Miriam Yeung, Executive Director

Miriam W. Yeung, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) guides the country’s only national, multi-issue, progressive organization dedicated to social justice and human rights for Asian and Pacific Islander women and girls in the US. With offices in NYC and DC, and chapters in 12 cities, NAPAWF’s current priorities include winning rights for immigrant women, advocating for nail salon workers rights and safety, leading community-based participatory research with young API women, conducting national API opinion polling and winning reproductive justice.

Prior to NAPAWF, Miriam held many positions during her 10-year career at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (the Center) in New York City, the last of which was Director of Public Policy & Government Relations where she oversaw policy matters on the local, state and federal level and was responsible for raising over $40 million dollars in capital campaign and programming funds over three years. She started her career at the Center as a Youth Worker responsible for empowering young people to fight bullying and create safer schools.

Miriam is published in diverse publications in print and online and is a sought after speaker and workshop presenter. In 2012, Miriam was recognized by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) with a Making A Difference for Women award. In 2007, Miriam received special recognition from the New York City Council for her work with the LGBT youth community.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in the projects of Brooklyn, Miriam is a proud queer Asian-American immigrant woman activist who is committed to social-justice movement building and raising her two young daughters to be fearless. Miriam holds a master’s in public administration from Baruch College and a bachelor’s from New York University.

Wida Amir, Immigrant Rights Project Director

Wida Amir joins NAPAWF with over a decade of non-profit leadership experience in youth development, public policy change, social justice advocacy, and immigrant rights advocacy.

Most recently, Wida was the Policy Specialist at Rescue Social Change Group where she helped expand city and district tobacco-free school policies.  Wida joined Rescue after her role as the Borough Manager for Brooklyn Smoke-Free Partnership, a health policy advocacy coalition.  In both roles, through innovative community education and mobilization, advocacy, and strategic collaborations, Wida’s leadership efforts made a significant impact on city-wide public policy shifts including the historic victory of New York City’s Smoke Free Parks and Beaches law in 2010. Prior to that, as a Program Director at South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), Wida led programming efforts for the community-based youth development and immigrant advocacy organization.  She played a key leadership role in the organization’s growth from a single-site program center to a nationally recognized multiple-site agency serving over 500 immigrant youth and families annually.

Wida feels passionately about community development, civic engagement in immigrant communities, and fighting for equal rights regardless of sex, gender, or race.  She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from University of California, San Diego, and two management certificates from the Institute for Non-profit Management at Columbia Business School. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and has also lived in India, Germany, California, and New York.  She is currently a resident of the Washington DC metro area.

H’Rina DeTroy, Membership and Operations Associate

H’Rina DeTroy has been interested in Asian/Pacific American issues ever since her student organizing days in college in Eugene, Oregon. Born and raised in New England, she had never before encountered politically active Asian American groups until then.  Inspired, she founded a local chapter of the Asian/ Pacific American Student Union.

A trained journalist and a writer, she has dedicated much of her reporting to Asian American issues. She was selected as the first Asian American Journalist Association scholar in her graduate school, the CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2009.

In addition to working alongside her righteous Asian American sisters at NAPAWF, DeTroy is also working on memoir based on her experiences of growing up in a challenging bi-cultural household, and the search, and reunion with her mother’s family in Vietnam.

Shivana Jorawar , Reproductive Justice Program Director

Shivana coordinates the organization’s reproductive justice policy priorities. She is passionate about uplifting the status of women in communities she identifies with, and has a background in legal advocacy and community education around issues of gender-based inequity and violence. Her experience includes working with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a legal clerk, working with the the anti-domestic violence organization Sakhi for South Asian Women, co-chairing a chapter of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and co-founding the Indo-Caribbean women’s organization Jahajee Sisters, where she is now a member of the Steering Committee. In August, 2012, Shivana completed a one-year fellowship with NAPAWF through Law Students for Reproductive Justice. Originally from New York, she now works out of NAPAWF’s Washington, D.C. office.

Shivana holds a B.A. in Political Science from Fordham University and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.

Christine Poquiz, Reproductive Justice Fellow 

Christine received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine and earned her J.D. from the University of California Davis School of Law in May 2012.  At UC Davis, Christine served as the chair for the LSRJ chapter and the Health Law Association (HLA).  Under HLA, Christine co-founded a Medical-Legal partnership between the UC Davis Law School, UC Davis Medical School, and Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC), where law students provide legal referrals at the student run medical clinics for underserved communities. During law school, Christine interned at the LSRJ National Office, where she was awarded the 2011 Sheila Kuehl Award for Outstanding Summer Intern.  She also interned with the Center for Reproductive Rights’ government relations office in Washington D.C.  Christine was a member of the UC Davis team competing in the 2012 Beazley Institute National Health Law Transaction Competition.  Christine was also an active member of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) and the Filipino Law Students Association (FLSA). Prior to law school, Christine interned in rural Uganda with the Uganda Village Project, a public health non-profit organization where she focused on HIV/Aids, comprehensive sex education, and reproductive health.  Christine later served as a board member for the Uganda Village Project  in 2009-2010.