Kat ling

Board Chair

She/they. Chinese White American.

As Chief Executive Officer, Kat leads the organization and team to actualize Moonshot’s mission and long-term strategic plan, as well as manages fundraising, external partnerships, and new initiatives. Kat joined Moonshot in 2019 as Chief of Staff, later serving as Chief Program Officer where she facilitated the Moonshot Fellowship for Cohorts 3 and 4, including a re-design of the Fellowship into a virtual format in the pandemic. Kat became CEO in November 2021, after serving as Interim CEO.

Prior the Moonshot, Kat was the Managing Director of Alumni & Lifelong Leadership Development at Teach For America - Greater Delta, where she led a team responsible for supporting a cross-state 500+ alumni network. Their additional prior experiences include serving as the Manager of Teacher Leadership Development, coaching 50+ educators in southeast Arkansas, and as Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusiveness when she designed and facilitated training on cultural responsiveness, racial equity, and multicultural leadership for 100+ educators and a 15-person staff. She managed the team responsible for district partnerships, licensure, hiring, and placement for new educators in Arkansas. Kat also served as a Leadership Team Member and Board Chair, of the national Asian American Pacific Islander Resource Group and was a founding member and Board Chair for GLSEN Arkansas. 

She graduated Cornell University magna cum laude with a major in English and a minor in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She has a Master’s in Public Service through the University of Arkansas - Clinton School of Public Service. Kat is a member of Leadership Denver Class of 2022 and serves on the Denver Mayor’s LGBTQ Commission and several local school boards.

jina kim

Board Treasurer

She/her. Korean American.

Jina grew up in different locations across the U.S. and South Korea. She graduated from the University of Michigan and has worked in various finance roles across investment banking, private equity, corporate development and corporate finance. She is currently a Managing Director overseeing investments at Gates Capital Partners, a single family office.

She lives in Colorado with her husband. She enjoys rock climbing, skiing, camping and hiking with her Basenji pup, Nova.

Jina's favorite way of celebrating her Korean American heritage is through good food. She enjoys introducing local cuisine to her friends and others who have never tried it before.

elaine yang

Board secretary

She/her. Chinese American.

Dr. Elaine Yang moved to Colorado with her family in 2012 from North Carolina. She received the Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and held positions with Winston-Salem Health Care and the Duke University Cancer Center. Since arriving in Colorado, she has focused her time on raising her two young daughters, who both attend the International School of Denver in the Mandarin Chinese program. Her primary presence in the AAPI community as been with the Board of Directors of the Colorado Dragon Boat from 2014-2020 and as Co-Chair of the Colorado Dragon Film Festival.

The infinite number of values that frame and support Asian Girls Ignite fuel its potential and presence for our AAPI community. My values of authenticity, connection, and dedication parallel many aspects of AGI including those of the storytellers, founders, and students. We can only share our stories with one another and our communities by truly being ourselves and opening our vulnerabilities to others whom we become connected to through these powerful experiences. I have observed the dedication that those involved with AGI provide to one another. The passion of the members  to share the values of AGI with the community motivates and excites me!

Miguel In Suk Lovato

He/him. Chicano Korean American.

Miguel In Suk (인석) Lovato grew up in various neighborhoods throughout the Denver-metro area. However, he has considered Aurora his home since the early 1980s. As a trailblazer in his family, Miguel became the first member to attend college and successfully earned two degrees. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in secondary education from the University of Colorado Denver, where he received invaluable support and guidance from advisors, counselors, and mentors.

Throughout his professional journey, Miguel has dedicated himself to working directly with young people from marginalized communities, particularly youth of color and those from low-income backgrounds. He has held roles as a teacher, program manager, nonprofit director, and youth mentor. Currently, Miguel works with the Donnell-Kay Foundation, a Colorado-based family foundation where he strives to improve opportunities for children and youth to live, learn, and thrive in Colorado.

Miguel's own personal journey of learning to embrace his Chicano and Korean heritage has deeply influenced his belief in nurturing the development of self and identity among young people. Beyond his professional endeavors, Miguel cherishes his roles as a father, husband, son, and brother. In his spare time, he finds joy in riding and working on his motorcycle; taking leisurely walks with his wife, daughter, and dog Maslin; and “collaborating” with his home office co-worker Waffles the cat.

teresa Tarn

She/her. Taiwanese American.

Teresa (she/her, Taiwanese-American) loves bikes and snowsports because they help her avoid walking downhill on her funny ankles. When she's not evading tripping over herself, she can be found advocating with local Colorado Front Range mountain bike groups towards making the activity more accessible. For the better part of a decade now, she has also coached mountain biking with a focus on empowering more women to find their potential on and off their bikes.

Prior to this, Teresa grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia as one of the handful of minorities in her school district. She took advantage of multiple study abroad programs and internships during her time at Stanford University to go to Asia and explore her identity as an Asian American. After college, her curiosities led her to startups and big tech companies alike as a software engineer building products people actually enjoy using, with a short one-year deviation as a ski bum.

Teresa celebrates her AAPI identity by studiously learning the dances for the latest Kpop bangers, visiting Taiwan whenever she can, and reminding others that while she is a proud AAPI woman, she is also an individual with eccentricities not representative of the whole, nuanced and diverse demographic.

Unsuk zucker

She/her. Korean American.

UnSuk is the oldest daughter of Korean American immigrants. She is a dedicated social justice advocate and racial equity leader.  She is a proud cisgender, grateful wife and mother, daughter, and sister who loves to cook and spend time with her friends and family. She is a knowledgeable and experienced diversity, equity, and inclusion leader with demonstrated ability in developing programs and organizational best practices in linguistically and culturally diverse settings using an insightful ability to adapt to surroundings and utilize excellent interpersonal skills to promote collaboration and develop equitable practices with a specialty in leadership development. She is an instructional leader and highly skilled in adult facilitation training and coaching, particularly in equity/culturally responsive practices, leadership development, professional support in growth, evaluation, and coaching/feedback.  UnSuk’s racial autobiography is featured in Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversations About Race. UnSuk has also presented an equity session about the negative impact of the Model Minority Myth at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education’s Alumni of Color Conference. 

Her extensive experience as a senior DEI  leader, district leader and classroom teacher has led her to become passionate in challenging the established systemic structures to raise the outcomes of all while tackling the predictability and disproportion of people in the highest and lowest achievement categories.  Through the years, she has developed her mission “To instill, to empower, and inspire” all.  It is now her greatest desire to instill the content knowledge through the culturally relevant practices, to empower leaders towards inclusive and equitable outcomes, and to inspire them to continue to foster a life-long love of learning and social justice.

As a former educator and leader, I bring with me the experiences and learning of what it means to be a leader of color within the educational landscape (the price of identity, mental/physical health, and repercussions of speaking up). This has led me to develop a deep and passionate commitment to support this equity work and to be a true disrupter of inequitable practices.