About me

I serve as the Chief Diversity Officer of Columbia University School of Professional Studies and a Lecturer in the Nonprofit Management Program. I also belong to the Board of Directors of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York and am a Strategic Advisor to the Saamarthya Foundation. I am a Research Fellow at Knology, and a member of the Empire State Bioethics Consortium. My research and teaching interests include nonprofit organizations; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); organizational ethics; and AAPI and immigrant communities.

Prior to my current position, I served as the Deputy Academic Director for the Nonprofit Management Program. I was also a Research Associate at Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center and Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, where I headed research projects and authored or co-authored reports and articles on nonprofit-government contracting, immigrant organizations, public-private partnerships, and place-based collective impact initiatives. I have served in various organizations, including the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness; The Aspen Institute; Center for Progressive Leadership; Human Rights Campaign; Episcopal Relief and Development; Educators for Social Responsibility; and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. I was also an executive committee member of the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project, an organization that led the effort to secure the Congressional Gold Medal for Filipino-American WWII soldiers.

In 2022, I was named one of Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Leaders and included in City & State’s Responsible 100. In 2023 and 2024, I was recognized by PoliticsNY as one of its Power Players in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

I received a Ph.D. in Public and Urban Policy and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from the New School’s Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment; an M.S. in Bioethics from Columbia University; and a B.S. in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University