THE FANHS-MNY (2025-2027) EXECUTIVE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • John Sapida received a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey and a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from the CUNY School of Professional Studies. His experience includes working in higher education administration, digital and social media, media advocacy, human rights education, documentary film production, public history, and museum education and administration. John is currently the Manager of Digital Initiatives for the Urban Advantage Science Initiative Program at the American Museum of Natural History and a Citizenship Educator at The New York Historical.

    John Sapida served as one of FANHS-MNY's Co-Presidents from 2023-2025, presented at the 2024 FANHS Conference, and was also published in the latest FANHS Journal last year.

  • Trisha Hautéa, MAT, MBA (she/her/siya) is an executive advisor and consultant with expertise in Fortune 100/500 companies, academia, law, finance, and nonprofits. She has championed the Arts, sustainability, genetics education at the congressional level, and social justice with institutions like Harvard Medical School (alongside NASA and CRISPR founders), MIT, National Parks Service, and The Aspen Institute. She is committed to collaboration, connection, and partnership opportunities across multiple industries.

    Her journey into social impact and entrepreneurship began at MIT's Media Lab and IDEO, where she honed skills in innovation, human-centered design, and scalable impact. She now focuses on executive positioning and partnerships in entertainment and the creator economy, with companies like Nickelodeon/Paramount.

    In addition, she is an educator, fine artist, muralist, STEM+Art (STEAM) advocate, and works to close diversity gaps in children's books. A bicoastal NYC native, Trisha holds degrees from Tufts University.

  • Danika Fernandez (she/her/siya) is a Filipino-American professional soprano, arts advocate, and higher ed administrator.

    Danika’s artistic research is on Filipino art songs' histories and their influence on Filipino Americans, as well as uplifting, producing, and celebrating Filipino American playwrights and artists. Previously, she taught Filipino music history at the Filipino School of NY and NJ and was the 2023-2025 Co-President of the FANHS Metro NY Chapter. She has performed operatic roles on both coasts and was an Encouragement Award recipient from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

    Danika has an MM in Opera from The New School and is completing her MBA at William Paterson University. She currently works as the Development and Donor Events Coordinator at WPU, where she is also the Staff Advisor for the Filipino American Cultural Entity.

  •  Samantha Dayon, a Marquette University graduate with a double major in Finance and Information Technology, combines Big 4 risk consulting experience with a passion for increasing AANHPI representation in biomedical research. As a healthcare Project Manager, she leverages data to drive value improvement and support leadership decision-making.

    Committed to advancing in tech and healthcare, Samantha aspires to inspire and empower Asian Pacific Islander women in business. In college, she actively participated in the Bayanihan Student Organization (BSO) and served as President of the Midwest Association of Filipino Americans (MAFA).

    Post-graduation, Samantha remains dedicated to community service. She was Co-Director of Community Outreach for Unipro Chicago and has held multiple roles within NaFFAA’s Empowering Pilipino Youth through Collaboration (EPYC) program, including Coach, Director of Programming, and staff member. Her journey reflects a strong commitment to leadership, advocacy, and uplifting her community.

  • Emily Remington has been a FANHS Board member since 2018 and served as Board Secretary during the past term. During her time on the board, she has led the annual FAHM community awards selection process, organized Merienda Meetup events, and contributed to the FANHS newsletters. Emily works as a data analyst and resides in Brooklyn.

  •  Xenia Diente is a second-generation Filipino American born in NYC and raised in Woodside, Queens. With over 20 years in public service, she specializes in public art administration, commissioning artists to create permanent artworks for municipal facilities.

    A Coro Leadership New York alum and Atlantic Center for the Arts social practice resident. Xenia co-founded Little Manila Queens Bayanihan Arts, promoting creative placekeeping through community arts. In 2020, she was a Create Change Artist in Residence with The Laundromat Project, focusing on creative placekeeping in Little Manila.

    In 2022, she participated in Monument Lab’s Re: generation cohort, addressing themes of care labor and immigration through the ideation of a monument to Tandang Sora in Queens. In 2024, LMQBA’s community work was featured in the “Mabuhay: Little Manila!” art exhibition at MoMA PS1. She has served on the FANHS-Metro NY chapter's executive board since 2019 and holds a BFA from the Cooper Union.

  • Lorial Crowder was born in Olongapo City and was adopted at the age of 5 years. She grew up in Connecticut along with her two brothers, who are biological to her adoptive parents.

    In college, she was involved with FIND DIII national conferences and started the first Filipino club at UMass Boston. In 2000, she co-founded the Filipino Adoptees Network with a fellow Filipino adoptee, which aimed at connecting adoptees, providing resources about their birth country, and exploring being transracial.

    She moved to NYC to pursue her Graduate Studies at Hunter College School of Social Work - Community Organizing and Planning and has lived in NYC for over two decades. Other organizations she has been involved with include Bagong Pinay/ New Filipina, Center for Babaylan Studies, Filipino Heritage Camp Colorado, and Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan. She is presently a consultant for the development of Little Manila Park in Woodside, assisting with community engagement.

  • Born and raised in Queens, Joey attended NYC public schools until he enlisted in the USAF in 1968 after attending Martin Van Buren HS in Queens Village. Joey is the eldest of the 10 surviving children of Natalio and Venancia Tabaco, who came to NYC from Bohol after WWII when Natalio got a job in the UN Secretariat. Natalio was the 1st Filipino hired to work there when the UN was still in Lake Success, NY, where they bought a house in New Hyde Park, Queens.

    After serving in the USAF as a Weather Observer, Typhoon Chaser, and Hurricane Hunter, Joey attended SUNY Albany, where he majored in Atmospheric Science. He then returned to NYC and got a job with the National Weather Service at JFK Airport. He retired from the NWS in 2004 and still works as a part-time Contract Weather Observer for the FAA at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, where he bought a house nearby in 1989.

    Joey joined FANHS in 2004 while attending its National Conference in St Louis, MO. He returned to NYC to help reconstitute the Metro NY Chapter, which was reformed in 2009. He is married to Jackie Bleza and has three children and four grandkids.

  • Elvin Galarza is Filipino (on his mom's side) and Puerto Rican (on his dad's side). He has spent half of his life in New York City, where he was born, and in Texas, where he earned his Electrical and Computer Engineering degree from The University of Texas at Austin.

    Elvin currently works at IBM as a product manager for his 9-to-5. On the side, he serves as the CTO at a start-up featured on Shark Tank in 2024, works as a solo developer at another start-up, models fashion in NYC, and is a published academic author in the Springer Journal. He enjoys casually playing PC video games and competes in chess.

  •  Brian Velasquez Reid is a seasoned finance professional with over two decades of experience at Wall Street’s top firms. In the mid-2000s, he became one of the first Filipino Americans to be a founding partner at a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund. He also served as a portfolio manager on Merrill Lynch’s credit proprietary trading desk—the largest in the world—and conducted research at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the premier high-yield firm of its time.

    Brian is now the CFO of Dear Flor, the first Filipina-owned cannabis brand. The company aims to bring Filipino culture to the world, one flavor at a time. Brian founded the company with his wife, Lisa Angulo Reid, whom he met at a Philippine Society of Boston College picnic in 1995. He also serves as Treasurer of the FilAm Democrats of NY.

    Brian is the grandson of Philippine National Scientists Gregorio and Carmen Velasquez. In 2016, the U.S. Navy transferred the R/V Melville to the Philippines and renamed it the Gregorio Velasquez in his grandfather’s honor. Brian lives in Greenwich Village, where he and his wife are raising two proudly Filipino kids and their 50-pound pomsky, Leo.

  • Caroline C. Pasion was born in Brooklyn and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Hell’s Kitchen, where she attended school from the 1970s to the 1990s. She has witnessed the changes in neighborhoods where Filipinos once lived, worked, and socialized. Her mother immigrated to New York in the late 1960s and worked at her uncle’s Filipino restaurant, located across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she met Caroline's father, a Filipino seaman.

    Caroline grew up attending many dinner-and-dance events and reluctantly participating in beauty pageants, parades, and picnics. She remembers several spaces specifically for Filipinos, including the Philippine Center on Seventh Avenue near Chelsea and Filipino restaurants along Ninth Avenue near the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

    She graduated from St. John’s University with a BS in Finance and from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation with an MS in Historic Preservation. Caroline is a Senior Landmarks Preservationist and Outreach and Grant Coordinator at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

  • Christa Lei (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based writer, speaker, and consultant who grew up on Native Hawaiian land as the youngest child of Filipino immigrants. Their work centers on navigating oppressive systems with care and connection, blending professional experience in healthcare, clinical research, and patient advocacy with personal lived expertise.

    An emerging creative, their writing has appeared in Breath & Shadow, Carmina, and more. Christa offers workshops, one-on-one consulting, and a free newsletter. Is this what you want?.

    Connect with them at christalei.me and isthiswhatyouwant.org. 

  • Love Ablan is a visual artist in New York City and a Photographer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, working with the extensive collection of objects and historical artifacts.


    Love has exhibited her fine art, photography, and installations in museums and galleries worldwide and is featured in numerous books and publications, such as Penguin Publishing's Outside The Lines. She has also worked as a filmmaker and documentarian.

    As a first-generation Filipino-American, Love is passionate about elevating underrepresented narratives and ensuring that languages, artistry, photographs, music, spirituality, and stories are documented, preserved, shared, and honored. Her dedication to cultural preservation is deeply personal, inspired by her own journey of discovery researching her heritage — and also by her family's legacy of public service in the Philippines, including the Ablan Library in Ilocos Norte, which advocates for literacy and education as a means to uplift the community.

  • Melinda Basaca is the Associate Costume Director at the Public Theater and has been a full-time staff member for 8 years. Cumulatively, Melinda has been working at the Public Theater for about 14 years, initially working as a wardrobe supervisor, wig supervisor, and costume shop PA doing stitching, crafting, and other duties.

    She has a career working in theater / performing arts spanning 20 years working at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis Orchestra, John Jay College Gerald W. Lynch Theater, Joffrey Ballet School, New York Theater Workshop, Signature Theatre, and other NYC performance institutions. She has a degree in business for marketing and management, an associate’s degree, and a master’s degree in Fashion Design.

    Melinda was just elected as the new Staff Board Representative at the Public Theater, where she will act as a liaison between the full-time staff and the Public Theater’s Board. At the Public Theater she is a part of the cultural steering committee, the POC, AAPI, disability support advocacy, indigenous voices and land acknowledgment, and the parents and caretakers’ affinity groups.

    She grew up on Long Island, New York, with Filipino parents who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 60’s, and has a beautiful, loyal pitbull named Utah.

  • Niña Mata is an award-winning illustrator and author dedicated to uplifting diverse stories. A New York Times bestselling illustrator, her work includes I Promise by LeBron James, Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson, and the Ty’s Travels series by Kelly Starling Lyons, which received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor. Her illustration for I Absolutely Positively Love My Spots by Lid’Ya C. Rivera was nominated for the 55th NAACP Image Award.

    Born in the Philippines and raised in Queens, Niña’s experiences as a Filipino American deeply influence her storytelling. Her debut author-illustrated book, Girls to the Front: 40 Asian American Women Who Blazed a Trail, received starred reviews and highlights trailblazing Asian American women, including Filipina changemakers. She is passionate about preserving and celebrating Filipino American history and representation in children’s literature.

  • Theresa DeCicco-Dizon is a public historian, researcher, and museum educator dedicated to making history accessible to all. She has worked with institutions like the National Park Service, the New-York Historical Society, and the Museum of the City of New York.

    Her interest in the Filipino-American experience in New York City is a key focus of her research. In 2023, she wrote a guest article for the Coney Island Museum titled “The Igorot Village of Coney Island,” which delves into the human exhibition of Indigenous Filipinos at Coney Island.

    When she's not teaching or conducting research, Theresa enjoys spending time with her cat Mylo, watching period dramas, and experimenting with new Filipino recipes.

  •  Kathleen “Kathy” Agaton (she/her) is a strategist, co-designer, and evaluator in the non-profit sector. She co-creates services and strategies that improve lives, advance missions, and drive organizational effectiveness. Kathy is the Chief Impact Officer at AIRnyc, a non-profit advancing health equity.

    She will soon be starting a new role at Win, where she formerly led Research, Evaluation, and Strategic Learning, to lead Employee Engagement and DEI strategy.

    Kathy, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, was born and raised in Southern California. She holds a BA in Integrative Biology and a minor in Music from UC Berkeley, where she was actively involved in the Filipino American community, and an MS in Public Health from Harvard University. After 20 years in Brooklyn, Kathy recently moved to Jackson Heights with her husband and 15-year-old twins, a son and daughter. She loves spending as much time as possible in the pottery studio, her happy place.