For Immediate Release
February 18, 2025
Contact: community@naapimha.org
NAAPIMHA Welcomes New Board Members in 2025
The National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA) is pleased to announce its 2025-2028 Board of Directors.
Board of Directors:
Joshua Ang Price (Jacksonville, FL)
Erin Henderson-Lacerdo (Waipahu, HI)
Samira Khan (East Meadow, NY)
Francis Lu (Cupertino, CA)
Pooja Mehta (Morrisville, NC)
Janet Namkung (Houston, TX)
Audrey Paek (Boston, MA)
Sudarshan Pyakurel (Pickerington, OH)
Noel Ramirez (Philadelphia, PA)
Marielle Reataza (Los Angeles, CA)
Susie Reynolds Reece (Benton, AR)
Nira Singh (Aurora, CO)
Halaevalu Vakalahi (Alexandria, VA)
Edward K.S Wang (Chestnut Hill, MA)
The new Board of Directors begin their tenure in February 2025 – offering guidance and leadership to NAAPIMHA as a nonprofit organization as it aims to promote and redefine the mental health and well-being of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander individuals and communities in the United States through training, programs, policy & advocacy, centering those with lived experience.
Board officer positions will be determined in the coming months. NAAPIMHA is thrilled to welcome so many new folks to our Board.
“We are so excited about our new Board of Directors. Not only will they be amazing ambassadors of NAAPIMHA with the AANHPI communities, but their expertise, guidance, and contribution to our organization will be invaluable. THEY ARE NAAPIMHA. Welcome” writes Board President Ed Wang.
“NAAPIMHA is proud to welcome the 2025-2028 new Board of Directors. We are excited by the experience, skills, perspectives, and compassion they bring to the organization. We thank them for joining us in this critical work and look forward to working with them to grow NAAPIMHA to the next level” remarks Pata Suyemoto, Executive Director of NAAPIMHA.
The members of NAAPIMHA’s 2025-2028 Board of Directors are professionals from across the country bringing lived experience and expertise spanning multiple fields including the arts, community organizing, direct mental health services, education, infant & early childhood mental health, psychiatry, public health, public policy, social work, substance use & harm reduction, and suicide prevention.
In 2024, NAAPIMHA greatly expanded its programming, presence, and community offerings across our main focus areas of Culturally-informed Mental Health Trainings, Community-Based Mental Health Programs (including for youth and folks with lived experience), Community-driven Policy & Advocacy, and Community Crisis Supports & Response. We are proud to remain in steadfast partnership with national and local organizations & coalitions to continue supporting and uplifting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities and their mental health. We look forward to continuing this momentum in 2025 and growing our organizational capacity and service.
Please consider supporting NAAPIMHA by staying connected with us via our email newsletter (sign up at www.naapimha.org/newsletter-sign-up) on Instagram @naapimha, or by donating to support our work at www.naapimha.org/donate
Get to Know NAAPIMHA’s Board of Directors
Joshua Ang Price (he/siya) 洪中美 | Jacksonville, Florida
Joshua Ang Price (he/siya) 洪中美 is a Filipino American government relations executive, former elected official, elections expert, and voting rights advocate based out of Jacksonville, Florida. He currently serves as the CEO of Hybrid Strategies, a strategic consulting firm specializing in government communications, community projects, and fundraising for nonprofit organizations.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Josh is a former Election Commissioner in Arkansas’s most populous county and former candidate for Arkansas Secretary of State, during which he won a TOFA (The Outstanding Filipinos in America) Award and was endorsed by the Reverend Jesse Jackson for his work in protecting voting rights. Before moving to Florida in 2024, Josh served as the DNC Voter Protection Director for Arkansas and as the Secretary of the Democratic Party of Arkansas -- the first AANHPI to hold a state officer position within a political party in Arkansas. Josh has nearly 10 years of experience serving with the federal government, including senior leadership roles with the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) and with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Arkansas District Office during the pandemic and consulting roles with the U.S. State Department on international Democracy initiatives.
Inspired by his mother, a psych nurse from the Philippines who devoted over 30 years to caring for abused and molested children and adolescents, Josh actively supports mental health initiatives, especially among minority youth. Josh is also a survivor of childhood gun violence and has used this traumatic experience to fuel his passion for mental health advocacy and anti-Asian hate initiatives.
Josh earned his BS in Sociology and Public Administration from the University of Central Arkansas. He has fielded over 200 media interviews, including with Al Jazeera, the Washington Post, NextShark, Asian Journal, and in Philippine media TFC ABS-CBN, the Fil-Am Magazine, and he serves as a regular political commentator for Balitang America and Bombo Radyo Philippines.
Erin Henderson Lacerdo (she/her) | Waipahu, Hawaii
Erin Henderson Lacerdo, LCSW, IECMH-E, is the first executive director for the Association for Infant Mental Health in Hawaii (AIMH HI), where she is charged with establishing our state's first agency focused on promoting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Erin co-developed the Promising Minds Fellows Program, the only statewide program aimed at building an IECMH-focused direct service and consultation workforce. Her model focuses on creating capacity for early childhood providers to understand and embrace the basic tenants of IEMCH, and building a network of consultants able to provide support to those working with the 0-5 age group. Erin is a former home visitor for families with young children, has a background in providing clinical treatment to families with young children, and is a proud mommy of a 2 and 4-year-old. Erin is humbled to join the NAAPIMHA Board of Directors in hopes of providing the perspective of a Native Hawaiian mental health practitioner and ties to the Hawaiian community.
Samira Khan (she/her/hers) | East Meadow, New York
Samira Khan is a dynamic leader in health equity, rooted in her identity as the eldest daughter of Pakistani Muslim immigrants. Her career is driven by a commitment to dismantling cultural stigma and addressing systemic barriers within AANHPI communities. With a decade of leadership in public health, Samira combines her lived experience as a first-generation American with expertise in research, advocacy, and cross-cultural care, championing community-driven solutions. Her journey began at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where, as an undergraduate student, she worked in a lab researching the influence of aerobic exercise on cognition and symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia, igniting her dedication to equitable mental healthcare. This passion was further shaped by global health work in rural India, where she studied primary healthcare systems, solidifying her commitment to equity.
As President of the South Asian Public Health Association (SAPHA), she spearheads initiatives to destigmatize mental illness, address intergenerational trauma, and combat health misinformation in partnerships with AANHPI organizations. Under her leadership, SAPHA has gained national recognition for bridging public health frameworks with grassroots advocacy. Her equity work is refined through fellowships in Climate Health (Cambridge Health Alliance) and Health Equity (Institute for Healthcare Improvement), advancing her holistic approach to tackling social determinants of health.
Professionally, Samira serves as Assistant Director of Research and Clinical Initiatives at Mount Sinai’s Respiratory Institute, leading innovative projects to improve respiratory health outcomes. She also manages groundbreaking research on sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease, leveraging epidemiology and machine learning to address care disparities. She holds an MPH (Hofstra University) and a B.S. in Psychology (CUNY City College), anchoring her work in dismantling systemic barriers.
Informed by her dual lens as a first-generation American and advocate for cross-cultural competence, Samira centers community voices in every endeavor, from mentoring emerging leaders to shaping policy-driven solutions. Committed to NAAPIMHA’s mission, she brings expertise in research, advocacy, and coalition-building to advance holistic well-being for AANHPI communities. Beyond her work, she enjoys photography and travel as tools to document cultural heritage and amplify lived experiences. Based in New York, she draws daily inspiration from her roots and the resilience of those she serves.
Francis Lu (he/him) | Cupertino, California
Francis G. Lu, MD, is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry, Emeritus, at the University of California, Davis. As a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Dr. Lu has contributed to the areas of cultural psychiatry including the interface with religion and spirituality, psychiatric education, diversity and inclusion, mental health equity, and psychiatry and film. He is one of the original members of the NAAPIMHA Board serving since 2001 including being the President from 2007 to 2012. In 2008, the Association for Academic Psychiatry awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award. The APA awarded him Special Presidential Commendations in both 2002 and 2016 for his contributions to cultural psychiatry, and in 2020, the APA Distinguished Service Award. In 2020, the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021, the American College of Psychiatrists awarded him its Distinguished Service Award. He leads annual film workshops at Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA, since 1987, and Door County Summer Institute since 2014.
Pooja Mehta (she/her/hers) | Morrisville, North Carolina
Pooja Mehta is an outspoken South Asian Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advocate and has been driving change in communities across the United States for the last 10 years. As a professional with direct lived experience and a suicide loss survivor, she is eager to further the dialogue around the role public health and personal perspective plays in mental healthcare while leading conversations that change the way we think and talk about mental health as a society.
A child of Indian immigrants raised in Morrisville, North Carolina, Pooja’s values of community, compassion, and challenging norms carry through everything she does. Pooja holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia and is a leading voice in mental health advocacy thanks to her firsthand experiences ranging from psychiatric hospitals to town halls to Capitol Hill. Her work has been featured in a variety of platforms, podcasts, and articles, including NPR, CNN, WebMD, and TEDx.
Pooja currently works at North Carolina Asian Americans Together, spearheading a first-of-its-kind statewide pilot program that supports in-community mental health education and stigma reduction efforts for the AAPI community. Additionally, she is the Second Vice President of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and heads the MHLC Youth Advocacy Cohort. Pooja is also the proud founder of the Raj Mehta Day of Good, an international day of doing good hosted annually on her late brother’s birthday.
In her spare time, Pooja enjoys making stained glass, line dancing, and catching up on TV shows with her cat, Pepper.
Janet Namkung (she/they) | Houston, Texas
Janet is an active leader who is passionate about social and restorative justice through capacity building. Janet began their career in nonprofit – advocating for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Janet worked on national issues such as immigration, civic engagement, census, education, and mental health. Janet previously worked with OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Council of Korean Americans, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. They co-founded a BIPOC-focused teletherapy company. She also served as a Commissioner on Mayor Bowser’s Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Community Development, on the Board of Directors of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, and as Chair of the DC Chapter of Service Year & AmeriCorps Alums. In partnership with NAAPIMHA, Janet co-founded the Asians* in Focus project, a creative and mental health nonprofit, along with FIERCE womxn leaders.
Janet received a B.A. in Psychology from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Janet is a PROUD New Yorker, a lover of food vacations, and always down for karaoke. Janet currently lives in Houston with their partner, Jae, and their three furbabies, Dubu, Kimchi, and Bori (@meongmeong.yaong).
Audrey H. Paek (she/her) | Boston, Massachusetts
Audrey H. Paek is a nonprofit leader and advocate for health equity, education, and social justice, with over two decades of experience driving social impact through community engagement, diversity initiatives, and mission-driven projects. A passionate ballroom competitor, she co-founded Visionary Steps Charitable Foundation, providing scholarships and resources for aspiring amateur dancesport athletes.
Previously, Audrey was an executive recruiter specializing in nonprofit fundraising and served as Diversity Initiatives Manager and Assistant to the President at GBH, co-leading station-wide inclusion programs. She has held leadership roles across multiple organizations, including Vice President of the Smith College Alumnae Association and currently serves on the board of its Boston chapter. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Commonwealth Seminar, supporting diverse leaders in civic engagement and advocacy.
Her extensive work with Asian Women for Health included co-chairing the Asian American Mental Health Forum, producing and hosting the Resilience to Radiance podcast to amplify the voices of AANHPI women and their lived experiences, and emceeing their annual fashion benefit. She has also chaired the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) and served as President of NAAAP-Boston, leading advocacy and coalition-building for AANHPI communities.
A proud Smith College alumna, Audrey is deeply committed to ensuring AANHPI communities are seen, heard, and valued for their culture, history, and contributions. As a NAAPIMHA board member, she looks forward to leveraging her leadership and experience to advance AANHPI’s mission, broaden its impact, and drive meaningful systemic change. Outside of work, Audrey enjoys salsa dancing and time with her rescue dog.
Sudarshan Pyakurel (he/him) | Pickerington, Ohio
Sudarshan Pyakurel MA, MSW-LSW is the executive director of the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio (BCCO). He and his family escaped from the systematic and forcible exile of the Lhotshampa people of South Bhutan in 1992 and spent 17 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. He resettled in the U.S. and moved to Cleveland in 2010. He now resides outside of Columbus and, besides supporting refugees and immigrants with post-resettlement support, continues to advocate for linguistically- and culturally relevant mental health services for underserved communities like his own as well as the active preservation of the Lhotshampa history. Sudarshan is a Steering Committee member of SAMHSA’s National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health, Refugee Congress Honorary Delegate from Ohio, and New American Advisory Committee to Governor Kasich’s Office.
Noel Ramirez (he/him/his) | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. Noel B. Ramirez has been a clinical social worker in the Philadelphia Metro Area for 18 years. His professional and personal passions focus on the intersection of identity, integration, and wellness, and he has directed, facilitated, and been a part of projects that promote access and healing for communities that he lives and walks in: people affected and living with HIV, various recovery communities, LGBTQIA, and BIPOC communities. He is an award-winning business owner and psychotherapist who founded Mango Tree Counseling & Consulting, an Asian-American mental health group practice in the Philadelphia metro area serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents. Outside the mental health space, Dr. Ramirez is a Senior Lecturer for Columbia University’s Graduate School of Social Work, teaching decolonization, psychopathology, and couples therapy courses. He is currently completing the final requirements for his certified sex addiction therapy (CSAT) credential. He has graduate degrees in Social Work (University of Pennsylvania) and Public Health (Drexel University) and a doctorate in behavioral health (Arizona State University). He is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.
Marielle Reataza (she/siya) | Los Angeles, California
Dr. Marielle Reataza has served as the executive director and CEO at the National Asian Pacific American Families Allied for Substance Awareness and Harm Reduction (NAPAFASA) since 2021, having joined NAPAFASA in 2018 and worked briefly at Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership in 2021. Her professional background involves secondary science public school education, graduate education, medicine, laboratory and clinical research, and health policy and law, formally studying biochemistry, medicine and surgical practice, and the US healthcare system and health systems implementation and evaluation. As the leader at NAPAFASA, it’s important to work closely with NAAPIMHA to ensure that our work and strategies are complementary and serve the common purpose of improving the mental health and whole-person well-being of the communities we serve. Dr. Reataza was born in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 5. She is an advocate for centering peoples’ lived experiences in order to attain more equitable and accessible behavioral health services.
Susie Reece (she) | Benton, Arkansas
Susie Reece is the director of Lived Experience Initiatives for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. In that capacity, Reece leads the development of multi-organizational inclusion practices, provides guidance to national experts in the field, and develops international recommendations for centering lived experience in any field. Reece bolsters lived experience engagement by elevating the voices of lived experience experts from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Nira Singh (she/her) | Aurora, Colorado
Nira Singh, PsyD, Clinical Director of the Cultural Development and Wellness Center of Aurora Mental Health and Recovery, is a second generation, South Asian, licensed psychologist, health equity advocate and behavioral health leader. She has served for over 30 years in community based, non-profit settings, working with and advocating for underserved and marginalized communities with a strong focus on programs for immigrants, refugees, asylees and asylum seekers.
It has been Dr. Singh’s life commitment to dismantle barriers to needed care and services. From her early years in the field of domestic violence, she has worked within agencies and on several coalitions to address cultural responsiveness and humility in the training of service providers and models of service delivery. She has been involved in developing and implementing trauma informed, community and client centered, strengths-based services at various agencies in Colorado and the California Bay Area. She has served as the Director of Behavioral Health and member of the Executive Leadership at Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), Director of Children Youth and Family Services at Richmond Area Multi-Services (RAMS) and as the Director of Refugee Foster Care Services at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County (CCSCC).
Dr. Singh has enjoyed teaching, supervising and mentoring multidisciplinary providers and teams for over 20 years. She served as Adjunct Faculty at the California School of Professional Psychology, as both faculty and Director of APA internship programs, and faculty and consultant for Peer Certification programs. She is a proud graduate of RAMS’ APA accredited National Asian American Psychology Training Center Doctoral Internship Program, the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE), Leadership Education for Asian Pacific (LEAP), and NAAPIMHA’s Achieving Whole Health.
Dr. Singh has worked to develop and lead comprehensive, collaborative, and integrated services that serve the whole health needs of diverse community members and recognize the many paths to wellness. She has served on key committees and forums at the local, state, national and international levels such as Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Contractors Association, California Behavioral Health Association, SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity to support a more culturally and linguistically responsive 988 program, the White House Initiative On Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Behavioral Health Convenings, and International Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Conferences. She is honored to serve on the board and to advance the mission, vision and goals of NAAPIMHA.
Halaevalu F Vakalahi | Alexandria, Virginia
Halaevalu F. Ofahengaue Vakalahi, MSW, MEd, PhD – is a Pacific Islander woman, born in Tonga and raised in Hawai’i. She is currently the President and CEO of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Prior to joining CSWE, she was Professor and Dean of the College of Health and Society at Hawai’i Pacific University (HPU). Prior to HPU, she was Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Social Work at Morgan State University; Associate Professor and MSW Program Director at George Mason University; BSW Coordinator at San Francisco State University; Assistant Professor and Department Chair at BYU-Hawai’i; and Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University.
Her areas of teaching include social policy, human behavior and the social work environment, and organizational leadership. Her two areas of scholarship are: Pacific Islander culture and community, and Women of Color in academia, in which she has contributed extensively to the existing literature through articles, chapters, books, and other communication media. Her educational background with a B.S. in Business Management (BYU-Hawai’i), MSW (University of Hawai’i-Manoa), and M.Ed. and PhD in Social Work (University of Utah), have informed her leadership, scholarship, teaching, and service which she hopes has forwarded social and economic justice in some small way.
Ed K.S. Wang (he/him) | Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Ed is the proud grandfather of two inquisitive and creative granddaughters. He is an up-cycler of arts, a gardener, an author, a trauma researcher, and a storyteller. The Pandemic, human atrocities, hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, and social injustices brought about writing the book Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity, and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma. He is one of the co-founders of the Virtual Teachers' Lounge for Today (VTL4Today), a national support group for educators.
Ed explores the importance of individual ethnographic narratives, family, and community oral history on well-being. His Trauma-informed Care: Hope, Strengths, Resilience, Growth, and Healing, one of the two skill-based curricula, addresses the effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences and toxic stress on children and their families. The culturally responsive curricula include customization for community mental health agencies, schools, child protective services, housing stabilization programs, and youth development agencies.
After serving as clinical director of two nonprofits, he retired as the former Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the former Director of Adults and Children Services of Metro-Boston of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. In addition to the House and Senate citations of his public stewardship on mental health, he received the 2015 Community Hero Award from the Massachusetts Asian American Commission. Born in Hong Kong, he was the first Asian American clinical psychologist appointed to the National Advisory Council of Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration.
Ed is currently the Director of Policy and Planning at the Division of Global Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He mentors public sector psychiatry in practice, program, and policy development. He founded The Consortium for Advancing Mental Well-being of Children and Young Adults. An international consortium of researchers, health and mental health providers, advocates with lived experience, focuses on improving the social and emotional well-being of youth, adolescents, and young adults across the globe.
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About NAAPIMHA
NAAPIMHA, the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, is a national 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and redefine the mental health and wellbeing of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities, through mental health trainings, community mental health programs, national policy and advocacy, and rapid community crisis response, while centering those with lived experience.
Since 2001, NAAPIMHA has worked with AANHPI-serving community based organizations across the country to identify and respond to the mental health needs of AANHPI communities nationwide. Over the past 20 years, provided training and consultation to over 150 AANHPI-serving community-based organizations and 3500 AANHPIs around the country resulting in behavior change and improved skills to promote positive health outcomes for individuals and the communities they serve.
Learn more at: www.naapimha.org
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