About us
Our Story
During the summer of 2013, Duc Ta, David Kupihea, Paul Jung and traci ishigo had their first meeting in South Los Angeles.
At the time, Duc and David were both employees at the Amity Foundation, mentors and conscientious community leaders. As formerly incarcerated individuals, Duc and David had experienced long histories with the criminal justice system and possessed unique storytelling abilities that informed both the purpose and vision of the organization from the very start. Both Paul and traci had experience working at separate nonprofit advocacy organizations. Paul helped create a nonprofit that created jobs and training for individuals with drug addictions in the Koreatown area.
The conditions we want to address are complicated and quite nuanced: due in part to the cultural stigma, silence and apathy in the Asian and Pacific Islander American (API) community regarding criminal justice issues and the resulting lack of infrastructure and API institutional capacities around these issues, particularly here in Southern California. Until now, no organization has recently stepped up to champion these issues and to directly organize and promote the leadership of API formerly incarcerated populations.
The four founders, collectively coming from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences, also realized that diversity and inclusions are key assets to draw upon in our communities to empower and lift up the voices of the invisible and oppressed among APIs in California's Prison Industrial Complex. This became the organization's goal and clarion call.
The four point of focus of API RISE are:
Provide a support group of peers who help heal the past wounds and generate solutions for the future.
Create a network of mentors to encourage and help members navigate challenges.
Educate and advocate for APIs by collecting disaggregated data through storytelling to reveal the strength, resilience and diversity of API communities.
Encourage API social enterprises as a model for economic empowerment and sustainability.
Co-Founders
Duc Ta
Co-Founder and Board Chair, Duc Ta, served 15 of a 35-life sentence. After release, Duc achieved his culinary dreams at LA Kitchen and has worked for numerous celebrity chefs. Duc is currently pursuing entrepreneurial goals. Duc was a LA County Measure J (alternatives to incarceration) advisor in 2021.
Paul Jung
Co-Founder Paul Jung, a graduate of UCLA Law. He works for the City of LA, and is completing a graduate program in Urban & Regional Planning at Cal Poly Pomona. His brother is formerly incarcerated.
traci ishigo
Traci Ishigo is a community organizer & trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher, who is proud to support API RISE's leadership. Currently, traci is a Master's Candidate for the USC School of Social Work's Adult Mental Health and Wellness Program, and co-chair of #VigilantLove, an organization dedicated to building a creative movement for healing, solidarity, and resistance to end Islamophobia and violence.
In Memoriam
David Kupihea
Co-Founder David Kupihea’s work and vision for API RISE has helped and touched so many brothers and sisters in the Asian Pacific Islander community. His legacy lives on forever in lives he has impacted in such a profound way. API RISE would not exist today if not for David’s vision and key role in wanting to break barriers in society. He envisioned a society of a united front of impacted and non-impacted members coming together to make a positive change. David knew there was a need in the community to work with impacted APIs who were coming home from prison. David wanted to give back to our brothers and sisters coming home a fighting chance at getting their lives back just as he was given a second chance at life as well. He shared his testimony openly with anyone and everyone who would be interested in listening. David’s love for life emanated through his beautiful ALOHA welcomes at ALL meetings and events. His amazing green thumb gardening skills created a beautiful Shangri-la rooftop garden where community members would sneak away for some peace and tranquility. David’s personality was big energy, just as his love, and drive for the work he did. His passing has left a big empty hole in this organization. Not only did we lose an amazing warrior in this fight, we lost a father, a son, and we lost our brother. David lived by the Hawaiian Proverb, “E hele me ka pu’olo” which translates to: “Always take an offering with you. Make every person, place, or condition better than you left if aways.” API RISE continues this work in memory of David Kupihea and we strive to better our community better than when we found it. Rest in Power our Loving Uso. ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!
About The Directors
Diane Ujiiye
Co-Director
Minister Diane Ujiiye's background includes over twenty years of working in the fields of substance abuse, mental health, HIV/AIDS, gang prevention-intervention, and reentry in multi-ethnic LA County. She has conducted civil rights and public policy advocacy for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in California. As executive director of a statewide network of CBO’s, she co-led the passage of AB 1088 (Eng) the disaggregated API data bill. Diane facilitated community input for AB 116 (Nakano) which established the CA Commission on APIA Affairs (CAPIAA) and served as a founding member and chair. She served as board president for Healing Urban Barrios, a gang intervention and re-entry program in North-east Los Angeles. Diane was an appointee to the California Highway Patrol (CHP) Citizens Oversight Committee after the 1992 uprising, and is co-founder of the Black and API Solidarity group. She has facilitated an array of group processes designed to strengthen unity while addressing causes and symptoms of division. Diane holds a Master of Divinity (Mdiv’) degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Billy Taing
Co-Director
Formerly incarcerated in the California state prison system for more than two decades, Billy Taing serves as Co-Director of API RISE. The journey to this role required him to navigate early childhood as a refugee from Cambodia at the age of three when his mother and older brother fled the Khmer Rouge because of their Chinese lineage. Then, like so many immigrant youths, he joined a gang where he thought he found belonging and acceptance. A terrible decision led to a life sentence in prison, an order for deportation, and separation from his family until the age of 43. As his life purpose came into focus, his spiritual training deepened, and his desire to serve grew–Billy successfully petitioned and received a full and unconditional pardon, a set aside of the deportation order, and an acceptance into a union-wage apprenticeship program to be an electrician. For many reasons, he chose to leave the union apprenticeship to serve his brothers and sisters in the API community, as a Co-Director of API RISE. Billy is also the Co-Founder of the Black and API Solidarity group.
Staff
Kanaka Luna-Jennings
Program Director
Kanaka Mālia Luna Jennings, a proud Native Hawaiian and Filipina, serves as Program Director at API RISE, overseeing culturally responsive programs that promote healing, leadership, and empowerment. Raised in San Francisco’s marginalized communities and shaped by 23 years of incarceration, she transforms lived experience into leadership rooted in ancestral wisdom and resilience. Her professional journey includes working in the workforce development and tattoo removal departments at Homeboy Industries, and serving as a certified Substance Use Disorder (SUD) counselor at Amity Foundation and Grandview Foundation, supporting reentry, recovery, and community healing. Kanaka is attaining her AA in Liberal Arts and pursuing a BA in Asian American Studies/Social Justice to further her commitment to immigrant rights and collective liberation.
Her work honors the truth that true change begins within and ripples outward to heal communities and generations.
STaff
Mike Madrilejo
Senior Program Specialist
Michael is of Filipino descent, originally hailing from the Bay Area but now considers Los Angeles home. He joined API RISE in 2017 and began his journey as a part-time reentry specialist, eventually transitioning to a full-time Senior Program Specialist role. Despite encountering challenges during his upbringing that resulted in some difficult decisions, Michael has persevered, striving to overcome his past and create a better future for himself. His current focus is on giving back to his community, and in 2024, he enrolled as a graduate student in Sociology at Cal State Los Angeles with the goal of using his education to serve the API community.
Dara Yin
Program Specialist
Dara is of Khmer (Cambodian) descent who grew up in Long Beach, California. They have firsthand experience with the criminal justice system and were incarcerated at the age of 19 under a Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentence. Fortunately, Dara’s sentence was commuted by Governor Newsom in January 2022 to a 18-to-life, and after 20 years, they were found suitable for parole by the Board of Paroles. Dara has been home since November 2022 and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Education at the University of Souther California (USC) through the Learning, Design, and Technology program. They strongly believe in the transformative power of education to address issues like poverty, systemic racism, and violence. Dara hopes to leverage their education and skills to empower the API RISE community in the ongoing fight against racism, marginalization, and separatism. They look forward to collaborating and growing together with the community.
Hana Morita
Communications & Admin Coordinator
Hana is fourth-generation Japanese American with Okinawan and Chinese heritage, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. They went out of state to receive their bachelor’s degree at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where they majored in Sociology and Anthropology and minored in African American Studies. Their involvement with incarcerated and detained individuals at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) and the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) through programs like the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) and Advocates for Detained Voices (ADV) ignited their passion for working with system-impacted individuals. They are guided by their focus on bridging gaps, breaking cycles of violence and trauma, and highlighting our shared humanity.
STaff
Vai Matautia
Inland Empire Program Coordinator
Vai was born and raised in Long Beach, CA. She is Samoan American and has lived in San Bernardino since 2007. Alongside her family, they have been serving the Inland Empire region since 2014.
O le ala i le pule, O le tautau – “The pathway to leadership is through service”.
Elsie Nu’u
Program Specialist
I am Samoan American and the first in my family to be born in America. I was raised in San Bernardino, CA, and I enjoy volunteering for my community and church. My goal with API RISE is to continue empowering API youth and guide them to use their voices in powerful ways.
Tin Nguyen
Senior Program Specialist
After serving 22 years on a Life Without the Possibility of Parole and 10 months in an ICE detention center, Tin became a consultant at California State University of Los Angeles with the Center Engagement for Public Good and Service, where he received his Bachelor in Communication Studies and Master of Business Administration. He launched a dog boarding and training business, collaborating with rescuers to support animal welfare causes. Additionally, Tin served as the Immigrant Justice Coordinator at VietRISE and Program Director for the Decarcerated Orange County coalition, developing programs to assist OC system-impacted communities and advocating for policy change alongside organizations like the Orange County Justice Fund, and Orange County Rapid Response Network. He is a board member of the Asian Solidarity Collective, and Collective Freedom in San Diego County.
BOARD
Kristina Wong
Kristina Wong is a performance artist, comedian, writer and elected representative in Koreatown Los Angeles who has been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa. In the pandemic, Kristina founded Auntie Sewing Squad, a national network of volunteers sewing masks for vulnerable communities. Their book “The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care and Racial Justice is published by the University of California Press. The experience of erecting this remote factory turned national mutual aid collective at the start of the pandemic is the subject of “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord”– a “New York Times Critics Pick” that premiered off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop. Kristina also devised and directed last season’s “From Number to Name” at East West Players with members of API RISE, a support group for individuals who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.
Kirn Kim
Kirn Kim was a former honor student and son of a prominent physician in the Fullerton Korean community. However, at age 16, he was sentenced as an adult to life in prison as part of a high-profile case that became known as the “Honor Roll Murder.” He earned parole after serving 20 years. Kirn became active in justice reform advocacy, leading to his hiring as the first formerly-incarcerated employee of The California Endowment. Currently working as a software developer, Kirn continues speaking on issues of criminal and juvenile justice reform, and the culture of shame and the model minority myth in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. Kirn is also currently on the board of directors at the National Juvenile Justice Network.
Godfrey Santos Plata
Godfrey Santos Plata (he/him) is a queer Filipino immigrant and renter whose north star is a racial justice, and whose tools of choice are political education and building people power. He unapologetically works toward a world in which Black Lives Matter. Plata was born in Marikina, Philippines, and is a teacher-turned-organizer currently living in LA's Koreatown. After beginning to meet API RISE members in 2019, he was proud to support API RISE members in East-West Players' production of FROM NUMBER TO NAME, a collection of members' stories and experiences theatricalized for a Zoom audience. In his civic life, Plata sits on the boards of LA Forward and Pilipino American LA Democrats; and represents almost half a million LA residents as a member of the LA County Democratic Party's Central Committee. In 2020, Plata ran for California's State Assembly and won 50,000 votes (44% of the vote) as a first-time political candidate running against a 3-term incumbent, without taking any corporate PAC money and with 7 times less funding than his opponent. State-wide, he serves as Regional Vice-Chair of the Filipino-American Democratic Caucus of California and steers the California Progressive Alliance. In his organizing work, Plata supports community members in multiple LA-based organizing groups, having worked on issues of Sheriff's Department accountability alongside Black Lives Matter; immigrant supports and services at LA Unified School District; and protections for Asian Americans in light of recent waves of anti-Asian violence.
Annie Liu
Annie is a research consultant for big tech companies and higher education. She received a PhD from UCLA where she studied the racial formation of Asian American youth gangs. As a doctoral student she started an educational program inside Barry J. Nidorf juvenile hall. She has conducted research and worked with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles, New York, Europe, and Guam. She went on to do her postdoctoral research at Stanford, in the Graduate School of Education. She's a proud San Jose native, and daughter of Vietnamese refugees. In her free time you can find her taking a cult workout class, or spending time with her large family (they call themselves the Asian Brady Bunch).
Ben Jung
Born and raised in Echo Park, Los Angeles, Ben Jung is a former juvenile lifer who served 21 years of a 25-to-life sentence. As the eldest son of Korean immigrants and the brother to a lawyer and the co-founder of API RISE, Ben brings a deep commitment to community advocacy and empowerment. Now a full-time Union Electrician with IBEW Local 11, he balances his career with his passion for supporting those currently and formerly incarcerated. Ben graduated college with honors and is a proud uncle to his toddler niece. He is also a die-hard Raiders, Dodgers, Lakers, and all things LA fan.