Annie Tan is a special education teacher, activist, writer and storyteller based in Chinatown, New York City. Annie fights for her students, public education, teachers unions, tenants rights, and Asian American issues, working to organize a better world. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, The New Republic, PBS' documentary series Asian Americans, and twice on the Moth Radio Hour. Annie is currently working on her first book, a memoir. You can follow Annie's work at annietan.com and @annietangent!

Courtney is the Owner and General Manager of CSz Boston, as well as the owner of The Rozzie Square Theater, located in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. As a professional improviser for over 19 years, Courtney has designed and led team building workshops and provided entertainment for companies like Deloitte, The Boston Red Sox, Bloomberg LP, and Northeastern University. Since 2001, she has been a performer and educator with CSz Worldwide, which is home to the award-winning improv comedy show, ComedySportz, performed in 30 cities across the US and Europe. Courtney hails from San Francisco and holds over a 15 years of experience in communication & public relations. Today she dedicates non-working hours to working with local and national orgs and initiatives that focus on empowering BIPOC/WOC/Women leadership and entrepreneurship. She is currently serving her first of a 3-year term on the Board of Directors for Roslindale Village Mainstreet. In 2020 she was recognized as a Boston Business Journal 40 under 40 Honoree, an annual award that highlights the city’s best and brightest young professionals. She’s the world’s okayest rock climber, is nearsighted, and dust intolerant. 

Alessandra "Drea" Panares (she/her) is a queer Filipina playwright, poet, and advocate based on Pawtucket and Massachusett land (Boston.) She is a member of the City of Boston's SPARK Council and volunteers with her neighborhood public health and mutual aid organizations. She is constantly exploring the intersections of arts, civics, and public health, with a particular passion for equity and inclusion work. Drea holds Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and History & a minor in Women's and Gender Studies from Creighton University. You can access her linktree here.

Elena Lau is an award-winning and recognized real estate broker in the Greater Boston area, specializing in residential and investment properties. She is the CEO of UNION Real Estate, LLC, a Woman-Owned business dedicated to helping clients achieve their real estate goals. As a first generation immigrant and graduate of Northeastern University, Elena now serves as the Immediate Past President for the Boston Chapter and the Chapter Development Committee Chair of the nationally-acclaimed non-profit trade organization, Asian Real Estate Association of America, with a mission to promote sustainable housing opportunities.

Kristina Bustos (she/her/siya) is a first-generation Filipina American whose work is focused on anti-racism and community care. She is a diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner, facilitator, cultural educator, writer, mental health advocate, and space creator and holder. Kristina’s workshops and trainings are trauma-informed and center on the wellbeing and solidarity for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and she is committed to amplifying the voices of BIPOC women through her writing and community events. Her words have been in Bustle, Essence, Hella Pinay, Paste Magazine, and The Riveter Magazine as well as in the 2016 live production Raised Pinay – an all-Pinay cast who performed their self-written stories about being Pinay (a term for Filipina in Tagalog). Kristina is the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House after transitioning from her role as the Director of Operations at their Women’s Mental Health Shelter.

Mary Despe is a Recruitment Consultant and Careers Influencer based on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. She is the Owner of MK Despe Consulting, a recruitment and careers sole proprietorship. For close to 20 years she has connected amazing talent with outstanding start-ups and organizations in North America, Western Europe and Australia. She advises entrepreneurs on how to avoid the "I need to clone myself" and other panicked approaches to hiring, and promotes strategies that align people in productive, successful partnerships. Though she enjoys working with businesses to build high-performing teams, Mary is passionate about helping job seekers attract and land the opportunities they desire. She has coached professionals to secure new roles and navigate industry changes through unique personal brand strategy.

Mary contributes to websites such as Career Addict, Fairygodboss, Medium and LinkedIn, and has been featured in hiring-related articles for Honolulu Civilbeat, Refinery29, and LinkedIn's Get Hired newsletter. She has been a featured speaker at the 2021 Honolulu Women’s Leadership Conference and the 2020 and 2021 Women’s Leadership & Empowerment Conferences in Bali, Indonesia. She is a regular contributor to Girls Nite Live, an international e-commerce and education platform that empowers and amplifies the voices of women through online programming for women, by women.

You can connect with Mary through LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or visit her website.

Melissah Yang is the entertainment director at Refinery29, the leading next-gen media and entertainment platform focused on women and underrepresented voices pushing the status quo in their lives and in the world. With a 360-degree approach to storytelling, she manages the entertainment team’s editorial coverage to track the cultural impact of who’s entertaining us, how we’re being entertained, and how this all connects to our real-life identities. Melissah is based in Los Angeles and previously worked at CNN, Bustle, and the LA Business Journal. When she isn’t at screenings, you can catch her gaming and streaming on Twitch.

Dr. Rachel Kuo writes, teaches, and researches race, social movements, and digital technology. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and 2021-22 Visiting Scholar at Duke University's program in Asian American and Diasporic Studies. She is a founding member and current affiliate of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies and also a co-founder of the Asian American Feminist Collective.

Sandy (she/they) is a storyteller and non-profit professional based in Austin, Texas. She currently works as the Associate Director of Place-Based Programs at an organization that mentors first generation students to and through college. When she’s not at work, she is a contributing member to Austin’s creative community as a writer/playwright, producer, facilitator, and performer.