Mel Y. Chen, PhD

Mel Y. Chen, PhD

Board Co-Chair

Associate Professor, Filmmaker-Director Local Grown Corn
Queer Chinese American nonbinary trans person

Mel Y. Chen is Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Director for the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture at UC Berkeley, where they get to work with so many fierce and engaged queer, trans, nonbinary, first-generation, immigrant and BIPOC students. They write in academic and arts publications, and teach about intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and humanness with praxis and spaciousness. They were deeply changed by a screenwriting workshop and the 2006 filmmaker cohort, and are part of a queer/trans of color arts collective that has held a sustaining space for more than ten years.

Directors

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors provides strategic guidance, governance, and accountability, stewarding resources and QWOCMAP’s mission and values.

Mel Y. Chen, PhD

Mel Y.
Chen, PhD

Board Co-Chair

Associate Professor, Filmmaker-Director Local Grown Corn Queer Chinese American nonbinary trans person Mel Y. Chen is Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies and Director for the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture at UC Berkeley, where they get to work with so many fierce and engaged queer, trans, nonbinary, first-generation, immigrant and BIPOC students. They write in academic and arts publications, and teach about intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and humanness with praxis and spaciousness. They were deeply changed by a screenwriting workshop and the 2006 filmmaker cohort, and are part of a queer/trans of color arts collective that has held a sustaining space for more than ten years.
Nat Ruiz Tofano

Nat Ruiz
Tofano

Board Co-Chair

Nonprofit Manager and Coordinator, Filmmaker-Director <i>A Boy on the Side</i> Queer Multiracial Mexican and Chinese nonbinary person Nat Ruiz Tofano is a queer and multiracial documentary filmmaker based in Oakland, CA. They work as a documentary film Producer and a Coordinator/Programmer for the documentary field. They are committed to decolonizing and reimagining documentary film and storytelling; and lifting up stories from BIPOC and Queer communities. Nat is a proud 2009 QWOCMAP alumni. They are an active member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, A-Doc (Asian American Documentary Network), a member-owner of New Day Films, and has produced numerous documentary projects that have aired on PBS, WORLD Channel, Al Jazeera English, CCTV-9, and CuriosityStream.
Emily Park

Emily
Park

Pilates & Fitness instructor/Restorative Movement Coach, Filmmaker-Director Ardent Dissonance Harmonic Discord (Super Emotional) Queerean mixed-race Asian American pansexual woman Emily Park is a multi-disciplinary creative with an extensive background in the performing arts and a parallel profession in the arts of embodied movement for wellness as a Pilates and restorative movement coach. In QWOCMAP’s 2024 cohort of Film & Freedom Academy, Emily created her first short film that had its premiere at QWOCMAP’s 21st annual film festival in June 2025. </div>
Lynn Sugihara

Lynn
Sugihara

Filmmaker-Director Jasmine’s Jubilee

California State Registered Dental Hygienist, Filmmaker-Director Jasmine’s Jubilee Queer Japanese/Chinese American woman With 37 years in the dental field, she is also a long-time community activist who has volunteered for APIQWTC, Asian Women’s Shelter, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach. She is a 3rd generation Asian American, born in Berkeley, raised in Richmond.
Yeva Johnson

Yeva
Johnson

Physician (retired), Poet, Writer, Musician, and Film-Lover Queer Black Jewish Lesbian

Physician (retired), Poet, Writer, Musician, and Film-Lover Queer Black Jewish Lesbian Yeva Johnson is a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet whose work explores interlocking caste systems, belonging, joy, and the daily work of imagining a better world. Her writing appears in Bellingham Review, Obsidian, Sinister Wisdom, Yemassee, and elsewhere. A past Radar Productions Show Us Your-Spines Artist-in-Residence, Mesa Refuge Healing Arts Fellow, and Brown Handler Writer’s Resident, Yeva is the author of Analog Poet Blues (2023). She is a Watering Hole Fellow, a poet in QTPOC4SHO, a San Francisco Bay Area artists’ collective, and a proud supporter of QWOCMAP. Yeva aspires to make a film one day.