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.

Sojin Kim | Special Projects and Collaborations Advisor
Sojin Kim is a curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, where she works on multifaceted, collaborative projects addressing migration, music, and public history. She was previously a curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (2008-2010) and the Japanese American National Museum (1998-2008). Sojin holds a PhD in folklore and mythology from University of California, Los Angeles. She serves on the board of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP).
Stan Lou | Talk Story Director


Ting-yi Oei | Curriculum & Education Director
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.


Jenn Low | Deputy Director and Chinatown Programs
Jenn is an integrative designer and landscape architect with over twelve years of experience as a Landscape Architect in New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. She is also a design educator with experience in both secondary and higher education. Jenn holds an MDes in Integrative Design at the Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan and a Bachelor in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington. Expanding her skillsets beyond traditional modes of urban design practice, her work centers issues in design, power, and spatial justice. In collaboration with the 1882 Foundation, her thesis project, Dear Chinatown, DC, explored how we can redesign public engagement practices that give community members a more meaningful role in how our neighborhoods are planned and designed.
May Cheh | Senior Advisor for Programs
May Cheh earned degrees in Chemistry and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley and American University. She had a career at the National Institutes of Health doing research in medical informatics and directing a training program for visiting fellows at her institute. May was born in Guangdong, China, and came to the United States as a toddler. The first member of her family came to the United State during the California Gold Rush in the 1800’s, but, because of the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act against Chinese immigration, May and her mother were the first women in their family to immigrate to the United States. May’s passion is to preserve the history and stories of Chinese families in America.


Lily Liu | 2020 Summer Internship Mentor
Beth Zhao | Public Affairs Coordinator
Beth graduated magna cum laude from George Mason University Class of 2019 where she double majored in Government and Chinese and will be pursuing her J.D. at The George Washington University Law School. She first joined 1882 Foundation as an intern in 2018. Last summer, Beth launched 1882 Foundation’s first podcast on the legacy of the Supreme Court decision on U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark to interpret the 14th Amendment and affirm birthright citizenship for people born in the United States regardless of their immigration status. This summer, Beth is coordinating 1882 Foundation’s internship program while working with OCA-DC on census and voter outreach.


Linda Wen | Programs Associate
Bianca Villao | Communications and Public Affairs Associate


Kyle Wang | Programs Associate
Kyle Wang is a rising senior at Stanford University studying English and minoring in Mathematics. He’s passionate about anticolonial histories, all kinds of poetry, and the weird universes of comics and videogames. He started working with the 1882 Foundation last summer as an intern with the organization’s historic preservation and Literature Corner initiatives, and he’s excited to be back again this summer to continue his work with the team.
Sabrina Brogniart | Programs Associate
Sabrina Brogniart graduates this summer from Michigan State University with a degree in Comparative Cultures and Politics as well as minors in German and Asian Pacific American Studies. She hails from the metro Detroit area, comes from a multi-racial family, and has had the opportunity to have lived in France, Okinawa, Morocco, Germany, and Taiwan. Sabrina started with the 1882 Foundation as an intern in the summer of 2020 and worked on projects pertaining to development in DC Chinatown and fundraising for a memorial at Range 99 in the Congressional Cemetery. Currently, she is launching a new project initiative on mixed and/or multi-cultural Asian Americans. After graduation, Sabrina hopes to receive the Fulbright award or study at an international graduate school.


Lauren Eng | Programs Associate
Lauren Eng is a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is majoring in Information Science and double minoring in Asian American Studies and Sustainability Studies. She joined the 1882 Foundation as an intern in 2020, and since then, her work has focused on the Literature & Art Corner. Currently, she is leading a team to design and develop a public database web application that will provide Asian American media recommendations. She also writes event recaps and articles for the Literature Corner Blog, as well as op-eds for local publications. In addition to her 1882 Foundation work, she is a Community Network Leader for the Hydrocephalus Association, a Database Engineer on faculty research, and Senior Advisor of her multicultural college a cappella group.
2021 Summer Interns
Julia Lin


Claudia Vinci
Claudia Vinci is a rising second-year in the public history master’s program at American University. She is from Brownsburg, Indiana and moved to Washington, D.C. this January. Claudia worked with the 1882 Foundation this past spring semester in her public history practicum course, where she worked with two other interns, Mia Owens and Mengshu Ye, on the AAPI in D.C. historic context study. Claudia is thrilled to be working here again and for her team to continue their relationship with the Chinese Community Church, which was the major point of focus for their work this Spring.
Rachel Li
Rachel Li is a rising sophomore at Georgetown University from Columbus, Ohio. She intends to major in Government and History. She is looking forward to learning more about Chinese culture and history, especially through the lens of living in the United States. She is very excited to work on spreading awareness about the Chinese-American community, the broader AAPI community, and the challenges these groups face.


Mia Owens
Mia is from Birmingham, Alabama, and she is a Public History M.A. student at American University. She received her B.A. in Global Studies and French from Samford University in 2019. After completing her undergraduate degree, she joined the AmeriCorps-Ohio History Service Corps as a Local History member for the Trumbull County Historical Society. Mia is the inaugural AU Public History Fellow in the History of Slavery and Its Legacies in Washington, DC. For the first year of the two-year fellowship, she assisted the White House Historical Association with their Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood research initiative. Beginning in fall 2021, she will be working with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. She is excited to be working with the 1882 Foundation this summer on research for D.C.’s first Asian American Historic Context Statement.
Kenneth Vaca
Kenny Vaca is a rising senior at the University of Houston where he’s majoring in supply chain management and minoring in marketing. As a person of multiethnic descent, Kenny is deeply interested in the ways that a person’s culture contributes to their identity. During his time with the 1882 Foundation, Kenny looks forward to learning more about the intersections of Asian American history with modern circumstances and working with others on projects to benefit the AAPI community.


Angela Lau
Angela Lau is a student from Seattle, Washington attending Western Washington University with a major in Chinese Language. She looks forward to delving into the little known history of Asian Americans in the United States, and also hopes to study more about how the history of Asian Americans has affected our country.
Mengshu Ye
Mengshu Ye is a student at American University’s Public History Graduate Program. She is from Changchun, China, and this summer with the 1882 Foundation, she looks forward to continuing to work on the Asian American Context Study and exploring the military aspect of the DC API community.


Audrey Meigs
Audrey Meigs is a rising Junior Political Science major and East Asian Studies minor at Davidson College. She is a John M. Belk Scholar and a Political Science Honors student. Audrey is from Asheville, North Carolina and was born in Yueyang in Hunan Province of China. Since starting college, she has worked as a Writing Fellow in the Davidson Writing Department and works as a Research Assistant in the Davidson Political Science Department. Audrey is the Social Chair for the Pan-Asian Student Association and is incredibly passionate about Asian American culture and identity. She has interned for North Carolina Asian Americans Together and OCA Asian Pacific Advocates, organizations that help advance the rights of AAPI communities. In her free time, Audrey loves reading, hiking, cooking, performing in plays, and playing with her three dogs. After Davidson, Audrey plans to go to graduate school to pursue a career in human rights work. She is so excited to have this opportunity with the 1882 Foundation!
Anouk Yeh
Anouk Yeh is a rising senior at Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California. She is interested in lobbying for Asian American studies in K-12 education and exploring the legacy of US imperialism in Asia. Anouk joined 1882 this summer and is excited to contribute to 1882’s Literature Corner projects and education initiatives.
