Ysa Le
Executive Director
Ysa began her art activism with the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) since 2000, serving as the Board President from 2004-2008, and then as Executive Director from 2008 until now. She co-founded Viet Film Fest in 2003.
Prior to VAALA, Ysa was a radio host for the Viet Nam California Radio (VNCR), from 1995 to 2010. She hosted a weekly show called “Vòng Chân Trời Văn Học Nghệ Thuật” (“The Art Horizon”), which covered interviews with various artists and art events. Her show was syndicated for Voice of America (VOA), which broadcasted in Vietnam. In 2005, Ysa was chosen by the Orange County Register as one of the “30 Vietnamese Americans to Watch” in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Vietnamese American community in the United States. She received the Arts and Culture (In-Language) Award from New California Media in 2003 for her article on Mimi News, reporting the revival of the traditional performance art Cải Lương in the Vietnamese community. She was awarded with the “Service Award” from the USC (University of Southern California) Asian Pacific Alumni Association in 2012.
Ysa received her Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1994. She currently works as a clinical pharmacist at Providence Home Infusion Pharmacy in Anaheim, California.
Corey Linh
Communication & Outreach Manager
Corey Linh is the Communication and Outreach Manager at the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA), where she leads strategic communications, builds community partnerships, and amplifies the visibility of Vietnamese & Vietnamese diasporic arts and culture. She coordinates the promotion of Viet Film Fest, Viet Book Fest, and a wide range of art exhibitions, including Yellow Submarine Rising: Currents in Asian American Arts, an exhibition responding to the #StopAsianHate movement.
Hailing from the Bay Area, Corey is a classically trained actress who has brought Asian American narratives to life on stage, portraying Tuyet in Brackish, a contemporary exploration of a Vietnamese family in Galveston, Texas, and Linda in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. She is also creating an analog photography documentary project capturing the Vietnamese creative economy in Little Saigon, documenting her artistic practice alongside her work with VAALA.
Corey graduated with honors in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, combining her understanding of human behavior with her passion for cultural advocacy and the arts. Outside of her professional and artistic endeavors, she enjoys embroidering, spending too much on crafting hobbies, bragging about her two sisters—a fashion designer and a stage manager—and hanging out with her cat and gecko.
Camille Wong
Webmaster
Camille Wong (they/she) is a research-based artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Their practice examines power, geopolitics, and historiography through the lens of media and spectacle. Working across video, sculpture, and writing, they explore how systems of power are embedded within cultural memory and social infrastructures. Often site-specific, their practice considers how we inherit our understanding of place and displacement. Their recent work focuses on media and rhetoric from the Cold War, exploring how these narratives shaped global ideologies and immigration patterns. Since receiving their MFA in Media Art at the University of California, Los Angeles, they have worked as a cultural arts professional in nonprofit organizations, supporting artists, curators, and community-focused programming.
Audrey Bùi
Curator, Gallery Beyond Walls
Audrey Bùi is an art historian with a focus in ethical curation through an analysis of trans-cultural interconnectivity, relational work, and an emphasis on the potential for transformative change in regards to contemporaneity. She also researches methods of compassionate archiving by re-working daily practices of display and representation. Her work foregrounds rethinking the impacts of viewing, while also championing personhood over subjecthood in queer Southeast Asian and Asian American contemporary art. With a BA in Political Science emphasizing Cultural Politics and Jurisprudence, a BA in Contemporary Art History from California State University, Long Beach, as well as a MA in Museum Studies from New York University, Audrey Bùi specializes in Contemporary Asian Art History and affective ontologies of place, being, and culture making. Her research hones in on relationships between queerness, contemporary hyphenate identities, and communal citational practices in regards to exhibition practices.
Katie Bui
Program Director, Youth in Motion
Katie (she/they) is lecturer of Asian American Studies, with an MA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University, and a BA in Asian American Studies and a BS in Psychological & Brain Science from UC Santa Barbara. She currently lectures at community colleges in San Bernardino, Orange County, and at San Diego State University. Interested in topics of identity construction and cultural production in Vietnamese American communities, her research centers the critical study of Vietnamese Culture Nights, a phenomenon of culture show productions across North America in which students write, direct, and perform a script, interwoven with aspects like dancing, singing, and spoken word. Her work in academia goes hand-in-hand with her work in her community.
As a Vietnamese American raised in south Orange County, Katie struggled to reconcile her Vietnamese and American identities throughout childhood and adolescence. For this reason, she values her community and the space they provide for her to exist as she is. She is at her best when with others. And for others, she continually strives to hold space and encourage those around her to be inclusive, empathetic, and understanding. Her community work is representative of this. Working with organizations like the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), the Union of
North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA), and now VAALA, she enjoys planning and executing programming for her communities, and is looking forward to bringing that skillset to the Youth in Motion workshops.
Eric Nong
Artistic Director, Viet Film Fest
Born and raised in Orange County, CA, Eric Nong is a self-taught classic film buff who, since 2012, maintains a blog dedicated to movie write-ups. In addition to his passion for film, he has served as a volunteer and writer for Viet Film Fest 2018. Eric was also a part of Viet Film Fest 2019’s Curatorial Committee and volunteered during the 3-day event. Eric has a BA in Political Science from UC Irvine (also attended UC Santa Cruz for the first two years of undergrad); MPP from UCI with a focus on education and poverty alleviation. In his spare time, Eric volunteers his time to teach English to Buddhist monks at Chùa Bát Nhã in Santa Ana, CA.
Tran Lee
Associate Director, Viet Film Fest
Coming to the United States from Vietnam in 2017, Tran has always been seeking after opportunities that allow her to promote her culture through the lenses of arts. Her passion for storytelling as well as her experience in event planning has led her to become involved with Viet Film Fest since 2022. As an Associate Director, she oversees the operations of the festival including sponsorships, finance, and Community Day outreach.
Tran graduates from University of Southern California (USC) as a Business Administration major with an emphasis in Cinematic Arts. During her college years, she was the Director for the USC Vietnamese Student Association’s annual Culture Night, which took place in an auditorium of 300 audience members. She was also the Chair of Programming for the USC International Student Assembly where she has planned many school-wide events, namely the Global Culture Night and GlobeFest.
Tony Nguyen
Digital Director, Viet Film Fest
Born in Des Moines and based in Dallas, Tony Nguyen received his BA in History at the University of Texas, Dallas. He previously worked at the Dallas International Film Festival as Programming Coordinator since 2018 and currently co-curates a queer film series, Pleasure Style Attitude (PSA), for Texas Theatre, a local art house theatre, showcasing motion pictures amplifying underrepresented voices and cultivating discussions of the intersections of queerness, politics, aesthetics, class, and race.
Ysa began her art activism with the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) since 2000, serving as the Board President from 2004-2008, and then as Executive Director from 2008 until now. She co-founded Viet Film Fest in 2003.
Prior to VAALA, Ysa was a radio host for the Viet Nam California Radio (VNCR), from 1995 to 2010. She hosted a weekly show called “Vòng Chân Trời Văn Học Nghệ Thuật” (“The Art Horizon”), which covered interviews with various artists and art events. Her show was syndicated for Voice of America (VOA), which broadcasted in Vietnam. In 2005, Ysa was chosen by the Orange County Register as one of the “30 Vietnamese Americans to Watch” in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Vietnamese American community in the United States. She received the Arts and Culture (In-Language) Award from New California Media in 2003 for her article on Mimi News, reporting the revival of the traditional performance art Cải Lương in the Vietnamese community. She was awarded with the “Service Award” from the USC (University of Southern California) Asian Pacific Alumni Association in 2012.
Ysa received her Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1994. She currently works as a clinical pharmacist at Providence Home Infusion Pharmacy in Anaheim, California.
Corey Linh is the Communication and Outreach Manager at the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA), where she leads strategic communications, builds community partnerships, and amplifies the visibility of Vietnamese & Vietnamese diasporic arts and culture. She coordinates the promotion of Viet Film Fest, Viet Book Fest, and a wide range of art exhibitions, including Yellow Submarine Rising: Currents in Asian American Arts, an exhibition responding to the #StopAsianHate movement.
Hailing from the Bay Area, Corey is a classically trained actress who has brought Asian American narratives to life on stage, portraying Tuyet in Brackish, a contemporary exploration of a Vietnamese family in Galveston, Texas, and Linda in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. She is also creating an analog photography documentary project capturing the Vietnamese creative economy in Little Saigon, documenting her artistic practice alongside her work with VAALA.
Corey graduated with honors in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, combining her understanding of human behavior with her passion for cultural advocacy and the arts. Outside of her professional and artistic endeavors, she enjoys embroidering, spending too much on crafting hobbies, bragging about her two sisters—a fashion designer and a stage manager—and hanging out with her cat and gecko.
Camille Wong (they/she) is a research-based artist based in Los Angeles, CA. Their practice examines power, geopolitics, and historiography through the lens of media and spectacle. Working across video, sculpture, and writing, they explore how systems of power are embedded within cultural memory and social infrastructures. Often site-specific, their practice considers how we inherit our understanding of place and displacement. Their recent work focuses on media and rhetoric from the Cold War, exploring how these narratives shaped global ideologies and immigration patterns. Since receiving their MFA in Media Art at the University of California, Los Angeles, they have worked as a cultural arts professional in nonprofit organizations, supporting artists, curators, and community-focused programming.
Audrey Bùi is an art historian with a focus in ethical curation through an analysis of trans-cultural interconnectivity, relational work, and an emphasis on the potential for transformative change in regards to contemporaneity. She also researches methods of compassionate archiving by re-working daily practices of display and representation. Her work foregrounds rethinking the impacts of viewing, while also championing personhood over subjecthood in queer Southeast Asian and Asian American contemporary art. With a BA in Political Science emphasizing Cultural Politics and Jurisprudence, a BA in Contemporary Art History from California State University, Long Beach, as well as a MA in Museum Studies from New York University, Audrey Bùi specializes in Contemporary Asian Art History and affective ontologies of place, being, and culture making. Her research hones in on relationships between queerness, contemporary hyphenate identities, and communal citational practices in regards to exhibition practices.
Katie (she/they) is lecturer of Asian American Studies, with an MA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University, and a BA in Asian American Studies and a BS in Psychological & Brain Science from UC Santa Barbara. She currently lectures at community colleges in San Bernardino, Orange County, and at San Diego State University. Interested in topics of identity construction and cultural production in Vietnamese American communities, her research centers the critical study of Vietnamese Culture Nights, a phenomenon of culture show productions across North America in which students write, direct, and perform a script, interwoven with aspects like dancing, singing, and spoken word. Her work in academia goes hand-in-hand with her work in her community.
As a Vietnamese American raised in south Orange County, Katie struggled to reconcile her Vietnamese and American identities throughout childhood and adolescence. For this reason, she values her community and the space they provide for her to exist as she is. She is at her best when with others. And for others, she continually strives to hold space and encourage those around her to be inclusive, empathetic, and understanding. Her community work is representative of this. Working with organizations like the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), the Union of
North American Vietnamese Student Associations (UNAVSA), and now VAALA, she enjoys planning and executing programming for her communities, and is looking forward to bringing that skillset to the Youth in Motion workshops.
Born and raised in Orange County, CA, Eric Nong is a self-taught classic film buff who, since 2012, maintains a blog dedicated to movie write-ups. In addition to his passion for film, he has served as a volunteer and writer for Viet Film Fest 2018. Eric was also a part of Viet Film Fest 2019’s Curatorial Committee and volunteered during the 3-day event. Eric has a BA in Political Science from UC Irvine (also attended UC Santa Cruz for the first two years of undergrad); MPP from UCI with a focus on education and poverty alleviation. In his spare time, Eric volunteers his time to teach English to Buddhist monks at Chùa Bát Nhã in Santa Ana, CA.
Coming to the United States from Vietnam in 2017, Tran has always been seeking after opportunities that allow her to promote her culture through the lenses of arts. Her passion for storytelling as well as her experience in event planning has led her to become involved with Viet Film Fest since 2022. As an Associate Director, she oversees the operations of the festival including sponsorships, finance, and Community Day outreach.
Tran graduates from University of Southern California (USC) as a Business Administration major with an emphasis in Cinematic Arts. During her college years, she was the Director for the USC Vietnamese Student Association’s annual Culture Night, which took place in an auditorium of 300 audience members. She was also the Chair of Programming for the USC International Student Assembly where she has planned many school-wide events, namely the Global Culture Night and GlobeFest.
Born in Des Moines and based in Dallas, Tony Nguyen received his BA in History at the University of Texas, Dallas. He previously worked at the Dallas International Film Festival as Programming Coordinator since 2018 and currently co-curates a queer film series, Pleasure Style Attitude (PSA), for Texas Theatre, a local art house theatre, showcasing motion pictures amplifying underrepresented voices and cultivating discussions of the intersections of queerness, politics, aesthetics, class, and race.