Our Team

Robin Gurung

Co-Executive Director

Robin is Co-Executive Director of Asian Refugees United (ARU) and director for all ARU's programs in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born in Bhutan in 1988, raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, Robin came to the United States of America in 2012 through the Refugee Resettlement Program. He brings his 20 years of refugee experiences to his community organizing work and focuses on empowering refugee youths to become the change agents in their community. While previously living in the Bay Area, Robin co-founded a youth group called Bay Area Bhutanese Youths, BABY, (now "The Storytellers" operating in Harrisburg, PA) which brings together Bhutanese youths to tell stories of refugees and immigrants. Focus of "The Storytellers" is to bring awareness about displacement issues and what comes after displacement: identity crisis, search for home, (dis)connection to our ancestors/roots, and hope for humanity. Robin also helped co-found Camp for Emerging Leaders (also known as CAMP), an annual 3 to 5 day leadership training program for self identified Bhutanese organizers, activists, artists, and emerging community leaders. The CAMP is an immersion experience into personal and community transformation. Robin also served as the President of Bhutanese Community in California (2017-21).

Trang Tran

Co-Executive Director

Trang identifies as a queer, gender-nonconforming, 1.5 Vietnamese immigrant who aspires to live their truth as bright and powerful as the full moon. Born in Saigon and growing up in the East Bay, Trang's work is focused on building within the Vietnamese community to heal trauma and uplift power. Through community organizing and creative expressions, they strive to build a cultural healing hub that centers intergenerational nourishment of traditional food and drink. In their free time, they dance, write poetry, bond with their siblings, breathe, and spread love and compassion.

Dohee Lee

Director of Arts and Healing

Dohee is a Korean American performance artist, musician, ritualist and educator who is was born on Jeju Island in South Korea. Dohee Lee is a creative visionary trained at the master level in traditional Korean music, singing, drumming and dance rooted in Korean Shamanism. Since her arrival in the United States, she has been a vital contributor to both the traditional and contemporary arts landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. She has performed in venues and festivals around the world and has collaborated with a wide range of artists such as dancers/choreographers Anna Halprin, Kronos Quartet, Amara Tabor-Smith, Donald Swearingen, the Degenerate Art Ensemble and more. She is a recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship 2018, Hewlett 50 Arts Commission 2018, Doris Duke Impact Award, Herb Alpert Award, Creative Capital Award, the Isadora Duncan Special Award, and numerous other artist residencies.

www.doheelee.com

Parsu Adhikari

Parsu Adhikari is a passionate photographer and filmmaker who has a deep interest in storytelling and community organizing. He was born in Bhutan and Raise in Bhutanese refugee camp Goldhap, where he learned the art of storytelling through drama. His love for photography and film making led him to study them and sharpen his skills. where he continues to pursue his passion for storytelling through the visual medium. As a part of his work he directed the documentary film THE WAITING EYES FOR REUNION (A documentary film based on Bhutanese refugees struggle in camp).

JaeEun Jun

JaeEun Jun (they/them) is continually exploring what liberation, decolonizing and wholeness means as a corean person in diaspora on turtle island with community rituals and sound through Puri Arts, legal advocacy with communities impacted by incarceration through Unapologetically H.E.R.S., and learning to listen and care with plants and seeds and their stories through Second Generation Seeds. 

Hải Võ

Communications & Program Manager

Hải was raised by parents from two delta villages in southern Việt Nam - Mỹ Tho and Chợ Gạo (Tiền Giang). Hải identifies as a queer 2nd generation Việt Southeast Asian cook, foodways cultural artist, and writer of the diaspora and is passionate about ancestral foodways, decolonization, homeland connections, and the creative arts to liberate all people, especially those most marginalized.