This session will focus on providing space for education and comfort for the after effects of COVID-19. Key topics of discussion includes mental health, physical health, and building strength by learning tactics to descalate or resolves potential conflicts created by xenophobia in our everyday lives.
Speakers
As the founder and CEO of Novelly, Anna Gabriella Casalme is dedicated to creating a genuinely youth-driven civic engagement experience. Anna is the proud daughter of Filipino immigrants and she brings over 5 years of experience at the intersection of child health and well-being, design thinking, and technology. She has previously worked at AltaMed Health Services, the California Planned Parenthood Education Fund, and the School-Based Health Alliance. She completed her MSc in Childhood Studies from the University of Edinburgh, where she was a Rotary Maternal and Child Health Scholar and a Saltire Scholar. She received her B.A. in Human Biology and interdisciplinary honors in Education from Stanford University.
Bruce Leal is a DC Commissioner appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser to the Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs. Bruce leads the Commission’s Pacific Islander Task Force and serves on the National Pacific Islander COVID-19 Response Team. He has worked on federal and state education policy, immigration, and housing issues for state and federal elected officials. Prior to his appointment in 2018, Bruce was a Legislative Fellow for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, serving in the Office of Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI). He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the George Washington University and received a Master’s in Education Policy from Johns Hopkins University. Bruce is a former special educator, DC slam poet, and political strategist. He currently works on strategic initiatives to advance racial equity at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Jill Yu, Managing Director & Co-Founder of “Act to Change.” In 2015, Jill served as an Advisor at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She worked on critical initiatives including “Act to Change”, promoting enrollment for healthcare, organizing the philanthropic and public and private partnership event at the White House, and working with senior federal agency executives in how their agency can better serve Asian American populations. Jill came to federal service as a Presidential Management Fellow. Prior to federal service, Jill was a Staff Attorney for the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, and worked on the cross-section of foster youth and education as well as policy issues impacting vulnerable youth. Jill is an active member of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association. Jill also founded and served as the inaugural President of the Filipino American Lawyers Association of Washington, DC, an affiliate of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.
Rahul Kulkarni is the CEO of Sukhi. He has a background in employee wellness, mindfulness, public health, and mental health. He’s also a former McKinsey consultant, worked in international development (UN World Food Program in Ecuador, USAID in Uganda), and spent 6 months conducting group therapy sessions in Boston at a North Suffolk mental health clinic.
He studied clinical psychology at Tufts Medical, abnormal psychology at Cornell, and received an MBA from MIT. He completed 10 days of silence and meditation training at a Buddhist Ashram in India, and recently led corporate mindfulness workshops for teams at The World Bank, Lyft, and Verizon.
Moderator
Ms. Denise Lew is a retired Air Force Colonel currently employed as a health care consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP. She has a B.A. in Health Arts and Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters of Public Administration with an emphasis in Health Administration from California State University, East Bay. She is a board-certified healthcare executive, a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, and has over nine years of experience with Deloitte and 26 years of prior active duty Air Force experience in healthcare administration.
In the Air Force, Denise served in C-suite equivalent roles in military hospitals and clinics as well as executive positions in DoD regional and Air Force headquarters offices, supporting DoD policy implementation for healthcare delivery, human resources, strategic planning, quality management, patient safety, customer service, recruitment and retention, career paths and succession planning, and leadership development. In her role with Deloitte, she serves as a subject matter expert for the Military Healthcare System (MHS), specializing in the TRICARE health plan benefit and Military Treatment Facility (MTF) operations.
Denise is also actively involved in mentoring Asian practitioners in her firm, as well as volunteering as mentor for CAPAL’s summer internship and fellowship programs, for young healthcare executives in ACHE, and for transitioning veterans in AcademyWomen’s eMentor program. She is past chair of the Asian Healthcare Leaders Forum committee of ACHE, and is a member of Ascend and the Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN).