wellness in a digital era during remote work during zoom university after binging tiktok isn't a trend and telehealth and calling family overseas means boundaries means communication
May 6th, 2023
12:30 - 6:30PM EST
Recording available on YouTube!
– Cambridge Dictionary
"Transformation" —
a complete change in the appearance or character of something or someone, especially so that thing or person is improved.
We are excited to be presenting our 3rd annual virtual TransformAsian conference. Each year, our goal is to connect the Asian community across all walks of life as a way to support mental health journeys. We chose “TransformAsian” to embody our belief in the power of change, and the importance of celebrating radical healing and recovery.
Our theme for this year is “Mixed Realities and Blended Spaces: Leveraging the Digital Era in Normalizing Mental Health.” In light of an ever-encompassing digital world, please join us as we navigate the intersection between rapid changes in technology and our wellness.
Schedule
Meditation
12:30PM EST
Welcome
12:45PM EST
Keynote Speaker
1:00PM EST
Performance
2:00PM EST
Panel 1: Mental Health and Advocacy via Artist Mediums & Digital Media
2:15PM EST
Performance
3:15PM EST
Panel 2: Technology and Mental Health
3:30PM EST
Performance
4:30PM EST
Panel 3: Managing Wellness in Content Creation/Digital Spaces
4:45PM EST
Closing
5:45PM EST
Keynote
From grounded sci-fi series (SHELL, 2021) to award-winning heartfelt short films (ZOETIC, 2019), Chan is best known for creating stunning visuals within everyday moments while exploring relatable and universal human themes.
Some of his most celebrated accomplishments include Single by 30, a YouTube Premium original series, Wong Fu’s first feature film, Everything Before Us, and being honoured as an HBO Asian Pacific American Visionary.
While most of his work can be found on Wong Fu’s YouTube channel which has amassed over 3 million subscribers, the reach and influence of Chan’s creative voice extends far beyond a single platform or medium. Through the crafts of filmmaking and design, Wesley Chan continues to champion artistic expression and growth that can have a positive impact on our lives and our world.
Wesley Chan,
Cofounder of Wong Fu Productions
Wesley Chan is a Chinese American filmmaker and cofounder of Wong Fu Productions, a pioneering independent digital media company recognized for 20 years of storytelling with emotional depth and authentic representation of Asian Americans.
Panel 1
Mental Health and Advocacy via Artist Mediums & Digital Media
How can we leverage creative platforms to discuss Asian advocacy and mental health awareness?
Click on a speaker’s photo for their bio!
Tap a photo for their bio!
Zoë Cain is a mixed-race Korean American artist, illustrator, art teacher, and mental health advocate. Through her work, Zoë depicts their own colorful psychological landscape and personal mental health struggles. She often illustrates neurotic monsters and creatures to give faces to some of her “inner demons” including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorder. Zoë has worked with clients including Pinterest and New Belgium Brewing Company, as well as nonprofits such as TaskForce, AllAboveAll, 4Ocean, and Half the Story. As an artist, Zoë strives to combat stigma surrounding mental health and share what they have learned through their own experiences.
Zoë Cain
Rapper/activist jason chu "speaks hope and healing in a hurting world", blending high energy performances with thoughtfully crafted lyricism. As an Asian American kid in suburban Delaware, he found a vocabulary for racial identity and liberation in rap music and hip-hop culture. He tours extensively, bringing a social and historical consciousness to venues around the country and globally.
Jason Chu
Kelly Michaela Tran, PhD is a video game designer and developer who has worked on a wide variety of projects. As a mixed-race Vietnamese-American, she is passionate about promoting diversity and representation in the gaming industry and in Digital Media more broadly. Kelly is also an advocate for mental health and uses her art and digital media platforms to raise awareness and provide support. She believes that video games and other forms of art can be powerful tools for promoting mental health and breaking down stigmas around mental illness.
Dr. Kelly Tran
Ryan Alexander Holmes [何仁安] is an actor and content creator based out of Los Angeles, CA. Having garnered a sizable presence on social media by using his platform to embrace his mixed Chinese/African American background through comedic storytelling and poignant writings about his family’s perseverance, Ryan has made it his goal to encourage others of mixed ethnic/cultural backgrounds to fully embrace who they are and to show the world there is unimaginable strength in discovering harmony in multiculturalism. His acting credits include For the People on ABC, Dear White People on Netflix, The Morning Show on AppleTV+ and Back on The Strip, he stars alongside Tiffany Haddish, Wesley Snipes and Kevin Hart.
Ryan Alexander Holmes
Christian (he/him) is a Filipino-American living in the Bay Area, hailing from Northern New Jersey. He works as project manager in the Tech sector and has a personal passion for exploring the intersection of mental health and video games/digital environments. An 18-year survivor of Major Depressive and Generalized Anxiety Disorders, Christian strives to explore new ways of fostering awareness and understanding of mental illness through digital storytelling.
Christian wrote his Master’s thesis at Columbia University on the depiction of Depression in video games and their efficacy in promoting empathy compared to other media. He co-founded WAVES in NYC in 2019 to create a space to share Asian stories and to destigmatize conversation around mental health. He continues that mission today, as a co-founder and Chief of Strategy for Asian Mental Health Collective.
In his free time, Christian is involved in the triathlon space, as an athlete and as Social Director for the Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. When he’s not being physically active (which is the majority of the time), you can find him lounging on the couch enjoying some TV and video games.
Moderator
Christian de Luna
Panel 2
Technological Approaches to Mental Health
What is the role of tech in aiding mental health?
Click on a speaker’s photo for their bio!
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Nancy is a first-generation Chinese American with a steadfast focus on improving access to mental health care on a global level. She is the co-founder and CEO of Inquiry Health, a startup that builds mental health apps grounded in science. She created Clarity (formerly known as CBT Thought Diary), a mental health journaling app with over 2 million downloads. Before pivoting to her startup, Nancy was a PhD student in clinical psychology, where she researched the effectiveness of smartphone interventions for depression and anxiety and how technology can circumvent barriers to mental health care.
Nancy Su
Michelle Liu (she/her) is the App Review Lead of One Mind PsyberGuide, based out of the University of California, Irvine. She has her Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside, and her Master of Public Health in Public Mental Health from the University of California, San Diego. She is dedicated to increasing accessible and equitable mental health resources for different populations. She leads the One Mind Psyberguide research team conducting app reviews on digital mental health resources, evaluating their credibility and transparency.
Michelle Liu
Dumeetha is a former war journalist who has taken her journey with PTSD and anxiety to build a solution for others. She is the founder of Take-Pause - a company which uses virtual reality and mindfulness to reduce stress. Clinical and applied research show evidence for the benefit of this approach within 3-minutes of use. Initially focused on pediatric patients to reduce stress, Take-Pause has now expanded to working with employees to reduce stress and burnout symptoms.
Dumeetha Luthra
Yin L. Li (they/she) is a psychotherapist private practice. They work almost exclusively with Asian and Asian Americans. Yin is psychodynamically trained, culturally informed and social justice oriented. Yin hosts a podcast called Asians Do Therapy, and, additionally, Yin is starting The Asian American Center for Psychoanalysis (taacp.org), opening May 2023. Follow them @asiansdotherapy.
Yin J. Li
Justine Bautista is a Filipina American graduate student researcher who is currently pursuing her Ph.D in Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research work revolves around the intersection of technology, Asian mental health, and emerging adults. Justine is passionate about advocating for mental health care in Asian communities, and she has been involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting mental wellness among young people.
As a participant of the Biden-Harris Administration and MTV's Mental Health Youth Action Forum, Justine has actively contributed to the discourse on mental health care and has been a strong advocate for better mental health support for marginalized communities. She has worked with organizations such as the Asian Mental Health Collective and The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health. She will soon be working with The Trevor Project, a leading organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth.
Moderator
Justine Bautista
Panel 3
Influencers: Managing Wellness in Content Creation
Influencers share their journeys through navigating wellness and self-care in the digital era of content creation.
Click on a speaker’s photo for their bio!
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Sam Hyun was named one of The Boston Globe’s 2021 Bostonians of the Year. He's been featured in Forbes, Good Morning America, the front page of the Boston Globe, and other publications for his work. He received his Master of Public Policy and Masters of Business Administration from Brandeis University’s Heller School.
Sam was also named among the Top 50 Unsung Heroes by Asian Hustle Network and 40 Under 40 by the National Association of Asian Pacifics in Politics and Public Affairs. Most recently, he was named one of the Emerging Leaders for the Top 50 Most Influential AAPIs in Boston.
Sam Hyun
Johnathan is a pioneering content creator who began his journey in 2008 during the early days of YouTube. Their unique perspective as a Black American and Filipino has made him a powerful voice at the intersection of Black and Asian identity. Hosting the award-winning podcast "This QPOC Life," Johnathan offers nuanced insights into the world through the lens of a queer person of color. In 2020, he founded the Black and Asian Alliance Network, promoting solidarity between these communities during a time of heightened tension. Recognized with the Brooklyn Free Speech Award, Johnathan is a passionate activist and trailblazer, making a lasting impact in the fight for social justice.
Jonah Sahn
As a middle school English teacher, Rumi’s focus on social media is primarily in wellness- how can this generation interact with the abundance of information at their fingertips while maintaining a firm rooting in the truth and prioritizing mental health? With issues from shortening attention spans to cyberbullying, schools and parents are restricting access to the internet and social media, but this bandaid solution only kicks the ball down the road. Rumi’s work is in identifying the internet culture that already exists and finding ways to push the needle towards equity and truth.
Rumi Hooshmand
Ed Choi (he/him) is a small business owner and content creator based in Los Angeles. As the only child of a stoic single immigrant mother from South Korea who closely guarded her life from her son, Ed always valued learning about people’s stories in an effort to try to piece together his own story of where he came from and who he was. After the Atlanta spa shootings in 2021, when the media cared more about the shooter’s story than the lives of the multiple Asian immigrant women whose lives were lost, it reminded Ed of how his mother hid her own life from him to shield him as a child. Seeing his own mother’s struggles as an immigrant mother trying to create a better future for her kid in the victims’ stories, Ed knew that their stories, just like his mother’s story, mattered. After researching as much as he could about their lives, their hopes and dreams, Ed started to make memorial videos for each of the victims and he quickly found himself dedicating time to telling the stories of the people of his community. In an effort to fight Asian Hate and the perpetual foreigner trope that constantly “others” the Asian American community, Ed makes content to normalize the Asian American experience through telling Asian American stories and sharing Asian American experiences through his content.
Ed Choi
Kimmy (she/her/hers) is a passionate Taiwanese American mental health advocate. As a first-generation, third-cultured immigrant and woman of color, she hopes to share her mental health journey and leverage her experiences to uplift and empower marginalized communities. Her work is a reflection of a commitment to individual and collective healing through systemic and intersectional engagements and conversations.
Professionally, Kimmy is a career-changer and a current graduate student completing her master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling degree at Northwestern University. She is the therapist-in-training in Washington, DC, where she provides culturally responsive therapy services with a psychodynamic and existential framework to help clients from all walks of life navigate life transitions and face challenges related to self-worth, identity, career, relationships, overall well-being, etc.
Through Asian Mental Health Collective, she hopes to help develop programs and a community to foster individual development, drive intentional growth, and enhance self-awareness—all of which would better equip members to build healthier interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.Professionally, Kimmy is a career-changer and a current graduate student completing her master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling degree at Northwestern University. She is the therapist-in-training in Washington, DC, where she provides culturally responsive therapy services with a psychodynamic and existential framework to help clients from all walks of life navigate life transitions and face challenges related to self-worth, identity, career, relationships, overall well-being, etc.
Through Asian Mental Health Collective, she hopes to help develop programs and community to foster individual development, drive intentional growth, and enhance self-awareness—all of which would better equip members to build healthier interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.
Moderator
Kimmy Wu
Performers
Meditation and Music
Asian folx bringing calm and empowerment.
Click on a photo for their bio!
Tap on someone’s photo for their bio!
Linda Thai LMSW (she, her) is a trauma therapist who specializes in cutting edge brain- and body-based modalities for the healing of complex developmental trauma. As an educator and consultant, she is gifted with the capacity to contextualize, synthesize and communicate complex and nuanced issues pertaining to the impact of oppressive systems upon identity, mental health and wellbeing, and the invisibilized wounds of racial trauma and attachment trauma. Linda is passionate about breaking the cycle of historical and intergenerational trauma at the individual and community levels, and deeply believes in the healing power of coming together in community to grieve.
Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, and now living in Alaska, Linda is a former child refugee who is not only redefining what it means to be Vietnamese, to be Australian, and to be a United States-ian....she is redefining what it means to be wounded and whole and a healer.
Linda Thai
Rapper/activist jason chu "speaks hope and healing in a hurting world", blending high energy performances with thoughtfully crafted lyricism. As an Asian American kid in suburban Delaware, he found a vocabulary for racial identity and liberation in rap music and hip-hop culture. He tours extensively, bringing a social and historical consciousness to venues around the country and globally.
Jason Chu
Evie Joy is a Manhattan lyricist specializing in love songs of every genre, from comedy to ballad. A 2020 recipient of the New York Women's Fund Grant, Joy was recognized by PopDust for writing "a canticle of female empowerment”. She performed her Pro-Choice Anthem in the 2021 NYC Women's March alongside Amy Schumer, and is passionate about inspiring women to feel powerful and unburdened by social norms. Her music has been featured in Season 2 of the television show, “Temptation Island” and her songs have won her the City Artist Corps Grant, a fellowship with Johnny Mercer, and awards in the New England Songwriting Competition, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, and the Great American Song Contest.
Evie Joy
The Filharmonic, an LA-based a cappella group of Filipino-Americans who were featured in NBC’s hit musical competition, The Sing-Off, has much to sing about. After the show the 5-piece vocal group kept the momentum rolling with countless national and international shows, they were featured in the Universal Pictures hit movie, PitchPerfect 2, and set off a viral sensation with their Late Late Show appearances. They have performed with artists like John Legend, Shawn Mendes, and many more. The Filharmonic brings their unique blend of hip hop, pop, and R&B to stages everywhere and can be found on YouTube and all music streaming platforms. You can also check them out on social media @thefilharmonic.They consist of vocalists Vj Rosales, Joe Caigoy, Trace Gaynor, Vocal Bass Jules Cruz, And Beat Boxer Niko Del Rey.
The Filharmonic
Frequently Asked Questions
Mental health is health. Considering the incredible stigma against mental wellness in many Asian cultures, AMHC strives to make Asian mental health more approachable and, through our therapist directory, more accessible.
Yep! Recordings will be available on Youtube.
All identities are welcome; AMHC recognizes that allyship starts with education. Just like any other attendee, we only ask you to be respectful and remember that discussion is focused on Asian voices.
Nope! This will be an open livestream.
