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Leadership
Raise the visibility of Asian Americans, to collectivize
and lift up progressive voices
Aryani Ong is an advocate, community leader, attorney and consultant. She has worked with the top leading national organizations such as AAAJ-Asian American Justice Center, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates and United Chinese Americans. The issues that she has addressed ranges from civil rights and civil liberties protections in the face of heightened national security concerns; racial discrimination, particularly hate crimes; and, public representations of Asian Americans in policymaking and by the media.
Closer to home, Aryani served on an Asian American parent advisory group to Montgomery County Public Schools, and the Beyond the Boundaries Working Group with Impact Silver Spring on diversity, inclusion and equity issues.
She chaired the board of the Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy (MCAEL) as it was building a countywide ESOL system in support of immigrant integration and workforce development. She also served on County Executive Marc Elrich's transition team.
Aryani Ong
(Founder and Board Chair)
Aryani is a founding member of Communities United Against Hate (CUAH) and a former board member of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, DC Chapter and the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County (CRCMC).
Aryani was recognized as Maryland's Top 100 Women in 2019. She is a regular public speaker. Currently, Aryani is working on a blog called Six Hues to elevate stories with multi-dimensional perspectives, especially from Asian Americans.
Janelle Wong has lived in Montgomery County since 2012. She is the parent of two MCPS students. She is a professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has written four books and numerous academic articles on Asian American politics. She is active on the MoCo NAACP Parents Council.
Janelle Wong
(Board Member and Treasurer)
Akil Vohra is a Montgomery County resident and MCPS parent. He has a wealth of leadership experience in the Asian American community, including serving as Executive Director of an organization that advances education and mentorship support for low-income and underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander youth in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region. Akil served as Director of Strategic Initiatives at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, where he was responsible for coordinating the office’s work to advance opportunities for AAPI communities across the federal government, with community organizations, and in the private sector. He also has extensive experience advocating for the civil rights of Muslim Americans.
Akil Vohra
(Board Member)
Ethan Park is the 2025 MoCoPAAN fellow and a recent graduate from Wesleyan University. He grew up in Montgomery County and has always been passionate about AAPI identity, culture, and politics; he majored in American Studies, and wrote a thesis exploring contemporary Korean-American literature and film. Through poetry, academic writing, and local community spaces, Ethan works to uplift voices of color through writing and conversation. He also teaches taekwondo — a Korean martial art — at a local studio in Kensington, MD.