APIAVote Board Members
Daphne Kwok, Chair
Daphne Kwok's involvement in the political arena goes back 20 years having coordinated the Asian Pacific Americans in Northern Virginia for a number of candidates including Gerald Baliles' Virginia gubernatorial campaign. She was also active in the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and a member of the Virginia Affirmative Action Committee for Delegate Selection. At the national level, Ms. Kwok was a volunteer for the Asian Pacific American office of the Democratic National Committee during its establishment of the Asian Pacific American Democratic Caucus. She has participated in the 1992 and the 2000 Democratic Presidential Conventions and a volunteer for the Asian Pacific Americans for Clinton/Gore campaigns and the Gore/Lieberman campaign. Ms. Kwok was an Assistant with the National Democratic Council of Asian Pacific Americans, the first National Democratic Asian Pacific American PAC. Under her tenure as the Executive Director of the Organization of Chinese Americans(OCA), Ms. Kwok coordinated the historic 1996 national APIAVote effort focusing on voter education, voter registration and voter mobilization of the APA community. In her recent position as Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies(APAICS), Ms. Kwok focused on increasing participation of individuals of Asian Pacific Islander heritage at all levels of the political process, from community service to elected office. She worked with APA elected officials providing leadership training. Ms. Kwok currently serves as the executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.
Bouapha Toommaly, Vice-Chair
Ms. Toommaly was born in Laos; her family immigrated to the US in 1979 as political refugees in the aftermath the Vietnam War. Her parents settled San Francisco Bay Area in California and raised five children. Throughout her career, Ms. Toommaly has carefully weaved and integrated community organizing with public policy and politics to promote systemic change that positively impacts the lives of many people.
At the age of 19, she began her career as a community organizer with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, working on environmental justice issues in Richmond, CA. Three years later, she took on the position of the youth coordinator for the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, where she was able to work with young EJ organizers from all over the country to develop a national youth strategy for the EJ movement. With a deeper understanding of the issues and struggles and the framework of environmental justice, Bouapha came to the Rural Coalition in Washington, DC to work on issues of economic justice, land struggle, agriculture and fair trade. Here, she advocated on behalf of small and minority farmers and Farmworkers. In 2004, she took part in the national nonpartisan voter mobilization with National Voice, where she built the foundation for a national organization dedicated to engaging Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in our nation’s political process. She later moved on to serve as the National Director of APIA Vote, where she continued to encourage the Asian and Pacific Islander American community to vote and participate in other civic engagement activities. Her experiences with electoral organizing re-affirmed her belief that building community-based power is an important strategy to empowering communities.
Ms. Toommaly currently serves as the Special Assistant to Mayor Ronald V. Dellums in Oakland, CA.
Steve Takemura, Treasurer
Steve Takemura is a consultant that focuses on non-profit financial operations. Steve has over 15 years of non-profit management experience. He has previously served as Chief Financial Officer for a San Francisco based non-profit. He has been involved in several community, non-profit, and political organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Janelle Hu, Secretary
Janelle Hu currently serves as professional staff for the Committee on House Administration Democratic Office in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she works on federal elections issues, including elections administration, campaign finance reform, and contested elections. The Committee has primary jurisdiction over federal election law, House operations, and oversight of the legislative branch of the federal government. Janelle previously served as the National Director of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote (APIA Vote) 2004 Campaign, a coalition of national and grassroots non-partisan nonprofit organizations that encourages civic participation and promotes a better understanding of public policy and the electoral process among the Asian and Pacific Islander American community that has registered 110,000 new APIA voters and made over 5 million voter contacts by mail, phone, and precinct walking since 1996. A native Californian, Janelle moved to Washington, DC for graduate school, where she became involved in local Asian Pacific American community activism. She serves as a board member for APIAVote and previously chaired the board of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that aims to draw more Asian Pacific Americans into public service and elected office. Janelle holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology from UCLA and is a graduate of Georgetown University's accelerated joint-degree program in law and public policy.
Gloria Caoile, Board Member
Gloria T. Caoile is the former Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). Prior to joining APALA, Ms. Caoile worked as the Special Assistant to the International President of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees in Washington, D.C., and sat on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. She also was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Federal Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Ms. Caoile has played an integral role at APIA Vote since its inception in 1996. Ms. Caoile is a recognized civic leader in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community. She was a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Women Leadership Institute (APAWLI), the only national organization dedicated to nurturing and developing leadership skills among Asian American and Pacific Islander women and for APALA. She has served on the boards of several civil rights groups including the Filipino American Civil Rights Advocates and the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations. In 200l, Filipinas Magazine presented Gloria its Achievement Award for Community Service. She is also the recipient of the l999 “Filipina First” award, a program sponsored by the Philippine American Foundation to honor Filipino-American women and their unique achievements. She encourages members of the immigrant community to vote, to volunteer in civic organizations, and to do their part in helping America maintain a healthy democracy. She believes if American institutions remain equitable, fair, and merit-based, everyone will have a chance at economic success. Civic involvement continues to be her lifelong passion and commitment.
William Kaneko, Board Member
William M. Kaneko is the founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (“HIPA”), Hawaii’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent research and educational organization whose mission is to provide research, analysis and recommendations on public policy issues facing Hawaii. HIPA’s research briefs, issue papers and publications provide fact, data and analysis that enable decision-makers to make sound policy decisions that benefit Hawaii. Mr. Kaneko is also an attorney with the Honolulu law firm Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, where he specializes in government relations and administrative law. Mr. Kaneko is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where he teaches research and public policy in the Honors Program. Mr. Kaneko is former National Vice President for Public Affairs and Honolulu Chapter President of the Japanese American Citizens League (“JACL”), the oldest, largest Asian Pacific American civil rights organization in the United States. For over a decade, he had been a leading advocate for human and civil rights in the Asian Pacific American community. Mr. Kaneko was Hawaii’s primary liaison with the U.S. Department of Justice in the implementation of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the measure which provided redress for Japanese Americans unlawfully interned during World War II. Mr. Kaneko also led the Honolulu JACL to be one of the first non-Hawaiian organizations to support Native Hawaiian sovereignty, and initiated the fight against racial discrimination in the U.S. military through the nationally publicized Yamashita v. U.S.M.C. lawsuit. Mr. Kaneko has served in various public affairs and government positions. In 1987, he was a national recipient of the CORO Foundation Fellowship in Public Affairs. From 1988 to 1993, he served on the professional staff of Governor John D. Waihee III, where he developed land use and housing policies in the Office of State Planning. In 1996, Mr. Kaneko was appointed Director of Asian Pacific Affairs for the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”), where he was the primary Asian Pacific American liaison between the DNC and The White House, Congress and state elected officials throughout the country. Mr. Kaneko also served on the boards of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Redress Administration Citizens Advisory Board, Hawaii Board of Public Accountancy, `Olelo Community Television, Mental Health Association of Hawaii, University of Puget Sound National Alumni Board and the Japanese American Citizens League. He was recently elected to the American Bar Association’s Council on Individual Rights & Responsibilities.
Tina Lee, Board Member
Tina is currently a graduate student at Stanford University, obtaining an M.A. in Education focused on leveraging technology to increase civic engagement. She is also a consultant at ZeroDivide, a philanthropic foundation that invests in community enterprises using technology to uplift underserved communities. Prior to this, Tina had been a management consultant at Accenture and a technology recruiter at Robert Half Technology. In addition to politics, Tina is very committed to community service. She served as a Trustee on the Mills College Board of Trustees from 2006-2009 and helped found Citizen Hope, a organization empowering people to bring about change through community service and activism. Tina holds a B.A. in Political, Legal & Economic Analysis and an M.B.A. from Mills College.
