Lead Liberated

Michael Hsieh is the Founder and President of Fung Capital USA Investments, Inc., a venture capital firm investing primarily in technology companies that enable global retailing and supply chain efficiencies. He is a founding partner of Karma Pictures, LLC, a media company developing and producing feature films and documentaries showcasing Asians as leaders and heroes to counter negative Asian stereotypes in media. Michael also served on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including as Board Chair for Center for Asian American Media, Head Royce School, University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim, and Roses in Concrete Community School. Michael has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Nicole Williams Browning is currently the Area Superintendent at Aspire Public Schools, Bay Area. In this position, she supervises a network of schools from Transitional Kindergarten through twelfth grade. Ultimately, she is responsible for student’s well being and academic success. Prior to this role, Dr. Williams Browning served as the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at Aspire Public Schools, Bay Area, and was the Executive Director of Elementary Instruction in the Elevation Network as well as the Senior Director of School Leadership Development in the Oakland Unified School District. In supporting the Elevation Network (a turnaround network) Nicole supervised 8 schools in East and West Oakland, where she supported leaders to significantly improve academic and social emotional outcomes for scholars in a two year time period.

Her specific background is in methods and instructional practices that significantly narrow the achievement gap in public schools. Creating the conditions, and fostering Anti Racist schools where Black and Brown children thrive is Nicole’s heart work, and is her sustaining “why” as an educator for the last 24 years.

She holds a BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley, two MA degrees in Literature and Educational Leadership from California State University, East Bay (formerly, California State University, Hayward) and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Tara O’Flaherty is the Senior Director of Schools at DC Prep, a Charter Management Organization (CMO) in Washington, DC, and has coached, developed, and supervised elementary and middle school principals since 2012. She has also provided coaching and mentoring to leadership teams, and campus leaders at all DC Prep schools, and has been a part of a team that led DC Prep to be the highest performing CMO in Washington, DC since 2012. Before joining the DC Prep team, Tara was a member of the founding team of Chavez Prep and served as both Assistant Principal and Principal. She was a school leader at Chavez for seven years and in 2012 was named Principal of the Year by the DC Association of Public Chartered Schools. Tara has a BA from Drew University, an MEd from Lesley University, and an MA from The George Washington University.

K. Wayne Yang is Provost of John Muir College and Professor of Ethnic Studies at University of California, San Diego. Before his academic career, he was a public school teacher in Ohlone territory, now called Oakland, California, where he co-founded the Avenues Project, a youth development non-profit organization, as well as East Oakland Community High School, which were inspired by the Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party. He helped to incubate The Black Teacher Project, which is based in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. With his close collaborator, Eve Tuck, he is co-convening the Land Relationships Super Collective which includes partnership with Sogorea Te`, an Indigenous women-run land trust in Lisjan Ohlone territory.