STAFF

COMMUNICATIONS & OPERATIONS SPECIALIST, Chan Som, graduated from UMass Boston in 2018 with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Asian American Studies and Biology. They are currently pursuing a Master's degree in Public Health at Boston University. Being a queer second generation Khmer-American, Chan has focused on the intersections of ethnic and sexual identities through multimedia products. They are excited to be a part of AWFH and advocate for health equity and inclusion for the community.

PROGRAM COORDINATOR, Phung Luu, a marketing enthusiast who wants to do things better. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Economic Information System at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city and a Master of Science in International Marketing Management at the University of Buckingham in Singapore, she worked for many big companies in Vietnam for seven years and held important positions: Marketing Manager at Yan Media Group and Brand Manager for Kiddy brand at CALOFIC. Before joining AWFH, she was a former Whole Body Team Member of Whole Foods Market, which fostered her sense of being a healthier woman. Being an immigrant who has first-hand experience of dealing with women's health issues and complexity of the U.S healthcare system, Phung finds great empathy with the Asian women living in America and wants to do something. For this reason, she is eager to be a part of AWFH where she can empower individuals with the knowledge and resources necessary to better manage their own health and that of their families. 
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PROGRAM DIRECTOR, Amrith Fernandes Prabhu (she/her/s), joins us with fifteen years in nonprofit management and public health with a focus on immigrants, sexual violence, and people with disabilities. At her most recent tenure with the Massachusetts Covid-19 Response Team at Partners in Health, she supported twenty health departments to navigate their pandemic response in terms of closing and re-opening. Prior to that, her position at The Center for Hope and Healing, Inc., included influencing the transformation and redesign of programmatic processes to reduce racial disparities, implementing data controls and quality improvement measures, and engaging communities of color in active, authentic connection. Ms. Fernandes Prabhu draws on her life experiences as an immigrant of color with a disability when writing about immigration, survivor healing, and the disability experience. Ms. Fernandes Prabhu was named one of the “Lowell 100” Social Justice immigrant honorees awarded in May 2019. She received a B.A. in Economics from American University and an M.S. from Northeastern University. She is a PhD student in Public Policy at UMass Boston. 

Ambassadors

Amy Hsu graduated from Wellesley College in 2019 with a degree in Psychology. With longstanding interest to care for people at their most vulnerable, she hopes to pursue medicine as a career. Noticing the lower rates at which Asian women complete their preventative services at her full-time job at a community health center, she began volunteering with AWFH by serving its mission to educate, advocate and support the health of minority women. She is excited to officially join the AWFH staff but most of all, to continue working towards improving the health and well-being of communities in Massachusetts.

Andrea Lai is a recruiting coordinator at Pure Storage, a tech company based in Mountain View, California. She was born and raised on the beautiful island of Guam and moved to California to study Accounting and Finance at Santa Clara University. There, she became involved in the Multicultural Student Union and served on the board of the Asian Pacific-Islander Student Union. Andrea is currently the co-lead of the API-SEA Council as part of her work’s diversity employee resource group. Harboring a passion for mental health, she is excited to be a part of the AWFH community and advocate for change

Jennifer Liu is a second-year undergraduate student at Tufts University from Indonesia studying mechanical and biomedical engineering. She is involved in the Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia Students Association at Tufts and Cornerstone education, an organization that aims to empower the Indonesian youth through education. Jennifer's tenure with AWFH is her first of many steps along a lifelong path of advocacy dedicated to women empowerment and health activism. She is excited to be a part of a community that strives to improve the health and well-being of Asian women.

Rachel Park is a digital project manager and focuses on operations and strategic planning. After graduating with a B.A. in history from Bryn Mawr College, Rachel taught English in Seoul, South Korea for two years. Since then, she has worked on web teams in higher education, healthcare IT, and e-commerce. Rachel’s mission-oriented mindset has led to her involvement in the Boston nonprofit community. She is passionate about raising awareness on Asian women’s mental health, as well as health equity across communities of color.

Thanh Trinh is a scientist with extensive research experience in neurology. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Clark University and is pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. She was a former researcher-lab manager at UMASS Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Medical Center, and currently a scientist at a biotech company. Being exposed to academia, clinical settings, biopharmaceutical industry, as well as the diverse and vulnerable populations through her clinic and volunteer work, she is deeply passionate about science, and translating research into practices and policies with the mission to improve healthcare in the long term to help the vulnerable and underserved populations. Thanh finds her passion meets with AWFH's mission, where she strongly believes that legislative action and public policy coupled with education awareness programs can bring great change to holistic healthcare, especially to Asian women and women of color, in a broad range of physical and mental health.