Henry Tanaka
Former Academic Dean of Art, Design and Humanities at Oakland Community College
Henry Tanaka is a recently retired Academic Dean for the Division of Art, Design and Humanities at a community college in Southeast Michigan. Serving for 24 years in various roles including Professor of Art and Department Chair of Humanities. He has received several accolades for leadership and teaching.
Henry has been a practicing artist for 30 years, exhibiting locally and nationally. He has served as President of the Michigan Ceramic Art Association from 2003-2007. He has presented workshop and seminars on his personal art work nationally. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kansas City Art Institute and his Master of Fine Arts from the New York State School of Ceramics at Alfred University. He currently resides in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Erwin Cruz
OCA National MAAP Facilitator/ OCA Chicago – Executive Vice President/ Executive Business Leader/ United States Marine Corps Veteran
Erwin Cruz serves as the Executive Vice President of OCA Chicago and is the OCA National MAAP (Mentoring for Asian American Professionals) Facilitator. His passion for philanthropy resulted in being recognized with OCA’s 2018 Unsung Hero Award. He has also participated in President Obama’s Whitehouse Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from 2014 – 2016.
Erwin has over 30 years of maintenance, repair, and operations (industrial distribution) industry experience and has held a variety of leadership roles at W.W. Grainger, Inc.; information technology, e-commerce, business development, innovation, research & development, and intellectual property strategies & management. He is also an inventor of United States Patent and Trademark Office – granted patents. He is recognized as Intellectual Asset Management’s Global Top 300 – The World’s Leading Intellectual Property Strategist.
Chris Lin
CEO and Founder of Mandy and Pandy
Christopher Lin, the CEO of Mandy and Pandy, is an ABC – American Born Chinese – born in Detroit, raised in Troy, and educated at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!!). As a pre-admit into the Ross School MBA program, Christopher was charged with making a difference and trying a different path.
During successful international internships and (4-7 year) career stints with multinational corporations such as Nokia, Tatung, Ford, GM, and Deloitte, he learned the importance of international understanding and the role of learning foreign languages and cultures.
In an effort to teach his daughter, Amanda, Chinese, they went to the local book store to discover that there were only a few Chinese books for kids while there were hundreds of Spanish books for kids. This A-ha moment inspired Lin to write and publish his first book – Mandy and Pandy say Ni Hao Ma?
Laurie Van Pelt
Director of Management and Budget for Oakland County
Laurie Van Pelt is the Director of Management and Budget for Oakland County, a position appointed by the County Executive which functions as the Chief Fiscal Officer of the County. Laurie has worked for Oakland County for 40 years. Laurie has a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Oakland University, a master’s degree in Finance from Walsh College, and is a Certified Public Finance Officer. She is the recipient of the 2010 Crain’s CFO of the Year Award in the Government Sector category. She assists other governments by providing advice and guidance as a subject matter expert and has presented at national and state government finance association conferences and seminars.
Stephanie Chang
State Representative Stephanie Chang is serving her second term representing Michigan’s 6th
House District. Chang is the Minority Vice-Chair of the House Committee on Law and Justice and serves on the House Committees on Education Reform and Natural Resources. She is the chair of the Progressive Women’s Caucus, a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Legislative Caucus, and a member of the Detroit Caucus, Michigan Latino Legislative Caucus and Michigan Legislative Black Caucus.
Julie Xiong
Global Diversity Employee Resource Group Manager/ Strategic Human Resource Business Partner for Senior Management/ General Motors
Julie Xiong is the Global Diversity Employee Resource Group Manager for General Motors and a Strategic Human Resource Business Partner for senior management. She is responsible for aligning and improving Diversity and Inclusion initiatives across the enterprise while attracting, developing and retaining talent. Xiong serves as a board member of the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles and also serves as the Advisory Board Chair for the Council of Asian Pacific Americans.