Saturday, October 24th, 2026

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Dr. Vivienne Hau, MD, PhD

 

What the Flames Reveal — Finding Purpose Through Identity, Adversity, and Advocacy

Vivienne S. Hau, MD, PhD is a Clinical Assistant Professor and a Vitreoretinal Surgeon with the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine.  She is the Area Vice-Chair of Clinical Research and the founder and director of Kaiser Permanente’s largest ophthalmology clinical research program nationwide focusing on retina diseases.  She has been the primary investigator of over 20 phase 1, 2 and 3 prospective randomized studies that have led to 4 FDA approved treatments.  Most recently she was one of the first nationwide to surgically deliver sub-retinal gene therapy and restore degenerated retina with stem cells.

Dr. Hau is an openly transgender woman and first-generation Vietnamese boat immigrant.  As a medical student she established the University of Arizona APAMSA chapter, elected Regional Director and 2001 National APAMSA President.  Her chapter was  the first to involve pre-med students.  She is the first LGBTQIA+ elected board member of the American Society of Retina Specialists  and a leader with the American Academy of Ophthalmology LGBTQIA+ Community.  She’s an invited national speaker to several Fortune 500 companies on leadership development and supporting LGBTQIA+ communities.  

Dr. Hau is a mother to a beautiful 11-year-old daughter, and her perfect day is taking her to Disneyland.  She also volunteers guiding blind athletes in marathons and does triathlons.

Dr. Alice Lee, MD

 

An Astonishing Lung Cancer Disparity

Dr. Alice Lee is an emergency physician, simulation educator at UACOMP, aviation telemedicine consultant at MedAire, wife, and mother. After decades caring for critically ill patients in high-stakes emergency settings, she has learned that resilience is forged not only through professional challenges, but also through personal failures, triumphs, and unexpected adversity. Dr. Lee has been featured on the KevinMD podcast, at the 2025 APAMSA National Conference, and in other educational venues. Her resilience and grit have been shaped by adversity and strengthened by deep faith in God’s providence and sovereignty.

Dr. Vivian Huang, MD, MPH

 

Healing Beyond the Self: An Asian American Female Physician's Journey Through Personal Adversity, Systemic Challenges, and the Pursuit of Meaningful Change

Vivian W Huang, MD, MPH is a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine with more than 20 years of experience across clinical medicine, public health, global health, infectious diseases, vaccines, and pharmaceutical medical affairs. She earned her MD from Howard University College of Medicine and her MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Throughout her career, she has served in leadership roles with organizations including Doctors Without Borders, the New York City Health Department, Maricopa County Department of Public Health, Indian Health Service, and several biotechnology/vaccine companies. She currently supports hepatitis D clinical research and she is the founding physician of Hep B Free Arizona. She is passionate about health & wellness, climate change, health equity, eliminating hepatitis B, mentorship, & infectious disease prevention. Outside of work, she enjoys cave exploration, birdwatching, indoor bouldering, running, yoga, and playing the ukulele.

Dr. Vershalee Shukla, MD

Dr. Shukla is a board-certified radiation oncologist in private practice in the Phoenix and Scottsdale area for the past 16 years. She completed her Radiation Oncology training at the prestigious Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas with additional training at the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Shukla has authored extensively on various topics in the field of oncology and her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She has published over thirty publications and two textbook chapters. In 2017, Dr. Shukla co-founded Vincere cancer center and in 2018 co-founded a cancer screening program for Firefighters in the state of Arizona. This program has since become the largest and most progressive cancer screening program in the US. This is largely supported by FEMA. Dr. Shukla and her team recently partnered with the NCI to set National guidelines for first responder cancer screening. Dr. Shukla recently presented her work at the NASA/US Airforce conference at MD Anderson and in the early phases of collaboration with this high risk population. Dr. Shukla is also an advocate for Firefighters and served on a Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Minimizing Contaminant Risk and Exposure for First Responders in Arizona.

Dr. Brandon Yan, MD, MPH

Brandon Yan, MD MPH is a cardiovascular medicine fellow at Stanford Medicine and a public health researcher. He is a proud alum of the APAMSA National Board and a co-founder of the National Asian American Physicians Association (NAPA). He completed medical school and internal medicine residency at UCSF and trained in public policy and public health at Duke and Harvard, respectively. In his academic work, Brandon studies how care delivery transformation and policy can help drive better outcomes, equity, and value. Published in major scientific journals including JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), he has studied an array of timely subjects including Medicare and Medicaid policy reforms, drivers of U.S. cardiovascular deaths, Asian American health disparities, and the opioid epidemic.

Dr. Leena Yin, MD

Leena Yin 殷月蕾 (she/her) is a family physician at International Community Health Services, a federally qualified community health center serving the Chinatown-International District in Seattle, WA. As a medical student, she served as APAMSA's Advocacy Vice President and UCSF Co-Chair; as an alumni she is a founding member of the National Asian Physicians Association (NAPA). Dr. Yin is grateful to be practicing full spectrum family medicine including obstetrics, inpatient medicine, gender affirming care, and addiction medicine.

Dr. Carrie Lin, MD

Thu Nguyen

Thu Nguyen serves OCA National as its Executive Director. A graduate from Rice University with degrees in Chemistry and Sociology, Thu entered the nonprofit sector through organizing on campus and bridging partnerships between student groups and local organizations. Previously, she freelanced for non-profits and Asian-owned start-ups to do outreach and marketing. Thu oversees storytelling, relationships, and operations for OCA. She serves as Executive Committee Co-Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and Co-Chair of the Asian American Media Alliance. As a daughter of Vietnamese-refugees and proud Houstonian, she is passionate about creating spaces that bring people together through food and art.

Dr. Yingfei Wu, MD, MPH

Yingfei Wu, MD, MPH is a faculty member in the Division of General Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She received her MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin and MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, followed by internal medicine training at New York University Langone Health and a general medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and HMS. Her research focuses on improving cardiometabolic disease outcomes through promoting healthier nutrition and addressing health-related social needs such as food insecurity. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, is a founding member of the National Asian Physicians Association, and serves on several committees for the Chinese American Medical Society. As a past national president of APAMSA, she remains passionate about serving the AAPI community.

Dr. Eric Gross, MD, PhD

Dr. Eric Gross (he/him) is an anesthesiologist at the Stanford School of Medicine, where his research laboratory focuses on the impact of genetic variants on perioperative organ injury. Taking a translational approach, the lab primarily investigates cardiovascular injury, with a current emphasis on aldehydes and the genetic variant responsible for inefficient aldehyde metabolism. One common phenomenon related to this research is alcohol-induced facial flushing, where individuals experience redness and an increased heart rate after drinking. This flushing is linked to a genetic variant that leads to the accumulation of acetaldehyde, a harmful intermediate from alcohol metabolism. Traced back to the Han Chinese in Central China, this variant heightens health risks, including certain cancers, especially among those who smoke or drink. Additionally, it diminishes the effectiveness of nitroglycerin, a medication used during heart attacks. Dr. Gross will discuss the genetic basis of alcohol flushing, its associated health risks, and the urgent need for greater education among medical professionals and the public. His research centers on aldehydes and their metabolism by the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), affecting nearly 540 million people worldwide. The significance of this work is evident in publications in prestigious journals such as Science Translational Medicine, Pain, BJA, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Redox Biology, and Physiological Reviews.

Lucy Shang

Lucy Shang is a fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a degree in Public Health, where she first developed a passion for using medicine as a tool for advocacy and education. At Mount Sinai, she has found a home in the Department of Anesthesiology, where she has founded organizations to bring exploration of the field by students of all backgrounds and lead initiatives to help ease pain and anxiety in the perioperative settings through research, technology, and quality improvement.

Growing up in China and seeing the impact of cancer on her own family furthered her commitment to public health advocacy. Today, she partners with Dr. Eric Gross to bring attention to alcohol intolerance – a condition that affects more than 500 million people worldwide but is rarely talked about – by educating both physicians and communities about its cumulative health risks.

Dr. Justin Nguyen, DO, MPH

Dr. Justin Nguyen is a psychiatrist at Ventura County Behavioral Health and Community Memorial Health System in Ventura County, California. He served as National APAMSA's first Resolutions Director in 2017-2018 and then served as Advocacy Vice President from 2018-2020. He currently serves as a founding board member of the National Asian Physicians Association and Vice President of the California Physicians Alliance. 

Dr. Nguyen received his bachelor's degree in psychobiology at UCLA. As an undergraduate student, he engaged in student activism as part of the Vietnamese Student Union and also oversaw programs that promoted recruitment of students of color into higher education as a member of the Student-Initiated Outreach Committee. He then completed both his medical degree and master's in public health at Touro University California, where in addition to being part of APAMSA, he was also deeply involved with the California Health Professional Student Alliance. After graduating from medical school, he completed a transitional year residency in Ocala, Florida before returning to California for his psychiatry residency, where he now serves as faculty.

Dr. George Nguyen, MD

Dr. George Nguyen is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and House Advisor at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine-Phoenix. He also practices as a Primary Care Physician at Banner Health Center Plus - Arcadia. He stands to be a Phoenix native who has also been involved with APAMSA at a local level with chapters at UACOMP and UArizona, regional level as a Region 7 Director, and national level as a Membership Vice President.  In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family,  friends, and his puppy named Tofu.