Domestic violence does not discriminate, but one can get help. Dawn Sauma has sought to educate and inspire others to take action against violence drawing from her own family's experience.  Today, she is a community leader, advocate, and activist, who has worked in social services for over two decades. Her expertise in mental health and crisis intervention has led her to serve as the Co-Executive Director and Clinical Director of the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence. In this episode, she shares the complex challenges faced by many survivors and immigrant families, and the resources available along their journey to finding safety and hope. 

BIO: Dawn Sauma, LICSW is the Co-Executive Director and Clinical Director of Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK). She has worked at ATASK for over 8 years, overseeing all direct service programs, collaborating with stakeholders and community partners and authoring many government and foundation grants. She has worked in social services for over 25 years as a provider, educator, manager, and administrator within mental health, crisis intervention, judicial, academic, and non-profit systems. 

The majority of her work has been with underserved Asian communities in various settings and service delivery systems in Hawaii and Massachusetts.  As a bi-racial Japanese/Caucasian American, advocate/activist; her work blends personal and professional experience into a mission focused on social justice issues in Asian and other marginalized communities.

For more info on ATASK, visit www.atask.org/site/.

For episode #7 of "From Resilience to Radiance" Podcast, it was a pleasure to connect with Chihiro Sato from Joslin Diabetes Center's Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI). For the past decade, she has served as a bilingual public health advocate, outreaching to diverse communities and providing health intervention and wellness programs, for the rising number of Asian Americans living with diabetes. As a former business consultant in Tokyo, Chihiro uses her business expertise to think outside the box when comes to empowering communities through culturally appropriate education about diabetes management and its prevention. She strongly believes that it is just as important to educate and interact with patients and members of the community as it is to engage healthcare professionals.

Chihiro is passionate about creating a variety of programs that can be easily adopted by the needs of each community. She enjoys meeting people and listening to their stories, which inspire her to develop and provide programs and tools to encourage healthier and happier lives.

If you are interested in learning more about the Asian American Diabetes Initiative, please visit Joslin's website.

We’re talking about thyroid cancer with special guest, Trisha Mah. She is a survivor of papillary carcinoma, having had her thyroid removed in 2014. She's a fourth generation Japanese American and third generation Chinese American, born and raised in the Bay Area. She has devoted her life to youth empowerment and fighting for social justice. She has helped young people access and transition to college, trained teens to be advocates against domestic violence, and used the art of taiko (Japanese drumming) to promote respect for all. These days, you’ll find her as an academic counselor at the BU College of Engineering.

Trisha uses her story to let others know that cancer can look and feel many different ways on people. Committed to being “small and mighty,” Trisha continues to practice living a liberated and healthy life, especially after making the courageous decision to leave an abusive relationship after 6 years. She also is a strong advocate for taking control of one’s own health, encouraging others to ask questions when it comes to one’s overall health and well-being.

In this episode, we discuss suicide prevention with our special guest, Jenney Szeto, who is a wellness coach and change maker, an inspiring video blogger and digital nomad, and athlete. She is well on her way to completing marathons across seven continents!

Jenney struggled with her identity, bouts of depression, and suicidal ideations as a young, second-generation, Chinese American woman,. She found her path to healing and resilience through therapy, meditation, and meaningful community connections. Today, she inspires others to live life joyfully by promoting a holistic approach to health and self-care, and encouraging a mindful spiritual practice.

Journey with Jenney!

facebook.com/journeywithjenney

Follow along with Asian Women for Health!

asianwomenforhealth.org

facebook.com/asianwomenforhealth

We are delighted to speak with Dr. Pata Suyemoto, a feminist scholar, writer, educator, and a mental health advocate, as well as a champion for racial and social justice.

She is Co-Chair for the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition and Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention’s People of Color Caucus.

Through her work and lived experience with depression, she provides a voice to Asian American women who struggle with mental health, and she helps to foster compassion over the associated stigma.

BIO:

Pata earned her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and did her research on multicultural education and issues of race and racism. She is a member of a number of boards and committees, including the planning committee for the annual Asian American Mental Health Forum and the Department of Public Health’s Suicide Prevention Community Advisory Board. She is the Co-Chair for the Greater Boston Regional Suicide Prevention Coalition and the Chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Suicide Prevention’s People of Color Caucus.

Pata has spoken and written about her struggles with depression and is a co-founder of The Breaking Silences Project www.thebreakingsilencesproject.com, which is an artistic endeavor that educates about the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American young women. She is also a long-time volunteer for Asian Women for Health and is a trainer and wellness coach for the Achieving Whole Health program. Her claim to fame is that she rode her bicycle across the country in the summer of 2012.

Additional Links:

The Breaking Silence Project: http://www.thebreakingsilencesproject.com/

Asian American Mental Health Forum: https://www.facebook.com/Asian-American-Mental-Health-Forum-410090306122850/

We are delighted to speak with Chien-Chi Huang, Founder of the Asian Breast Cancer Project and Executive Director of Asian Women For Health. She is a trailblazer, a champion for communities of color, and a passionate patient advocate. Her work around gambling addiction, mental health, and breast cancer impact the lives of countless Asian families throughout the Commonwealth. In this podcast, she also shares her family’s experience with colorectal cancer and her personal journey as a breast cancer survivor.

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Chien-Chi Huang is the Founder of the Asian Breast Cancer Project and is presently the Executive Director of Asian Women for Health. Previously, she was the Asian Community Program Manager at the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling.

She has spearheaded several new health initiatives addressing the unique issues and challenges facing the Asian American community, including: the Asian American Problem Gambling Outreach efforts, Asian American Women’s Mental Health Symposium (now AAPI Mental Health Forum), and the Immigrants and Refugees Mental Health Network. A deft community organizer and trainer, Chien-Chi has provided capacity building, technical guidance and network enhancement to community-based organizations and providers serving Asian Americans in the Commonwealth.

Chien-Chi is the recipient for the Cheryl Kramer Passion Award in 2011, the Trail Blazer award in 2012, the Janice McGrath Survivor of the Year Award in 2013, the honoree of the one hundred by Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in 2014, GK 50, the most influential people of color in Life Science and Healthcare in 2017, as well as the Community Hero Award by ABCD in 2018.

Under her leadership, Asian Women for Health is among one of the 6 recipients for the Peter Lee Healthy Communities Awards in 2013, with 12 nominations from partners and allies at the state-wide Ounce of Prevention Conference.

Chien-Chi is a breast cancer survivor and proud patient advocate. She came as an international student from Taiwan in 1989 and now resides in Somerville with her husband and two children.

We are excited to speak with Jessica “Jay” Wong, a community advocate for social justice and youth programs, who understands the power in telling one’s narrative. She candidly shares her earlier struggles with cultural identity growing up as a mixed Asian in Fall River, Massachusetts, and her experience in living with epilepsy.

Jessica recently joined the administrative staff of the Asian American Commission. She also serves as a Life Coach for cis-gender males/transgender youth at Roxbury Youthworks in Boston.

Earlier on, she served as an AmeriCorps member for her community in Fall River, where she founded a young women’s empowerment group called W.A.V.E (Women, Action, Voice, Empowerment). In 2017, she was the youngest and first Asian American female to run for School Committee in Fall River.

She supports the Nearyroth Academy of Arts as a classical/folk Cambodian dancer, and volunteers with Asian Women for Health, the Chinese Progressive Association, and the Children’s Improvement Organization in Siem Reap, Cambodia. She is a strong advocate for the Southeast Asian community in preventing deportation and addressing mental health and cultural preservation.

She attended Bristol Community College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she graduated with a BA in Political Science.

LEARN MORE

American Epilepsy Society - www.aesnet.org

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STAY TUNED FOR OUR NEXT BROADCAST!

With guest, Chien-Chi Huang, Founder and Executive Director, Asian Women For Health on the topic of Colorectal Cancer

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Thanks to our community partner, PRX Podcast Garage. Their Community Hours program gives studio time and training to Boston nonprofits that are developing a podcast. https://www.podcastgarage.org

For this first podcast, we’re focusing on the subject of cervical cancer in recognition of National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. We are excited to speak with Ellie Nguyen, who works at Asian Women for Health as the Program Manager. She is also the founder of a media production company called 3arly July, and a former board member of Queens Talk, a monthly empowerment meetup for women of color. Ellie is a storyteller at heart, and her work is often found at the intersection of creativity and community. Through her innovative work and professional role as a wellness coach, she empowers others to embrace who they are, discover their voice, and walk in their truth.

Ellie facilitates cervical health workshops in the Asian community to provide culturally-relevant education on cervical health and to encourage Asian women to get their pap screening, as well as to offer support as peer health educators for family members and people in their community. Cervical cancer is ranked among the most common cancers in women worldwide. The Asian community has the highest rates of invasive cancer, but the lowest rates of screening.

Editor's note: Pap smears are recommended once every 3 years, not yearly as mentioned in the podcast unless your healthcare provider suggests otherwise.

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Thanks to our community partner, PRX Podcast Garage. Their Community Hours program gives studio time and training to Boston nonprofits that are developing a podcast. www.podcastgarage.org