ALUMNI ASSOCIATION - Key Persons
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- President of the APAA Board of Directors
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- Director, Business Partnerships
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- Assistant Director
- Assistant Director, Asian Pacific
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- Senior Director, Alumni Relations
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- Executive Director, Lambda LGBTQ
Carol Gomez Summerhays is a distinguished Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC graduate who blazed a trail in 2015, when she became the first Filipina-American and fourth woman president of the American Dental Association (ADA), the oldest and largest dental association in the world. In recognition of her historic accomplishment, Summerhays received a U.S. Congressional Record commendation.
Born into a longtime military family, Summerhays attended the Ostrow School on an Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship. After graduating, she served as a U.S. Navy Dental Corps lieutenant until 1982, when she opened her private practice in San Diego.
Throughout her career, Summerhays has dedicated herself to building diversity within the traditionally male-dominated field of dentistry. She has promoted the importance of volunteerism and improving oral health for the underserved (e.g., establishing a dental clinic in Ensenada, Mexico).
As ADA president, Summerhays advocated for including dental coverage in Medicare and helped define dentistry's role in reducing opioid abuse.
Summerhays has served on the Ostrow School's Board of Councilors since 2010, and has endowed two scholarships there. Her professional honors include the Pierre Fauchard Gold Medal and the American Association of Women Dentists Lucy Hobbs Award. In 2017, Summerhays received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor for her exceptional service to the United States.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director, Asian Pacific
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- Member of the Representative
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- Assistant Director, Business Partnerships
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- Director, Marketing and Operations
Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning book Kira-Kira (2005), the Pen USA Award-winner Weedflower (2006), and the National Book Award-winner The Thing About Luck (2013), among other prize-winning works for children. Her writing has appeared in Grand Street, the Mississippi Review, The New Yorker and Ploughshares, and she has also delved into adult fiction, including The Floating World
Currently a resident of Southern California, Kadohata, whose father was an itinerant laborer who was incarcerated during WWII in the Poston (AZ) internment camp, had a nomadic childhood. She has lived in Chicago, Georgia, Arkansas, Michigan, Boston, Pittsburgh and New York, and has worked as a waitress, sales clerk, typist, publicist and secretary.
Often described as a Japanese-American writer, Kadohata often explores the difficulties that come with a "hyphenated heritage," but believes her novels have universal appeal as coming-of-age stories with relatable themes, such as what it means to be different and the struggle to find one's identity.
After graduating from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Kadohata experienced a life-changing event when she was hit by a car that jumped a curb in Los Angeles. Her right arm permanently damaged, she realized how unpredictable life can be.
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- Associate Vice President, Alumni Relations
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- Associate Director, Latino
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- Director, Reunions and Engagement
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- Associate Director, Black
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- Executive Director
- Executive Director, Asian Pacific
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- Undergraduate Student Government
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- Assistant Director, Latino
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- Executive Director, Black
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- Member of the Representative
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- Manager, Alumni Affinity Programs
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- Immediate past President
- Member of the Officers Team
Jon M. Chu is a filmmaker whose credits include Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Now You See Me 2 (2016) and the hotly anticipated Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which is based on the bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan.
The youngest of five children of Chinese immigrants, Chu began making movies in fifth grade, when his mother gave him a video camera to record the family vacations. Chu instead began making science fiction thrillers and murder mysteries starring his siblings. The Bay Area native went on to attend the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he received several awards, including the Jack Nicholson Award, the Princess Grace Award and the Kodak Student Filmmaker Award.
Chu first attracted Hollywood's attention with his student short film, When the Kids Are Away. Signed by the William Morris Agency, he made his feature film directorial debut with Step Up 2: The Streets, the sequel to Step Up (2006), and subsequently directed Step Up 3D (2010), which is the highest-grossing film in the franchise worldwide.
In addition to his feature films, Chu created, wrote and co-produced the 2010-2011 web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD), which won Advertising Age's Media Vanguard Award for Outstanding Web Series. Chu also received the 2011 Digital Pioneer Emmy Award for LXD.
Chu's latest film, Crazy Rich Asians, is the first major motion picture studio-backed film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years. It will be released in theaters nationwide on August 17, 2018.
Joyce Kennard retired as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court in 2014. Appointed in 1989 by then California governor George Deukmejian, she was the court's second woman and first Asian American justice. She also served as: chair of the California Judicial Council's Appellate Advisory Committee; associate justice (and, earlier, senior attorney) on the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles; trial judge in Los Angeles County; and a deputy attorney general in Los Angeles.
Among Kennard's honors are the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Award; the First Justice Rose Bird Memorial Award from the California Women Lawyers organization; the Public Service Award from the Asian Pacific American Bar Association; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Japanese American Bar Association. She has also received honorary doctor of law degrees from seven California law schools. In 2010, Kennard received APAA's Distinguished Alumni Award.
Born in Indonesia to multi-ethnic (Dutch, Indonesian, Chinese and German) parents, Kennard spent part of her childhood imprisoned in an internment camp in Java during the Japanese occupation. Then, as a teenager, she lost her right leg above the knee due to a tumor. She immigrated to the United States in 1961 at age 20, about which she feels "indebted to America for letting [her] in."
As a jurist, Kennard proved herself an unpredictable, independent thinker who often sided with the underdog. Among her blockbuster decisions was a 2002 case involving Nike for which she wrote that corporations must be truthful about their product claims, and helping to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage in 2008 (which the voters then reinstated). Kennard was also well known for her vigorous and astute questioning at oral arguments.
Kennard received her undergraduate degree in humanities from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, her master of public administration from the USC Price School of Public Policy and her JD from the USC Gould School of Law.
Julie Chen and her husband, Leslie Moonves, are the donors behind a naming gift to the two-story, 20,000-square-foot Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center at Wallis Annenberg Hall. Chen hosts two CBS shows, The Talk and Big Brother, and Moonves is president and CEO of CBS.
"After seeing the impressive Annenberg Hall for the first time," says Chen, "I was inspired to support my alma mater and [energized to] make an impact on future generations of journalists and communicators."
In addition to her work on The Talk and Big Brother, Chen has 20+ years of experience with CBS, including being an anchor for CBS Morning News, CBS This Morning and the Early Show.
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Chen pursued broadcast journalism because of the lack of diversity she saw on television while she was growing up in the 1970s. After graduating from USC, she spent four years as a producer at KABC Los Angeles before becoming a reporter for three years in Dayton, Ohio. Chen is candid about having undergone plastic surgery early in her professional life after being ill-advised that her natural eye shape made her look disinterested during interviews. Nevertheless, she believes that the majority of discrimination she has faced during her career has been sexism, not racism, and that she has seen this improve over time.
Job Titles:
- Film Critic for the Los Angeles Times
Justin Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times as well as NPR's "Fresh Air," and contributes regularly to KPCC radio's "Film Week." Before his gig at the Times, he was the chief film critic at Variety,where he started as an intern.
Chang is the author of FilmCraft: Editing (2011), a book featuring interviews with 17 of the world's top film editors. He serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In 2014, he received the inaugural Roger Ebert Award from the African-American Film Critics Association.
Chang grew up in Orange County; his mother worked for County+USC Medical Center, and his late father was an aerospace engineer with a passion for movies that he conveyed to his son.
Chang first became interested in film critique in high school, when he realized that "two or three-or 40 or 50-intelligent people could watch a film and come away with completely different reactions to it." While at USC, he took a film criticism course from his mentor and future colleague at the Times, Kenneth Turan.
Chang met his wife Lameese '04 at USC; they currently live in Pasadena with their daughter.
Justin Chon is an actor/director best known for his role as Eric Yorkie in the popular Twilight film series. A Southern California native, he began acting in 2005, two years after he graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business. Guest-starring roles in such television series as Jack & Bobby and The O.C. led to his breakout part as Peter Wu in the hit Disney Channel film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Princess.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Representative
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- Associate Director, Trojan Travel
Marie Lu is a YA novelist whose critical and commercial success prompted the New York Times to call her "a hit factory." The author of the bestselling Legend and Young Elites trilogies, she began writing science fiction and fantasy stories as a child; video games were another passion for Lu, whose family emigrated to the United States from China in 1989. At USC, however, she put aside her childhood passions to study political science and biology, with an eye towards becoming either a lawyer or a doctor. That all changed once she saw a campus poster seeking videogame designer interns. Not only did Lu secure the internship with Disney Studios Interactive; she went on to work as video game concept artist for five years.
Working in the gaming industry also revived Lu's interest in writing. In 2011, she published her first novel, the YA dystopian fantasy Legend, which is set in a violent, half-flooded Los Angeles governed by martial law. The first book in a trilogy, Legend was a critical and commercial success that enabled Lu to become a full-time writer. She followed it with two more novels in the trilogy, Prodigy and Champion, and has since written the Young Elites series and Warcross, the first book in a new trilogy. Her most recent YA novel is Batman: Nightwalker, a title in the DC Icons Series. She is currently adapting Batman: Nightwalker as a graphic novel, which will be published in November 2019.
Job Titles:
- Member Services Specialist
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- Executive Director, Latino
Miller Fong, who for many years has taught a USC School of Architecture class known as "Architect's Sketchbook," likes to share his "gift of design, drawing and visualizing" with the young architects he teaches. "The journey from head to hand to paper is very different than through the computer," he says. "I want to give students a tool to put their vision on paper without the computer."
Fong, whose parents Danny Ho and Muey Fong emigrated from Canton, China, in 1936, was born in the back of their curio store at Seventh and Figueroa streets in downtown L.A. His predilection for architecture emerged early; he was mesmerized at age 9 by the construction of the Statler Hilton across the street. Fong's father, who never finished junior high school but dreamt of being an architect himself, was adamant that his three children be educated.
Fong started his own architecture practice upon graduating USC in 1964; he also married his wife, Jetty, that same year, and eventually became the principal designer for Fong Brothers Co. of Los Angeles, a firm started by his parents in 1953. A leading manufacturer of rattan and wicker furniture, the company became known nationwide for its sleek, nontraditional designs. The iconic Wave chaise, designed by Danny Ho Fong in 1966, is in the permanent collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art, and Miller Fong's Zen-inspired Lotus chair (1968) is in the permanent collection at the L.A. County Museum of Art.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Officers Team
- President
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- Assistant Director, Regional and Engagement Programs
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- Director, Regional and Engagement Programs
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- Member of the Officers Team
- Associate Senior Vice President for Alumni Relations
- Executive Office
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- Member of the Officers Team
- Secretary
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- Member of the APAA Board of Directors
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- Member of the APAA Board of Directors
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- Associate Director, Alumni Affinity Programs
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- Assistant Director, Black
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- Founder of the Sabrina Kay Charitable Foundation
Sabrina Kay has led a diverse professional life as a serial entrepreneur, tech educator, fashion designer, guest blogger, philanthropist and public speaker. Her success is all the more remarkable given her beginnings as a poor, non-English-speaking South Korean immigrant and single mother. After dropping out of college, Kay founded what is now known as the Art Institute of California-Hollywood, the nation's first school for computer-aided fashion design. Kay later sold the institute and turned to philanthropy.
Kay is the founder of the Sabrina Kay Charitable Foundation, which initially had two main projects: building a homeless shelter with educational programs for women and children, and developing a mentoring and internship program for fashion students. Since that time, Kay has served on more than 30 charitable and civic boards, including the International Medical Corps Leadership Council, and currently chairs the After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles.
Balancing her philanthropic efforts and entrepreneurial projects, Kay has founded six additional businesses, including Fremont College. Under her leadership as chancellor and CEO, Fremont College bridges the gap between the classroom and the 21 st-century workplace through pre- and post-employment training.
Kay's achievements have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Fashion Guild's Visionary Award, the United Nations Global Goals Award and APAA's 2018 Leadership Award. She is also a sought-after keynote speaker who spoke at the USC Marshall School of Business commencement in 2017.
In 2005, Kay earned her MBA from USC Marshall. She also holds an MS in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a joint doctorate degree in work-based learning from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and the Wharton School of Business.
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- Graduate Student Government
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- Manager, Regional and Engagement Programs
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- Events Communication and Data Manager
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- Deputy Administrative Director
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- Member of the APAA Board of Directors
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- Marketing & Member Services / Operations / Trojan Travel
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- Assistant Director, Lambda LGBTQ
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- Member of the Representative
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- Director, Signature Events
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- President / CEO of Alaska Milk Corporation
Wilfred Steven Uytengsu is president/CEO of Alaska Milk Corporation (AMC), a leading Philippine milk company. He is also president of GENOSI, exclusive supplier of meat products for McDonald's in the Philippines, and founder of Sunrise Events, Inc., the organizer for Ironman and XTERRA triathlons in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
In recognition of Uytengsu's achievements at AMC, he received the Philippines' Ernst & Young 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2013, he and his brother Michael '90 won Entrepreneurs of the Year from the USC Marshall Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
In 1986, Uytengsu founded the Alaska Aces, a professional team in the Philippine Basketball Association that has since won 14 championship titles. A gifted athlete himself, Uytengsu was a member of the Philippine National Swimming Team. While at USC, he was captain of the men's swim team, and later became a two-time Kona (Hawaii) Ironman World Championship finisher.
In 2012, Uytengsu contributed $8 million to USC Athletics (its largest gift ever by a former student-athlete) to fund the Uytengsu Aquatics Center; the new home for the Trojan men's and women's swimming, diving and water polo teams opened in 2014. More recently, he gave $1 million to the Greif Center office in USC Marshall's new Fertitta Hall, and also pledged $2 million towards the Coliseum renovation.
Uytengsu and his wife Kerri '84 have three children; their eldest is a 2009 USC Marshall grad.