Carolyn Chen
Executive Director
Professor of Ethnic Studies; Co-Director, Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion
University of California, Berkeley
Carolyn Chen is Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion. Her publications include Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience (Princeton 2008), Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation, co-edited with Russell Jeung (NYU 2012) and Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley (Princeton 2022). She’s written for the New York Times, Atlantic, CNN, and other publications.
Tamara Ho
Managing Board Member
Associate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies
University of California, Riverside
Tamara C. Ho is Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Romancing Human Rights: Gender, Intimacy, and Power between Burma and the West (University of Hawai’i Press, 2015). Her research has been published in the journals Amerasia, Signs, PMLA, and Discourse and in various collections in Asian American studies. She is the co-PI of the Transformative Hope video series (2022, with Russell Jeung), which features “Religious Responses of Asian American Elders to Racism.”
Jane Iwamura
Managing Board Member
Chief Academic Officer; Professor of Religious Studies
University of the West
Jane Naomi Iwamura is Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Religious Studies at University of the West. Her research focuses on Asian American religions, race and popular culture in the United States (with an emphasis on visual culture). Dr. Iwamura’s publications include Virtual Orientalism: Religion and Popular Culture in the U.S. (Oxford 2011) and the co-edited volume, Revealing the Sacred in Asian and Pacific America (Routledge 2003). She co-founded the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) and organized its first conference in 1999.
Khyati Joshi
Managing Board Member
Professor of Education
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Khyati Y. Joshi is a Professor of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her recent publications include White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020), (co-editor) Envisioning Religion, Race, and Asian Americans (University of Hawaii Press, 2020), and (co-editor) Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, 3rd edition (Routledge, 2016). She is the co-founder of the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and provides professional development to educators, lawyers, judges, and other professionals.
Grace Kao
Managing Board Member
Professor of Ethics & Interim Bishop Roy I. Sano and Kathleen A. Thomas-Sano Professor in Pacific and Asian American Theology
Claremont School of Theology
Grace Yia-Hei Kao is Visiting Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University while on leave at Claremont School of Theology. She is the author of Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World (2011) and co-editor of two anthologies: Asian American Christian Ethics (2015, with Ilsup Ahn) and Encountering the Sacred: Feminist Reflections on Women’s Lives (2018, with Rebecca Todd Peters).