Abby Li | Intern
Abby is a rising second year student at the University of St Andrews, studying art history and philosophy. As a jam enthusiast, she loves preserves and preservation, and hopes to preserve the history of Chinese Americans.
Our Team
Ted Gong | Executive Director
Ted Gong is Executive Director of the 1882 Project Foundation and President of DC chapter of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance. Before retiring in 2012, Ted was a career diplomat in the U.S. Department of State where he served primarily in East Asia on policy and operational issues related to border management and security, migration and refugees, and consular affairs. He has degrees in History, Asian Studies, and National Strategic Studies form the University of California, University of Hawaii and the U.S. Army War College. Ted is also included in The Guardian‘s The Frederick Douglass 200, a list of two hundred people — abolitionists, diplomats, writers, feminists, and more — who best embody the spirit and work of Frederick Douglass.
Franklin Odo | Deputy Director and 1882 Symposium
Franklin Odo was Founding Director of the Asian Pacific American Center at the Smithsonian Institution, 1997-2010. He was Interim Chief of the Asian Division, Library of Congress in 2011. Odo was among the few faculty members when Asian American Studies was established at UCLA, and has served as a professor of Ethnic Studies, History and/or American Studies at several universities, from the University of Hawai`i, to the University of Pennsylvania, Hunter College, Princeton, and Columbia Universities in the 1990s. He has published No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai`i during World War II, and most recently in 2013, Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawai`i. He has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Asian American Studies and a Distinguished Service Award from the Asian American Justice Center. Odo was appointed Humanist in Residence at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities at Brown University in April 2013. He currently leads a “Theme Study on Asian American Pacific Islanders” for the National Historic Landmarks Project of the National Park System.
Ali Smith | Communications & Public Affairs Director
Ali Smith is the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the 1882 Foundation. She is a PhD student in Sociology at the City University of New York. In 2019, she completed her masters at The Graduate Center in International Migration Studies with a focus on Global Cities. She also works as a Museum Educator at the Tenement Museum. At the 1882 Foundation, Ali manages communications strategy and implementation, along with other collaborative initiatives through the 1882 Symposium.
Stan Lou | Talk Story Director
Stan Lou was born in Greenville, Mississippi, of immigrant parents from China. Stan earned Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan and had a career with the Federal Aviation Administration before retiring in Washington, DC. He is most proud of his three accomplished children who all reside in California now. Upon retirement Stan went to China in 2003 to teach English to university students and to learn about himself there for almost three years. He returned to the Washington, DC, area where he has committed himself to become busily engaged with understanding more about his heritage as a Chinese American. With that as his motivation, he has worked with the Asian Pacific American community to improve the quality of life for its members. Most of his focus has been with OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, where he has served as co-president of the Greater Washington DC Chapter and is currently the Vice-President for Education & Culture on the OCA National Board. He worked with the 1882 Project and is active with a group that created the Talk Story series that engages the DC community in sharing the stories of their experiences living as APAs.
Ting-yi Oei | Curriculum & Education Director
Ting-Yi Oei is a lifelong educator. He received his BA in History from Hamilton College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University. He taught middle and high school social studies for 20 years and was a high school administrator for another ten in Virginia. Along the way he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea, was a Fulbright Teacher in Scotland, and spent a year teaching in the Dominican Republic. He was also awarded a one-year research fellowship at Teaching Tolerance, the education project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. Now he is a curriculum consultant with a particular interest in improving the quality of teaching of Asian Pacific American history.
Sojin Kim | Programs
Sojin Kim is a curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. She previously worked as a public historian in Los Angeles, collaborating with diverse local communities on exhibitions, documentation and media projects, and public programs. From 2008 to 2010, she was curator of history at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. From 1998 to 2008, she was curator at the Japanese American National Museum. Sojin holds a PhD in folklore and mythology from University of California, Los Angeles. She serves on the board of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.
John Kusano | Historic Preservation Director
John develops historic preservation programs for the 1882 Foundation and is also the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Council of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership in Washington, DC. He recently retired from a 35 year career with the US Forest Service. He is a third-generation Californian and a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.
Yuexian Huang | Historic Preservation Associate
Yuexian (Margo) Huang was born and raised in Southeast China. She received her Master’s of Science degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she studied urban planning in Peking University in Beijing, China. During her study in the U.S., Yuexian has developed strong interest in utilizing preservation as a tool to increase the visibility of minority groups, and to bring them more social justice. She is particularly enthusiastic about making the history of Chinese immigrants recognized and preserved. She has been working with 1882 Foundation since the summer of 2018 on various historic preservation initiatives. Now she is working as a GIS Technician for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.
Linda Wen | Communications Coordinator
Linda Wen has just finished her second year as a student at Georgetown University, double majoring in Government with minors in Economics and Spanish. Although originally from California, she now calls Pennsylvania home. Linda will be interning with the 1882 Foundation this summer. She loves music, literature, and writing, and hopes to incorporate these outside interests into her work. Her main area of focus is communications/outreach using social media to the Chinatown community and beyond to expand the presence of the 1882 Foundation.
Beth Zhao | Public Affairs Coordinator
Beth Zhao is the Public Affairs Coordinator at the 1882 Foundation. She graduated magna cum laude from George Mason University Class of 2019 where she double majored in Government and Chinese. Beth was also with the 1882 Foundation the previous summer as a legislative and education intern. This summer, Beth will be leading a research project on the legacy of the Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, redefining the 14th Amendment and affirming birthright citizenship for immigrants.
Abby Li | Intern
Bianca Villao | Intern
Bianca Villao is a rising junior at the George Washington University in D.C. She is majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in the Asian region and is minoring in Chinese language and literature. She is currently based in Washington, D.C., but is originally from the Bay Area in California. After living with a host family in Beijing during high school and learning about Asian-American culture in university, she continues her desire to learn more about Chinese culture, particularly the Chinese-American experience. She strives to be advocate for the Asian-American community, and is excited to grow as a member of the Summer 2019 Intern Class. She is extremely excited to be a part of the 1882 team, and she is especially looking forward to working on the team for the Chinese American Women in History Conference coming up this Fall.
Emily Wang | Intern
Emily Wang is a rising sophomore at Columbia University, majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Linguistics. Emily is from Fairfax, Virginia, and she is so excited to be home this summer interning with the 1882 Foundation. She is interested in art history and education, and plans to use her experiences as a tour guide and teacher to develop heritage tours and curriculum guides to spread public awareness of Chinese and Asian American history.
Gabi Chu | Intern
Gabi Chu is a rising second-year at the University of Virginia, hoping to major in Global Development Studies and Anthropology. Originally from Fairfax, Virginia, she graduated high school in Seoul, South Korea. Her main area of interest is in oral histories and narratives, and exploring how these stories are represented through tours. She is also interested in the intersection of the modern Asian-American experience and self-representation through fashion and art.
Jamelah Jacob | Intern
Jamelah Jacob is a rising junior at William & Mary, double majoring in Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies and Public Policy. She is passionate about expanding ethnic studies and hopes to work with the 1882 Foundation team to take on initiatives that emphasize AAPI works in literature, cinema, and music. This summer she is focusing on expanding the presence of the 1882 Foundation through the monthly Talk Story series, as well as researching and documenting the public policy implications of Chinese American history. Through her work she hopes to connect history to the present by encouraging meaningful discussions about contemporary issues that affect the AAPI community. Jamelah is excited to be in D.C. this summer, continuing her passions in the city she loves.
Jiajia Zhang | Intern
Jiajia Zhang is a rising sophomore at Amherst College double majoring in Fine Arts and American Studies with a concentration in Asian American Studies. She is also pursuing a Five-College Certificate in Asian American Studies. Jiajia has been interested in Asian Ameri
can history since she wrote a thesis on Chinese American prostitutes in San Francisco her sophomore year of high school. She is currently working on a young adult/middle grade historical fiction—with the tutelage of her Professors Dr. Odo and Dr. Hayashi—about the life of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man who grew up during the Vietnam War and Asian American Movement and was lynched in 1982, a hundred years after the passing of the first Chinese Exclusion Act. In addition to her work with 1882 Foundation, Jiajia co-chairs the Asian American Studies Working Group at Amherst College, which seeks to increase Asian American programming, hire more Asian Americanists, and eventually establish an APA Studies major at Amherst College. She is beyond grateful for the opportunity to contribute to 1882 Foundation’s work!
can history since she wrote a thesis on Chinese American prostitutes in San Francisco her sophomore year of high school. She is currently working on a young adult/middle grade historical fiction—with the tutelage of her Professors Dr. Odo and Dr. Hayashi—about the life of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man who grew up during the Vietnam War and Asian American Movement and was lynched in 1982, a hundred years after the passing of the first Chinese Exclusion Act. In addition to her work with 1882 Foundation, Jiajia co-chairs the Asian American Studies Working Group at Amherst College, which seeks to increase Asian American programming, hire more Asian Americanists, and eventually establish an APA Studies major at Amherst College. She is beyond grateful for the opportunity to contribute to 1882 Foundation’s work!
