2025-2027 Executive Board

Archie (she/her) is the Manager of School Speech Language Services and an SLP at Helping Hand School in Countryside, Illinois, a therapeutic day school. She provides services to students with a primary diagnosis of autism and collaborates with a multidisciplinary team on a daily basis. Her clinical interests include autism spectrum, augmentative and alternative communication, and apraxia. Archie is a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia who also has conversational proficiency in Spanish.

 

Vickie (she/her) is a professor in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences at California State University Northridge. Her research focuses on speech perception and language processing, bilingualism and speech acoustics. Her clinical interests are dysphagia, adult neurogenic disorders of language, cognition and speech. She is passionate about promoting visibility of the racial minority in speech-language and hearing professionals and providing support to the API community.

 

Monika (she/her) is a Medical Speech-Language Pathologist at the Aegis Therapies in Los Angeles, CA. Her clinical interests are dysphagia, aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria, and cognitive communicative disorders. She received her M.S. degree in Speech Language Pathology from California State University East Bay. She is multilingual in Indonesian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew, and Hakka dialects. She hopes to support the ongoing growth of the API caucus and bring awareness of the diverse API languages/backgrounds in the Speech Language Pathology field.

 

Joyce is an ABC from the SGV and a SNF SLP (for now). She also happens to be a TBI-survivor still utilizing strategies daily her SLP taught her a lifetime ago and is hoping that her patients will also utilize strategies when they leave her service. When she is not advocating (within SLPs of Color and the Disability Caucus), working or commuting (because she lives in LA) in her precious silver MINI she can be found reading (usually fiction) or drinking a boba (peach green tea 1⁄4 sugar, less ice, with mini boba if available) or eating some kind of noodles.

 

Ting-fen (she/her) is a medical speech-language pathologist by training. She worked in the acute setting for a few years and currently works as an assistant professor at the Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies at California State University, Fresno. Her area of research interest includes: swallowing and swallowing disorders, person-centered care, and psychophysiology. Ting-fen has engaged and participated in the Asian Pacific Islander Speech-Language-Hearing Caucus events since 2010. She is excited to continue her contribution to the Caucus.

 

Theresa (she/her) is a senior speech-language pathologist at Stanford Cancer Center and an adjunct professor at San Jose State University. She is a board-certified specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders. Her clinical and research interests include head and neck cancer rehabilitation, dysphagia, and voice disorders. Theresa hopes to be involved in the API communities and continues to be a strong advocate for her patients, students, and profession.

 

Goejoua Thao (she/her) is a Hmong American first-generation student and second-year graduate student at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her interest areas include dysphagia, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), right hemisphere damage, gender-affirming voice modification, childhood apraxia of speech, stuttering, autism spectrum disorders, and augmentative and alternative communication. Her goals include becoming a culturally responsive BIPOC SLP, providing high quality care to marginalized populations, community outreach to increase awareness and diversify the SLP demographic, empowering the BIPOC and API communities, and to contribute to research in ADRD. Currently, with Dr. Sheen Chiou, she is conducting research on the impact on student learners’ ability to provide high quality plan of care to ADRD populations as a result of interprofessional education experiences. Additionally, she is completing her fall internship across multiple assisted living facilities and memory care units.

 

Guanyu Wei (he/him) is a PhD student in Communication Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. His research interests include acquired brain injury, counseling aspects of speech-language pathology, and neurogenic communication difficulties. He aims to contribute to the evidence base for historically underrepresented populations with communication disorders.  He is currently investigating pediatric traumatic brain injury and communication partner training.

 

Sheen (she/her/她 ) was the co-President of the API Caucus from 2019-2024. She serves as Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Speech, Hearing and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She teaches academic and clinical courses in adult neurogenic disorders including aphasia and acquired cognitive disorders, runs a brain injury research lab, creates patient-centered programs for adults with neurogenic disorders, and promotes equity, inclusion and diversity in speech-language and hearing sciences.

Betty was the President of the API Caucus from 2017-2019. Betty is a Professor in the Communicative Disorders Program at San Francisco State University. Her research focuses on heritage language transmission and bilingual development in children with autism spectrum disorders in minority-language, in particular, Chinese-speaking, families. She hopes to continue building community and mutual support among API professionals and those serving API communities in order to increase access to and the quality of speech-language and hearing services for individuals in API communities.

Li was the Chair of the API Caucus and a member of the ASHA Multicultural Issues Board from 2013-2016. She is an Associate Professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department in Wayne State University. Her research focuses on the cognitive and neural networks of speech and prosody processing and different contexts, including cross-linguistically. Under Li’s leadership, the API Caucus has grown significantly and has been working steadily towards a well articulated strategic plan.

Lilly Cheng, Ph.D. Caucus Founder (since 1985), Professor, San Diego State University
Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past President (2019-2024). Professor, Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Betty Yu, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past President (2017-2019). Professor, San Francisco State University
Lei Sun, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past President (2019-2021). Associate Professor, California State University, Long Beach.
Timothy Huang, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past Vice-President (2022-2024). Assistant Professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Nadhiya Ito, M.A. CCC-SLP. Past Vice-President (2019-2021). Clinical Supervisor and Speech-Language Pathologist at Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center.
Yu-Wen Chen, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past Treasure (2019-2021). National Taiwan University.
Delphanie Wu, AuD. CCC-A. Past PR & Social Media. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Siena Xiaole Sun, Ph.D. Past PR & Media Coordinator (2019-2021).
Elizabeth Chafcouloff, M.S. CCC-SLP. Past Treasurer, President, Speech Therapy Cambodia
Greta Tan, CCC-SLP. Past Project Coordinator.
Kenneth Tom, Ph.D. CCC-SLP. Past President (1999-2006). Associate Professor Emeritus, California State University Fullerton
Li Hsieh, Ph.D. Past President (2013-2016). Associate Professor, Wayne State University
Teresa Girolamo, Ph.D. Past Secretary. University of Connecticut.
Ying-Chiao Tsao, Ph.D. Past Vice President. Associate Professor, California State University Fullerton
Ray Chen, Past Student Representative (2022-2024)
Helen Kim, Past Student Representative (2022-2024)