The following bios were current as of the Sabbatical award date, but have not been updated.
Tim Dang is the Artistic Director of East West Players, an Asian American theater company that produces a season of plays each year as well as offering programs to develop Asian American theater artists, such as Theater for Youth, the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute, and training programs in stage and film techniques. Mr. Dang is an accomplished director and producer in his own right, having staged productions at East West and many other theaters.
Esther Feldman founded Community Conservancy International in 1997, where she serves as President, after a long career developing park, recreational and open space lands in Los Angeles. CCI's main focus is on developing Baldwin Hills Park, a 1,400 acre area that will offer playgrounds, camp sites, baseball fields, a community and senior center, and botanical garden to a city that is second only to New York City for its lack of open space available to residents.
Susan Kujawa first came to the Mothers' Club Community Center 30 years ago as a client, and now serves as the organization's Executive Director. The Mothers' Club is a community based organization that provides parenting education and other classes for isolated, disadvantaged women, as well as an early childhood education program for their children ages 0-5, and home visiting and on-site services at their Pasadena and Altadena locations.
Sister Jennie Lechtenberg is the founder and Executive Director of Puente Learning Center, a nationally and internationally renowned center with locations in Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles. Each day, Puente provides educational instruction to over 3,000 economically and educationally disadvantaged students, from preschool to elderly. Prior to founding Puente in 1985, Sister Jennie taught elementary school in Boyle Heights for 20 years.
Jonathan Parfrey is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles affiliate of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national organization dedicated to the eradication of nuclear weapons, global environmental pollution and gun violence. PSR-LA is one of the lead agencies developing an environmental health and justice network in Los Angeles, and has worked with the L.A. Unified School District to implement a least-toxic approach to pesticide use.
May L. To founded the Asian Youth Center in 1989, and has served as its Executive Director since then, overseeing its growth from three to 35 staff. In a multilingual and multicultural environment, Asian Youth Center offers delinquency and substance abuse prevention programs, tobacco control, HIV/AIDS education, testing and counseling, and an after school program of arts, athletics and academic tutoring for San Gabriel Valley youth.
Sabbatical Program