Staff and Interns

We are lucky to have a diverse and multi-talented staff here at the Initiative! Click on the names below to read more about us.

Staff
Gayle Isa, Executive Director
Mytili Jagannathan, Development Director
Roko Kawai, Operations Manager
Sabina Neem, Program Manager
Chon Phoeuk, Program Assistant
Joanne Louie, Office Assistant

Gayle Isa is the founder and Executive Director of the Asian Arts Initiative. Gayle has been an active participant in Philadelphia's arts and culture community for the past 14 years, beginning as an intern and evolving as a staff member at the Painted Bride Art Center. She also spent three years working with the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, learning about human services and advocacy within the Asian American community in Philadelphia. She has been a National Finalist in the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World program. She has served on the boards of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and is currently on the Executive Committee of the National Performance Network and the Steering Committee of the nascent National Asian American Theater Project. Gayle was once an aspiring taiko (drum) player and is now learning to be a theater dramaturg.

Mytili Jagannathan has been involved with the Asian Arts Initiative as a poet, event curator, staff member, and most recently on the board when the Initiative embarked on the development of its shared arts facility. She has previously worked for the consulting firm of Fairmount Ventures; the architectural firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates; and the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  She is the author of Acts, a chapbook from Habenicht Press, and her poems have appeared in EOAGH, Rattapallax, Combo, Interlope, and Xcp: Cross-Cultural Poetics. She’s given many readings across Philadelphia, as well as in New York, D.C, and San Francisco. She is the recipient of an Emerging Artist grant from the Leeway Foundation and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Roko Kawai, Operations Manager, recently returns to the Asian Arts Initiative to oversee its operations and facilities.  Roko has served in numerous capacities in the past, beginning with her participation in the Founding Board as well as a range of staff roles including Grants Manager and Chinatown Oral History Publication Coordinator.  As a dancer/teaching artist, she greatly values the opportunity to work directly with communities and youth in the city of Philadelphia, a complement to her solo explorations.  She is an awardee of the Pew Fellowship on the Arts in Choreography, a Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship and has had the privilege of performing throughout the U.S. as well as in New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and in Poland.

Sabina Neem, Program Manager, is the newest addition to the Asian
Arts Initiative team. She is committed to social and economic justice; most of her work has been with lgbtq communities, youth, and people of color. She has worked at the Attic Youth Center, the Trans-health Information Project, and co-chaired the Mayor's Taskforce on Homeless Services, Sexual and Gender Minorities Working Group which has worked on making the Philadelphia shelter system more trans-inclusive. Sabina is a trainer for the Trans-homeless Access Project, a group of primarily transgender individuals, who have conducted citywide trainings.  She is on the Board of Directors of the Leeway Foundation, an organization that supports women and transgender artists that do art for social change. Sabina has her B.A. in Anthropology from Barnard College, Columbia University and a dual masters degree in Social Service (M.S.S.) and Law and Social Policy (M.L.S.P.) from the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.

Chon Phoeuk, Program Assistant, works on the season's presenting events, and other long-term projects.  She has been involved with the Asian Arts Initiative throughout the past 7 years in a number of capacities.  First, as a participant in our Youth Arts Workshop, then an archival and arts administrative intern, and a gallery assistant.  She studied Fashion Design at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and hopes to become a carpenter or Jack-of-all-trades artist.

Joanne Louie, Office Assistant, is a graduate of the Community College of Philadelphia where she studied Business and Science. Joanne began at the Asian Arts Initiative as a summer volunteer and became part of the staff in the fall. She offers administrative support and brings humor and sunshine into the office environment.