He was a national co-chair for the Obama/Biden re-election campaign in 2012 and served on the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, focusing on arts education and cultural diplomacy, including the first-ever US Government arts delegation to Cuba. Penn has taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Los Angeles. Originally from New Jersey, he received his undergraduate degree in sociology, theater, film, and television at the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Earlier in the year, Penn wrapped production on the Bloomberg Green climate change docuseries, Getting Warmer, and the Viacom/Paramount + comedy, Surina & Mel. Following the departure of Trevor Noah from The Daily Show, Kal was named as an upcoming guest host.

His first book You Can’t Be Serious was released on November 2, 2021 from Simon and Schuster/Gallery Books. He also narrates the audiobook.

Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (2007) was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air, USA Today, and a national bestseller. Free Food for Millionaires is being adapted as a Netflix television series with Lee penning the screen adaptation, and with Alan Yang serving as non-writing executive producer.

Her writings have appeared in The New Yorker, NPR’s Selected Shorts, One Story, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Condé Nast Traveler, The Times of London, Food & Wine, Vogue and The Wall Street Journal. She served as a columnist for the Chosun Ilbo, the leading newspaper of South Korea.

Lee was named as an Adweek Creative 100 for being one of the “10 Writers and Editors Who are Changing the National Conversation” and a Frederick Douglass 200.

Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fiction fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Monmouth College. From 2019-2022, she will be a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College. She was inducted in the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame, the Bronx High School of Science Hall of Fame, and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. In 2022 she was awarded South Korea’s Manhae Grand Prize for Literature. She serves as a trustee of PEN America, as a director of the Authors Guild, and on the National Advisory Board of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard. She is currently at work on Name Recognition: A Memoir of Visibility and Voice and is researching and writing her third novel, American Hagwon, which will complete “The Koreans” trilogy.

Lin's incredible story is a testament to the power of opportunity. After going undrafted and being cut by multiple teams, his triumph is proof that the last man off the bench might be a star waiting to shine. Whether this is on a basketball court or in communities throughout the world, he believes that other people and organizations are able to make a difference. Lin launched The Jeremy Lin Foundation in 2011 and announced its first initiative at NBA All-Star 2013. The Jeremy Lin Foundation mission is to love and serve overlooked AAPI and muti-racial youth by supporting comprehensive programs through narrative change, community empowerment, and cross racial solidarity. Since inception, the Foundation has partnered with >30 community based nonprofits, and collectively current grantees serve >35,000 low income AAPI and multi-racial youth. The Foundation recently launched the Stronger Together Collaborative in NYC to nine community AAPI youth organizations that are bridge building and coalition building with other communities of color in solidarity. Lin has been vocal in the mission to fight anti-Asian racism. He wrote about the racist, deadly attacks on the Asian community in a piece for Time Magazine. Lin’s philanthropic and community impact footprint also extends globally. As a UNICEF USA ambassador since 2021, he advocates for the rights and wellbeing of children across the globe, joining campaigns annually on World Children’s Day, World Mental Health Day, and World Immunization Week, among others. Lin has also supported numerous philanthropic efforts in Asia, such as supporting quality and inclusive education for migrant children and rural left-behind children in China, building over 300 basketball courts and donating sports gear to schools in rural China through corporate partnerships, and funding extracurricular and mental health programs for children from low income families throughout Asia. He also hopes to invest in community development efforts in South East Asia through impact investing initiatives, to make long-term and sustainable impacts in vulnerable communities and investing in their potential. Lin is a firm believer in value driven and community centered approach to identify strategies and solutions to help vulnerable communities thrive. For more information on Jeremy Lin and The Jeremy Lin Foundation, visit www.jeremylinfoundation.org.

She is a three-time James Beard Award-winner and a six-time IACP Award-winner including the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. She is currently partnering with the James Beard Foundation on the #SupportChinatowns social media campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise public awareness that we must all support America’s Chinatowns today so they will exist for others to enjoy tomorrow.

Named the “poet laureate of the wok” by food historian Betty Fussell, Grace has devoted her career to demystifying the ancient cooking utensil for use in contemporary kitchens. She has devoted much of her career to preserving the traditional iron wok and is widely known as the Stir-Fry Guru and Wok Therapist. She was recently featured in a special profile in Serious Eats, with her wok collection. In 2022 Grace donated her family’s wok, circa 1949, to the Smithsonian’ National Museum of American History, where it serves as a significant artifact of Chinese-American culinary history.

In 2015, having completed its mission, the Society was dissolved and PAF Hawaii, Inc. was formed to secure ownership of the two Waikalua Loko ponds located in the southern end of Kāneʻohe bay. Over the years PAF has successfully integrated the restoration and learning process of not only the pond but the entire ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe, and the Koʻolaupoko district. We have created over 200 community partnerships both locally and nationally as a foundation to inspire, teach, and collaborate in new innovative ways that bridge native Hawaiian traditional wisdom with contemporary knowledge. PAF has emerged as one of the leaders in developing culturally relevant curricula that is ʻāina-based and project based utilizing the broader community as a new classroom framework. Over 21 curricula titles have been developed including Hawaiian fishponds, ahupuaʻa, island ecosystems including Kahoʻolawe, island reefs, tsunamis, sea level rise and climate change. Over 6,000 teachers have been trained by our staff since 2000 in our curricula which have received numerous awards from the Hawaii Department of Education and others. PAF helped to form a statewide network called Hui Mālama O Loko I’a as a way to share and broaden the awareness of the significance of the Loko Iʻa in Hawaiʻi’s unique and natural environment.

Since 1995, when the restoration of Waikalua Loko began, over 125,000 students, families and other community members have helped us to learn, restore and become more active stewards of the ‘āina.

Our greatest work has been in leveraging collaborative opportunities to expand our reach into the transformation of how we teach in Hawaii’s schools. Our experience in working with public, private, charter and home schools over the years have driven us to adopt innovative strategies in making systemic change one teacher, one school, one complex at a time.

Charting Our Path Forward….

Waikalua Loko I’a has become the “piko” of our organization in profound ways that we are only beginning to learn. As we reflect on the 30 years, we have become even more driven to help prepare ourselves, our family and community for the challenges of the next 30 years. We have adapted to a generational mindset in which everyday decisions are weighed against a preferred future built upon the wisdom of our ancestors nourishing our ʻohana as it did them in the generations that have passed.

As we celebrate the journey of a mere 30 years, the spirit of ʻohana burns bright as it lights the way to our future, built on solid foundations of Aloha.

Come join us as we celebrate the journey of a single generation while we begin to embark into the next as the PAF ʻOhana!

She also serves in various leadership roles which include: (a) councilmember for the WI Governor’s Council on Domestic Abuse, (b) commissioner for City of Milwaukee Commission for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, (c) founder and board member for WI Black and Brown Womyn Power Coalition, and (d) core leader of the Viv Ncaus Hmong Women’s Giving Circle.

Xiong is deeply passionate about building and investing in unapologetic social justice warriors that will use their gifts to impact the world and end violence against women, girls, Queer and Trans people. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Science in Administrative Leadership with Emphasis in Adult Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.