APAC Gala & Award Dinner 2025 Honorees
Excellence in Civic Leadership & Volunteerism Award – Presented to Donna Lee
Donna has lived in San Diego since 1974 when she began her career with Kaiser Hospital in the Radiology department until her retirement in 2012. She has been married to Chun for 53 years and has two sons: Jason and Jonathan. Jason is married to Cindy Lin and they have a son, Enzo. Jonathan is married to Chao Xu.
Donna has served and supported many community organizations since the 1980’s. Currently, she is the president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association which has a rich history dating back to 1912 here in San Diego. She is also a member of the Planning Committee for the Chinese New Year Fair held annually in downtown’s Asian Pacific Thematic district.
She has worked with the 2010 and 2020 Census committee as well as helped with redistricting activities in the API community. She has served as president and programs chair of the San Diego Chinese Women’s Association who channels its efforts towards high school and community college students and philanthropy programs.
She is currently serving as president of the San Diego United Lions Club helping with the local Lions Optometric Vision Clinic as well as the Blind Community Center of San Diego. She has also served as a member of the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum Board of Directors and now a board member of APAC (Asian Pacific American Coalition). She is an active member of Chinese Community Church too!
Also, Donna is kept busy with her volunteer work at the Mira Mesa Senior Center as well as learning about gardening, cooking Chinese foods, baking and quilting in her spare time.
Outstanding Organization Award – Presented to Vietnamese American Youth Alliance (VAYA)
The Vietnamese American Youth Alliance (VAYA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to youth leadership, cultural awareness, social activism, and community development.
Founded in 2004, VAYA unites young professionals and students, empowers activism, and promotes Vietnamese culture, language, and history through initiatives such as the annual San Diego Tết Festival.
Rising Star Award – Presented to Emily Wong
Emily Wong is a second-year undergraduate double majoring in Political Science and Public Affairs at UCLA. She was born in San Diego and graduated from Canyon Crest Academy in 2023. She currently writes for the Daily Bruin and interns in family law at the LA County Superior Court. She plans to attend law school after graduating from UCLA.
Her interest in API civic engagement was sparked in high school when she had the honor of meeting Tom Hom at his street sign unveiling ceremony. After meeting both Tom Hom and Mayor Todd Gloria, Emily started questioning the perception of the API community as politically apathetic. Observing the relentless journeys of API community leaders who came before her–and their loud defiance of social norms–motivated her to advocate for greater API representation in government.
Emily pushed for more API voter engagement in San Diego by canvassing API residents for the 2022 Kent Lee for City Council campaign and representing the House of China at civic engagement events. She strengthened her political footing by interning for the Office of Mayor Todd Gloria that same summer, an opportunity she pursued through APAC. This past summer, Emily interned for the district office of Congressman Mike Levin through the Alliance of Chinese Americans, and through APAC, she worked for the Office of the San Diego County District Attorney. At the DA’s office, she immersed herself in the judicial system by preparing trial materials and assisting with public safety awareness events. She constantly learned from the attorneys around her and reinforced her desire to pursue a legal career and spotlight API rights.
Emily’s experiences have reaffirmed her belief that encouraging API youth political engagement is crucial for shaping a more equitable future, where diverse voices are heard and empowered in policymaking.
Lifetime Achievement Award – Presented to Sally WongAvery
Sally WongAvery was born in Hong Kong, and later moved with her family to North Borneo, Malaysia. She came to San Diego, California as a foreign student – graduating from San Diego High School, and earning her Bachelors in Philosophy from the University of California of San Diego.
Because she is fluent in the Chinese dialects of Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, and Toishan, she was asked to interpret in the San Diego downtown courthouse. After receiving her courthouse training, she became a court interpreter. Meanwhile, Sally’s parents immigrated to San Diego and opened a restaurant in downtown San Diego. Everyday, she helped her parent’s restaurant where many downtown lawyers patronized the restaurant. They encouraged her to go to law school and help others. Following their advice, she earned her Juris Doctorate from Cal Western Law School.
After law school, she served as the Executive Director of the Chinese Social Service Center of San Diego. There, she spent countless hours helping thousands of newly arrived immigrants and monolingual seniors settle into San Diego. She also served as advisor to numerous Chinese and Asian community organizations. She was the first female elected President of the Chinese Benevolent organizations, one of San Diego’s oldest Chinese community organizations dedicated to preserving and educating the public about Chinese history and culture. To help preserve San Diego’s Chinese heritage, she also co-founded the Chinese Historical Society with her dear friend and mentor, the late Ms. Dorothy Hom in 1985. Serving the Chinese community and preserving the Chinese culture and history have remained important to Sally’s life.
Using her expertise in the restaurant business, she became one of the first Chinese Certified Food handling Instructors in San Diego to teach health sanitation and safe food handling practices to all the Chinese restaurant workers. In 1987, she left the Center and founded Chinese Professional Services. She provided critically needed services-translation, interpretation; job referrals, food handling classes, business consultation services, and Chinese corporate marketing research. She provided many free services for the low in come and limited English speaking. Over the years, Sally assisted hundreds, if not thousands, in the San Diego community both professionally and personally.
In the mid-1980s, she also began teaching English as a Second Language to Chinese senior citizens in downtown San Diego. As a teacher, she encouraged and helped hundreds of Chinese attain U.S. citizenship. During this time, she also became the Principal of the oldest Chinese School in San Diego. To this day, the Chinese School of San Diego remains a popular school to learn the Chinese language and to learn about Chinese customs and culture.(www.chineseschoolsd.org)
She also opened a private law office to serve San Diego’s Chinese. Sally spent half her time providing free legal services to the low income Chinese and new immigrants. Because of her Chinese capabilities, most of the Chinese looked for Sally to solve their problems. She closed her law office in the late 1990s to open the Chinese Service Center of San Diego. The Center provides many free or limited fee services such as translation/interpretation, income tax preparation, English as a Second Language classes, and Health Sanitation classes and the Center also coordinates many of the premier Chinese community events in San Diego (www.cscsandiego.org)
After more than three decades of dedicating her life to the San Diego and Chinese communities, she has been recognized by various public and private organizations. She is the recipient of the Taiwan Overseas Chinese Commission’s Outstanding Teaching Award, the Special Recognition Award from the Asian Heritage Awards, the Susan B. Anthony Leadership Award, and the Women’s International Center’s Living Legacy Award. In 2009, Sally received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2025, she received the New York Chinese Planning Council’s Honoree of the Year and the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Medal.
Sally has dedicated her life to God, her family, and her community. She enjoys collecting books for her personal library, traveling and spending her free time with her family.
Tom Hom Civic Engagement Scholarship
Presented to:
Aiyiana Tiger-Mantanona
My name is Aiyiana Tiger-Mantanona (she/her). I’m a Chamorro and Native American (Choctaw, Seminole, Creek) woman, currently earning my Master’s in Multicultural Counseling at SDSU through the Community-Based Block program.
My heart is in service of empowering and uplifting underserved communities—creating safe spaces where healing and cultural connection can thrive.
Katie Nguyen
Katie Nguyen is a fourth-year student at the University of California, San Diego, majoring in Human Biology with a minor in Global Health. For the past two years, she has been working as a licensed pharmacy technician in both community and hospital settings. These experiences have exposed Katie to diverse patient populations and allowed her to gain insight into the health disparities that affect an individual’s access to treatment. As a result, Katie is committed to helping underserved communities obtain the healthcare they need.
On campus, Katie is the Service Chair for UCSD’s Pre-Pharmacy Society. In this role, she coordinates community service events and holds fundraisers for nonprofit causes. Katie also volunteers at outreach clinics throughout San Diego and Orange County, providing vitals screenings and resource education for low-income minorities.
After graduating this spring, Katie plans to attend pharmacy school and continue her volunteer efforts at the graduate level. She is grateful to be a 2025 recipient of the APAC Tom Hom Civic Engagement Scholarship. This award will bring her one step closer to improving patient outcomes as a healthcare professional.
Phong Tran
My name is Phong Tran, and I’m a full-time student at San Diego Community College, double majoring in Japanese and Computer Science. Outside of school, I stay actively involved in my community—I serve as a volunteer coordinator with the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, help lead the youth at my church with the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, and work nearly full-time as a store operator at a franchised Little Caesars. Being part of APAC for Civic Engagement means a lot to me, and I’m excited to keep learning, growing, and connecting with others who are just as passionate about making a difference.
Jie Yu
Jie is a Chinese Deaf student studying ASL/English Interpretation at San Diego Mesa College from 2023 – 2025. I continue to volunteer for three different organizations in the Deaf community in San Diego.
Special Commendation – Presented to Jantima Danford
Fluent in Thai and Lao and English – Subject Matter Expert (SME) of Thai language and cultural studies. Over twenty years in the United States of America, as a community leader, helping the Thai community and Asian Pacific American communities. Innovative and highly motivated individual with strong experience in foreign language acquisition and intercultural communication. Specialized background in counseling, training, and organizational development. Strong interpersonal skills and organizational communication.
Over thirty years experience working as a Medical Convention Organizer managing international conventions and exhibitions in several specialties in Thailand and in the United States. Offered full-service organization for convention and exhibition of any size and type. Planned, programmed, budgeted and directed the acquisition of conventions and exhibitions involving millions of dollars, thousands of people, and state-of-the-art technical equipment in coordination with both civilian and government agencies in Thailand and other countries. Experience working in Sales and Marketing/Project Manager/Office Manager, Casino Marketing, Payroll, Executive Secretary,
Marketing Coordinator, and Fundraising fields. Managed staff, payroll, office management, equipment procurement, and financial matters.