversations about the race, gender, class and sexual identity and trained organizations to incorporate cross-cultural skills in their work. While at ATASK, Qingjian conceptualized and implemented a youth program called the Youth Empowerment Project – a program engaging Asian American young people to become leaders in their communities and voices of anti-violence. Qingjian is also a trainer for the Sticky Rice Project, an anti-racism training initiative focusing on addressing racism beyond the white/black paradigm. Outside of activism, Qingjian enjoys the life of a foodie, always spending time looking for the next best restaurant to eat at. To balance this food-heavy lifestyle, Qingjian practices yoga and enjoys riding her bike.

Nellie Hsu, founder of ASPIRE, recently received her MBA from Harvard Business School and now works at Clorox as an Associate Marketing Manager. Prior to that, she was a Brand Planner for Arnold Worldwide on the anti-smoking “Truth” campaign, Ocean Spray, Oral-B, and Citizens Bank. Having graduated from Duke University in 1998 with a major in Comparative Area Studies and a minor in Japanese, she spent a year in Taipei as a Government Analyst before moving on to Kaiser Associates in Washington, D.C. as an Associate Consultant. She founded ASPIRE in 2001.