PANA Staff
Fumitaka Matsuoka
Executive Director. An ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, Fumitaka Matsuoka has served as a pastor in California, an educational missionary in Indonesia, and in campus ministries in Japan. He is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and the author of books exploring cross-cultural and cross-ethnic dimensions of faithful Christianity. Prof. Matsuoka notes that
"Theological education is inextricably bound up with and accountable to faith communities, which are the source of our lives and our intellectual reflection."
fmatsuoka@psr.edu
510/849-8209
Deborah Lee
Program Director. Rev. Deborah Lee is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ. Prior to coming to PANA, she served as the director of the Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies (PACTS) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, the training director of the Center for Ethics and Economic Policy in Berkeley, and as a community development worker in Brazil. She is an alumna of the University of California at Berkeley’s Peace and Conflict Studies and of the Pacific School of Religion’s Masters of Divinity program. She is a core member of Women for Genuine Security, part of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism, and the Network on Religion and Justice for Asian American and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (NRJ-API-LGBT). Ms. Lee is also the program director of PANA's Civil Liberty and Faith Project, and chaplain to our Represent 2 Witness youth program.
dlee@psr.edu
510/849-8260
Christopher Chua
Program Director. Prior to joining the PANA Institute's staff, Christopher Chua served the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in missions in the Philippines as a faculty member of the Divinity School at Silliman University. He is an M.Div. alumnus of Union Theological Seminary, NYC, and an elder at the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA.
Mr. Chua is the Program Executive for the Asian Pacific Americans and Religion Research Initiative (APARRI).
cchua@psr.edu
510/849-8210
Michael D. James
R2W Youth Institute Coordinator. Inspired by the work of the late Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, Michael D. James has worked as a teacher and writer developing a pedagogy for critical consciousness for nearly 30 years. His work with the urban working class in the US parallels popular education activity in Latin America and Africa. He trained briefly for the ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary (1976–78) and was later mentored by Dr. Freire while doing educational projects that generated political consciousness, moral responsibility, and active participation among youth of color, trade union members, housing project organizers, and other grassroots leaders. Mr. James has also worked as a health educator, mayor's aide, and labor organizer. A native of San Francisco's Fillmore and Chinatown districts, he is the proud son of "an African American autoworker and a Nisei homemaker."
mjames@psr.edu
510/849-8202
Sharon Hwang Colligan
Communications Coordinator. Sharon Hwang Colligan has previously given her excellent administrative support to such organizations as the Unitarian Universalist Association (Dept. for Social Justice and Dept. for Religious Education), the Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah (a.k.a. the "Cherokee Esperantist") Defense Committee, Starhawk and the Reclaiming Collective, Tenberry Software, the Bay Area Book Council, and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.
She earned her B.A. in Humanities, with an emphasis in Multiculturalism and Religious Education, from New College of California in San Francisco.
shcolligan@psr.edu
510/849-8244
Lauren Quock
Program Assistant. Lauren Quock grew up attending the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, San Francisco and, prior to joining the PANA Institute staff, worked with Asian American children and youth at Donaldina Cameron House, coordinating the bilingual afterschool program, training youth peer counselors, and counseling children who had witnessed domestic violence. After earning her undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, she was inspired by study of the Mexican Mural Movement to use art to build community and give voice to stories left out of traditional textbooks. She is currently an artist/muralist and Program Assistant for the Represent to Witness Youth Program and the Network on Religion and Justice for Asian Pacific Islander LGBTs. She traces her family roots back to Vicksburg, Mississippi and Canton, China.
lquock@psr.edu
510/849-8238