2006 Executive Board

President: Jaz Park

Jaz Park is committed to garnering the resources for yKAN to expand its terrific programming initiatives. To do this, she seeks to establish beneficial relationships with corporate/private sponsors and foundations willing to foster yKAN's vision for the NYC Korean American professional community.

Jaz's past leadership track record include serving as the Founder of Brown's undergraduate Asian American Women's group, an Executive Board member of the Asian American Students Association, a member of the Washington Alliance of Korean American Women (WAKAW), VP of the Brown Alumni Club of NYC, and Chair of the Multicultural Alumni Committee.

Past highlights of events that she has produced include a fundraiser for domestic violence women's shelter, the Washington DC Korean Film Festival, undergraduate/alumni minority career forum, and most recently the APIA Gala in conjunction with the DNC in Boston.

Career in yKAN:

• Fundraising Chair 2005

Vice President: Julie Cho

Julie (Juhyun) Cho has been involved with yKAN since 2004. She first heard about yKAN when she came across an article about yKAN's active community service involvement in the Korean newspaper, and has been an active member ever since. She would like to carry on the yKAN mission and continue to expand the scope of yKAN's Community Service efforts within the Korean-American (KA) community. Julie personally enjoys being a part of yKAN because she loves being around her fellow generation of KA. She hopes that one day, she has the opportunity to make this world a better place by giving back to the community that has given her so much. Reflecting her love of the field of Public Health, she is currently working at the American Cancer Society, in Queens, as a Patient & Family Services Coordinator, serving cancer patients and families in the Queens region. Given that she is fluent in Korean, she is also working for the Korean Unit within the American Cancer Society. She has been an extremely active contributor to community service initiatives ever since high school.

Julie was born in Seoul, South Korea and emigrated to California at the age of 6. She lived there for a short period of time, went back to Korea and subsequently came back to the U.S. in 1995 and entered Wheatley High School in Old Westbury, New York. She graduated in 2002 with a B.S. in Health Sciences with a concentration in Public & Community Health from SUNY Stony Brook.  She continued her studies at SUNY Stony Brook and graduated with an M.S. in Healthcare Policy & Management in 2003. She presently resides in Long Island.

Career in yKAN:

• General Secretary 2005
• Community Service Chair 2004

Treasurer: David Lee

David Lee joined yKAN in September 2003. Although he was active in the past with other community service programs, he joined yKAN to become more involved with charity organizations that assist the Korean community. He co-chaired the Community Service Committee with Julie Cho in 2004 and is currently yKAN's Treasurer.

Career in yKAN:

• Treasurer 2005
• Community Service Chair 2004

General Secretary: Brian Lee

Brian Lee became involved with yKAN to support Korean-American interests, contribute through community service, and meet fellow KA professionals, and joined the executive board to help provide others with the same opportunity. He has also volunteered with icouldbe.org and studied Korean abroad at Yonsei University.

Brian received his BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and is a CFA charterholder. He moved to New York in 2001 and currently works as a consultant for a large media company.

Career in yKAN:

• General Secretary 2006
• Membership Committee Chair 2005

Advancement: Isabel Kim

Isabel Kim attended her first yKAN meeting back in November of 2005. Isabel was born and raised in Argentina. She moved to the United States in 1995. She grew up speaking Korean and Spanish. Graduated from the City University of New York, Bernard Baruch with a BBS in Accounting. She currently works for Bank of America as an Assistant Vice President, Regulatory Risk Analyst.

Media / Web Chair: John Kim

John Kim attended his first yKAN meeting in October of 2005 in hopes to meet fellow Korean Americans. Shortly after his first Community Service event (Flu Shot Drive) and attendance at General Meetings, he was recruited to help yKAN wherever he could.

John was born in Queens, NY, however at a very young age his family moved to Long Island, where he has been ever since. Influenced by family and relatives who constantly told told him that he was neither Korean (since he couldn't speak the Korean language) nor American (since he didn't "look" like a "typical" American), he took up studying the Korean language for 2 years in college to try and breakdown the cultural/language barrier with his 1st generation Korean parents. Additionally, he spent an additional year in college to study abroad at Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea (which accepts men through their exchange program), where he learned about the Korean language and culture. He graduated from SUNY Stony Brook with a Bachelors in Chemistry and a Minor in Korean Studies.

John is currently working for a cosmetics company on Long Island, in which he serves as the company's liason with their Korean affiliate in Regulatory Affairs.

Career in yKAN:

• Advancement Committee Chair 2006

Community Service Chair: Open

Social Networking Chair: Audrey Lee & Jin Lim

Audrey Lee joined yKAN in March of 2002. She was introduced to yKAN by her very close friend, Linda Choi, who was General Secretary for yKAN in 2003. Audrey is currently acting Social Chair. She hopes to grow with yKAN in the years to come. Audrey immigrated to the USA when she was 12. She's been a New Yorker ever since. She holds BA in Biology from Binghamton University and recently completed graduate studies in Oriental Medicine.

Career in yKAN:

• Community Service Chair 2005
• Social Chair 2005
• Membership Chair 2003
• Fundraising Chair 2002

Jin Lim joined yKAN in January 2002 to learn about the Korean American community. She graduated from New York University with a B.S. in Information Systems and Finance. Now, she works as a business analyst.

Career in yKAN:

• Media & Web Committee Chair 2005

Fundraising Chair: Matthew Im

Matthew (Sei il) Im first learned about yKAN at the December 2005 Open House GM. He was attracted to yKAN due to their mission statement as well as their openness. After learning of their various programming initiatives he felt yKAN was an ideal outlet for his efforts. Understanding the importance of fundraising to a non profit organization such as yKAN he started with the organization as Fundraising chair. Subsequently he took on the role of Treasurer in the latter part of 2006.

Matthew was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Queens, NY when he was 3 years old. He graduated in 2003 with a B.B.A. in Finance and Investments from Baruch College. Upon graduation he spent a year at a title insurance firm before he joined NY Life as a Financial Services Professional. After which he left to become an Investment Consultant for TD Ameritrade. In his spare time he also completed the 2006 NYC Triathlon with Team In Training to fundraise for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. He resides with his wife, Cathy, in Queens.