STAFF

Ellen Somekawa
Executive Director
Ellen is a third generation Japanese American from Minneapolis. There she was an activist in the Asian American student movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and the movement for indigenous land rights in the Black Hills. Over the past 20 years, Ellen has played many roles at AAU, including directing the summer youth program, serving on the board of directors, and working on campaigns as an active member. She worked on campaigns such as pushing the justice system to respond to a racially motivated murder; mobilizing community opposition to the closure of a library serving an Asian and African American neighborhood, halting the proposed stadium construction that threatened to close off the only side of Chinatown not already blocked off by corporate development, and most recently the campaign to create a public institution in Chinatown, our own school, the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School. In 1996, Ellen became the Executive Director of Asian Americans United.

Judy Ha
Assistant Director
Judy Ha is our Summer and After School Program Director. She has four years of teaching as a Pennsylvania state certified teacher as well as years of experiencing working in after school, Saturday, and summer youth programs. In 2009, she helped to plan and coordinate AAU’s Paths to Leadership summer program for middle school students. As a college student Judy was also an intern in AAU’s 2000 Freedom School Program.

AAU Volunteers

AAU relies on its extensive networks and volunteers to support its work. AAU adult members provide active support to the program. This corps of volunteers includes people with a depth and broad range of expertise: Helen Gym, a folk arts instructor and former classroom teacher; Betty Lui, a longtime bilingual outreach worker in Chinatown; Dr. Joan May Cordova, an educator with many years of teaching and multicultural curriculum development with a special expertise in oral history; Neeta Patel, AAU’s first director and director of several of AAU’s youth leadership programs; Eric Joselyn, a veteran art teacher; Ed Nakawatase, a veteran activist and long-time supporter of AAU; Sookyung Oh, a community organizer who was a college intern with AAU in 1999; Suzanne Young; Matt Tae; Danni West; Cecilia Sheen.

Younger generation AAU members also participate in program planning and support; they learn about AAU and its work through volunteering. This involvement of adult volunteers ensures that knowledge of AAU’s approach is spread through the organization, safeguarding its continuity.

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