Henry Der is the Senior Program Officer for Diversity and Inclusiveness at The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco. Mr. Der previously served as State Administrator for the Emery Unified School District with responsibility to regain fiscal solvency and reform educational programs. Before that, he was Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction for the California Department of Education. As Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action from 1974 to 1996, he led efforts to promote equal opportunities in education, employment, voting rights and access services for Asian Americans, other racial minorities and immigrants. Mr. Der was a member of numerous civic and advisory groups, including Chairperson for the California Postsecondary Education Commission, Member of the Decennial Census Advisory Committee to the United States Secretary of Commerce, and Founding Member of the Greenlining Coalition and Greenlining Institute. He received his Master's Degree in education from Stanford University and his MBA from Golden Gate University.

Tessie Guillermo is President and CEO of the Community Technology Foundation of California (CTFC). She is co-founder and former chair of the Board of CTFC. Prior to the CTFC, she served for 15 years as CEO of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, a national health policy organization. Throughout her career as an advocate for underserved communities, Tessie Guillermo has promoted issues of health and technology access, services, and equity. Ms. Guillermo co-founded many non-profit groups, including the California Pan Ethnic Health Network, the Community Technology Policy Council, and the National Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans. In 2000, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as an inaugural member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Ms. Guillermo was appointed in 2001 by Governor Davis to the Board of Trustees of the Health Professions Education Foundation. She is a Board member of The California Endowment, and Catholic Healthcare West. She is a published author and a frequent keynote speaker on non-profit leadership and public policy issues. Ms. Guillermo is an alumnus of California State University, Hayward, a graduate of the Gallup Leadership Institute and was a 1997 Fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute.

Carole Hayashino is vice president for advancement at California State University, Sacramento. Previously associate vice president for university advancement and development at San Francisco State University since 1997, she has also served as a lecturer in the department of Asian American Studies. Strongly committed to diversity, she has in the past served with the national office of the Japanese American Citizens League. She received her bachelor’s degree from SFSU and her master’s degree from the University of San Francisco. Over the years at SFSU she has held increasingly responsible positions including director of foundation and corporate relations and director of development. She has been closely involved in developing the fundraising infrastructure and encouraging a culture of giving, while steadily increasing private giving from alumni, staff, emeriti faculty, foundations and friends of the University. She also is engaged with the community as a member of the KQED Board of Directors and the College of Marin Board of Trustees.

Yvonne Lee served President Clinton on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She has served as National Executive Director to the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, an Asian-American civil rights organization, and she was Director of the Pine View Housing Corporation in San Francisco. She has been an advocate for elderly and Asian-American concerns for almost twenty years. She also has been involved in creating a housing project for seniors in San Francisco, lobbying in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, and campaigning for fair treatment of smuggled Chinese boat people. Ms. Lee has testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Civil and Constitutional Rights for the passage of the Voting Rights Language Act of 1992. She is also one of the founding members of the National Network Against Anti-Asian Violence, a respected coalition of Asian Pacific American community organizations dedicated to educating the public about hate violence. Ms. Lee was awarded an Emmy for producing Northern California's Best Documentary about Chinese Immigration History. Ms. Lee received a B.S. degree in health education from the University of California at Davis.

Dr. Dale Shimasaki is Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Education Services (SES), a Sacramento based government relations and policy consulting firm. Dr. Shimasaki has more than twenty years experience in state, federal and local education and budget policy shaping roles. In the California Legislature, Dr. Shimasaki served for three years in the Office of the Legislative Analyst, two years as Principal Consultant for the Assembly Budget Committee and six years as Chief Consultant for Educational Policy and Finance for Speaker of the Assembly Willie L. Brown Jr. From 1992 through 1996 Dr. Shimasaki served as Director of Research and Director of Governmental Relations for the City College of San Francisco. Before assuming his responsibilities at SES, Dr. Shimasaki served for two years as Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, a federal board appointed by the President of the United States to educate the public regarding the incarceration of Japanese Americans during world War II. Dr. Shimasaki is a member of several state advisory committees on education and has previously served as a member of the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Dr. Shimasaki received his BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and was awarded a Master of Public Policy degree from the UC Berkeley School of Public Policy in 1978. In 1994 he received his Ph.D. in Education Administration from the UC Berkeley School of Education.

Keith Kamisugi is the director of communications at the Equal Justice Society. He was previously an account manager with the technology PR firm Niehaus Ryan Wong and a former regional spokesman for Verizon Communications. From 1994 through 1997, Keith served on the Executive Chambers staff of Hawai'i Governors Benjamin J. Cayetano and John D. Waihee. He also worked as an aide for state Senator Randall Y. Iwase and as a ballot operations specialist with the state Office of Elections. Keith is a past president of the Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce, where he founded the Young Business Roundtable (today called the Young Business Council). A former state chairman of the Young Democrats of Hawai'i, Keith was a member of the Hawai'i delegation to the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He attended the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, where was was student body president from 1990-91 and also co-founded and co-chaired the University of Hawai'i Student Caucus.