The ASPIRE team is made up of a passionate group who is committed to making every effort to provide the opportunity for Asian American girls to learn skills, gain experience and develop the self-confidence required to realize this vision. Ultimately, we hope these girls are inspired to combat inequity and social injustice for the next generation. The ASPIRE team consists of experts from various fields.

Vienne Cheung, Interim Executive Director
Vienne is the Interim Executive Director of ASPIRE (Asian Sisters Participating In Reaching Excellence). With her background in Business and Fine Arts, Vienne’s work often places her in roles that allow her to envision, create and inspire. Over the past year, Vienne led programs such as ASPIRE's signature Asian American Women In Leadership Conference, the Outstanding Woman Of the Year Award and the Youth Leadership Program. She increased funding for ASPIRE through marketing initiatives (rebranding of the organization) and fundraising events. Under her leadership, ASPIRE received a grant award from the Saffron Circle.

Vienne is active in the Asian community and she has co-hosted various television segments and events for Asian Spectrum, a local television show in the Greater Boston area. She was also a member of the Planning Committee for the 2008 Asian American Civic Association (AACA) Annual Fundraising Gala.

Anqi Dong, Finance Deputy
Angel (Anqi) Dong pursued further study in the U.S. and earned a Master's degree in Finance from Bentley University after graduating with Bachelor's degree in Economics from China's Dalian University of Technology in 2008. She is currently a Performance & Analytics intern at Eaton Vance Management and a candidate of the Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement Program, having general knowledge in GIPS. She is enthusiastic in exposing herself to diverse cultures; as the Senior Vice President of Chinese Students and Scholars Association, she organized networking, cultural and professional development events that promoted the visibility of Chinese community at Bentley, helping Chinese students in becoming competitive in American society. She has also devoted her energies to various community events, including the 2008 Head of Charles Regatta, We Are Boston 2009, and the 2009 Boston Chinatown Oak Street Fair.

Caroline Fong, Newsletter Editor
Caroline is an advertising student at Boston University. She attended primary school in the Fiji Islands before she moved to Boston for high school and university. Involved with ASPIRE since Fall 2009, she enjoys interacting with talented Asian-American women and sharing their stories with ASPIRE members through the newsletter. In high school, she volunteered for Quincy Asian Resources, Inc. and was a cadet in the Air Force Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in order to give back to the community. Caroline is now entering her last year of university and planning for post-graduation. After an enjoyable internship at an advertising agency in Dublin, Caroline hopes to work at one in the US. For this summer, she is off to Australia to study its film industry and the entertainment promotion strategies within it.

Hyo Sun (Jane) Lee, Conference Director
Jane is a Corporate Affairs/Marketing Manager at RES Group Inc. Before college, she wanted to become a doctor because the idea had been introduced to her throughout her life. However, during college, she slowly began to realize that she wanted other things from her life. She left her hometown of Leonia, New Jersey to attend Boston University as a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major. Although she has a degree in science, she is pursuing a career in marketing. Jane has been part of ASPIRE since Fall 2007, starting off as the Marketing/Communications Chair. In 2008, Jane took on the role of 2009 Conference Director and continues to fulfill the role for the 2010 Conference. Her passion for ASPIRE is very strong since she believes in the power of sharing experiences to improve the lives of future generations of Asian American females.

Heang Ly, Youth Leadership Program Director
Heang Ly has over ten years of experience in youth development in the areas of college access, community organizing, and violence prevention. She is currently the Project Manager for the Peer Leadership Institute at the Boston Public Health Commission. Previously, she managed community and school youth leadership sites at the Center for Teen Empowerment for five years. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She also holds an Ed.M in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She strongly believes that every youth, no matter the background, given the right support and guidance has the ability to be successful and empowered. The experiences she had growing up female in the Cambodian culture in particular has fueled her passion to work with Asian female youth.

Anh Nguyen, Speaker Series Chair
Anh Nguyen is currently a Senior Paralegal in Asian Outreach Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services. She provides community outreach, legal education and representation for low-income Vietnamese clients. After graduation from Bryn Mawr College and Harvard Divinity, she took the Federick Sheldon Fellowship in Australia interviewing Vietnamese Australian adoptees and community leaders about their acculturation experience. She then worked with AIDS program in Nigeria with Harvard School of Public Health. In her spare time, she attempts to write poetry. As Chair of ASPIRE’s Speaker Series, she will be working with a committee to plan and organize career exploration event for ASPIRE’s young professionals, college and high school students.

Van Nguyen, Speaker Series Chair
Van is an on-site property manager for a 111-unit apartment complex in Cape Cod, and also manages other real estate investments in MA and other states on the east coast. Van graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in political science. With prior work experience in the family real estate business, Van got her real estate broker's license and has experience with mortgage lending. Since 2005, Van has been involved with VietHope, a non-profit organization that provides educational scholarships to financially disadvantaged students in Vietnam, with their fundraising efforts. After attending the ASPIRE conference in 2006, Van was impressed by the multitude of talented, empowering panelists and the professionalism of the organizing team. Van is excited to finally be part of the ASPIRE team!

Kozue Sawame, Cheerleader
Kozue is Development and Communications Manager at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK). Originally from Hokkaido, Japan, Kozue moved to the U.S. to attend Georgetown University in 2004. After completing her master’s degree, she moved to Boston. To contribute more to Boston’s Asian Community, she joined ASPIRE in the fall of 2007 as the conference external relations chair. Since then, Kozue has been taking on various roles and tasks for the organization. Kozue loves traveling and learning about different cultures. Kozue also remains connected to Japan and writes articles about fundraising in the U.S. for a Japanese magazine.

Alice Zhou, Fundraising Event Director
Alice is a consultant at Charles River Associates, working specifically with large pharma companies. Alice began her time with ASPIRE in summer of 2007 where she joined as the conference logistics chair. In 2008, Alice became the fundraising chair and has organized periodic events varying theme and venue to help raise money for ASPIRE as well as to promote awareness to the Boston community. Prior to ASPIRE, Alice received her engineering B.S. from MIT in Materials Science & Engineering. While at MIT, she was part of the Chinese Student Club as well as numerous other organizations. Alice is headed to Harvard Business School in the fall of 2010 and will remain on the ASPIRE team.


We are growing fast and need talented and passionate people to support Our Team! Contact info@girlsaspire.org today!