Hmong Women Empowerment Summit — Hmong Innovating Politics:
Hmong Women Empowerment Summit
despite having to overcome cultural and institutional hurdles, hmong women continue to make incredible strides in shaping the industries and communities they are a part of. while many are reaching new heights and breaking glass ceilings, many barriers persists to equal opportunity, authentic empowerment and self-reliance.
according to the us census, in the hmong community, women make up 53.6% of millennials and 66.3% of elders 65 and older. thus, hip is partnering with local organizations to highlight the tremendous achievements of hmong women, to initiate an intergenerational dialogue about the current state of the hmong community and provide a voter empowerment clinic to ensure hmong women of every generation are civilly engaged.
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meet the speakers
D. Khang is currently an organizer for EBAYC-Sacramento's Youth Action Team and also a student Sacramento State. As she describes, "I've Lived In Sacramento my whole life. My Future Goal Is To Encourage Women, Specifically Hmong Women, To Voice Out Their Opinion. I Am Currently Working With Youths To Give Them Opportunities To Be Knowledgeable About Their Community And Be Involved."
Kaying Hang serves on the senior management team for Sierra Health Foundation and the Center for Health Program Management as the director of health programs. In this role, Kaying oversees programs including the Sacramento Region Health Care Partnership, the Healthy Sacramento Coalition, the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, and the Steering Committee on Reduction of African American Child Deaths. Kaying had served as the interim director of health programs since February, and previously was a senior program officer when she joined the foundation in 2013.
Before to joining Sierra Health Foundation, Kaying served as associate director for Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, where she worked with foundations, affinity groups, public policy groups and immigrant rights organizations. Previously, she served as senior program officer at the Otto Bremer Foundation in Minnesota and a program officer and senior consultant with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation.
In addition to institutional philanthropy, Kaying worked in state government as the state coordinator of the Refugee Health Program for the Minnesota Department of Health, and as assistant regional coordinator for the Refugee and Immigrant Health Program for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
She served as the first Co-Chair of the national board of National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) based in Washington DC and served on the board of Asian American in Philanthropy (AAPIP).
A native Hmong speaker, Kaying received a B.A from Brandeis University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University. Originally from St Paul, MN, she is the oldest of seven children and comes from a family dedicated to justice and equity. Kaying lives in Sacramento.
Koua Jacklyn Franz is Co-Founder and lead consultant at John Gooder LLC. Koua is currently working in the field of Educational Philanthropy, and was previously the Chief of Staff to the Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District. She is an advocate for youth development and social and emotional learning (SEL), and is passionate about creating a high quality and equitable learning system that develops and educates the whole child. She is a strong facilitator and systems thinker. She has over a decade of experience supporting and developing strong teams, developing strong executive leaders, designing and supporting learning organizations, and creating social innovation initiatives that support charitable organizations.
May Ying Ly is currently a PhD candidate and a Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of California at Davis, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. She received her bachelor and master of social work from California State University at Sacramento. She has spent her life working with immigrant and refugee communities. She started her career within the public assistance program and eventually left county government to start a non-profit organization serving Hmong women and their families. She co-founded the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) in 1993 and became the organization’s founding executive director in 1999. In 2005, May Ying won the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Community Health Leadership Award which propelled her into the national arena as a proven effective leader. She has advocated for healthcare access, mental health funding, and refugee services at the local and national levels. She is currently a delegate to the Global Hmong Women Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
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