Nicholas Vann - Executive Sponsor
Nicholas Vann currently serves as the Director of Equity and Belonging within the Washington State Office of Equity, and is the first Executive Sponsor for Washington State Business Resource Group HAPPEN (Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders Promoting an Empowerment Network). He is Chinese American, and is the son, grandson, and great grandson of immigrants. Nicholas is dedicated to public service, and prioritizes putting people first to ensure systems are serving Washingtonians equitably. He began serving the public in Washington state government in 2011 with the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, where he served as the State Historical Architect and Deputy Director. He believes that every Washingtonian deserves the dignity of feeling a sense of belonging regardless of their identity, and that the future of state government models relational partnership by empowering the voice and lived experience of people.
Jim Mendoza - Co-Chair
Certified Employee Benefits Specialist
Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor
Co-Chair, HAPPEN (Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders Promoting and Empowerment Network) BRG
Jim Mendoza, the son of Nicasio Damasco Mendoza (d) and Victoria Albrecht-Reyes, and is honored to serve as one of the inaugural co-chairs for the HAPPEN BRG.
Jim has been employed with the Department of Retirement Systems since 2004. He started as a Retirement Services Analyst specializing in issues dealing with death & disability. In 2006, he joined the Education & Outreach Team where he provides retirement plan, financial wellness, and investment education at a variety of settings – sometimes he even busts out into song. 😊
Married for more than 35 years to his lovely wife, Laura, Jim is an advocate in the fight against breast cancer and served as fund raising chairman for the 2017 Race for the Cure. Jim’s interest in the fight against breast cancer is a byproduct of Laura being a 15 year survivor. In 2017, Jim was named Volunteer of the Year by Komen Puget Sound for his tireless advocacy efforts in the fight against breast cancer.
Jim’s community service includes having been a Little League Baseball umpire for 25 years, culminating in his selection to work the Junior League World Series in 2001. Jim is also a proud Freemason, having served as Grand Master (statewide president) in Washington in 2016-2017. During that time, he was able to use that platform to amplify his advocacy in the fight against breast cancer as well as raise funds to send 25 of our heroes on Honor Flights.
Kyle Mangloña - Co-Chair
Hafa Adai! My name is Kyle Mangloña (he/him), and I’m honored to be co-chair for HAPPEN’s inaugural leadership team. It is a joy to continue to acknowledge, elevate, and share the voices of Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Islander folks through the work of this BRG.
Growing up locally in the Pacific Northwest, I was fortunate to be surrounded by a loving, resilient, and proud group of Chamorros (originally from the island of Guam!). Chamorro culture revolves around the pillars of inafa’maolek (harmony) which focuses on promoting mutual respect, humility, and generosity through intentional action. These are values I’ve sought to live out through both my personal and professional lives and the values I’d bring as a representative of HAPPEN. I believe that our shared cultural, ethnic, and racial identities are important aspects of our work which should be centered, honored, and valued by our teams and organizations.
For the past several years, I’ve worked in a variety of public sector, leadership roles within human resources, most recently at DOC, DCYF, and now DOH. I currently serve as the Onboarding Experience Manager within the People Services Division at DOH, working to create engaging and mission-centered spaces of belonging for all incoming teammates. I owe a great debt of thanks to public servant-mentors who have inspired and shaped my own career, most notably Dr. Karen Johnson (Equity), Lolo Arevalo (DSHS) and my mom (a 30-year City of Tacoma vet).
I’m a proud alumnus of two great PNW colleges: Gonzaga and Evergreen! At home, my partner and I are parents to two little humans, year-round BBQ-ers, amateur Crossfitters, and hopeful Mariner fans. It is a pleasure to serve you!
Si Yu’us Ma’ase!
Thanh V. Tran - Co-Chair
Thanh (he/him) started his state service career in 2016 and currently serves as the Community Engagement & Belonging Administrator at the Dept. of Social and Health Services (DSHS). As an Equity, Diversity, Access & Inclusion professional, he is also a DSHS Pro-Equity, Anti-Racist (PEAR) Consultant for the agency and committed to the training, facilitation and development of EDAIB related programmatic structures that align with the State Office of Equity’s vision of implementing the PEAR Playbook authorized by the governor’s executive order for all state agencies.
As a first-generation Vietnamese refugee, Thanh knows the pains of experienced by othering, prejudice, and bias and has a passion to empower others to find their voices when advocating for fair, equitable treatment and authentic representation. He is an ally for all marginalized communities that intersect as a bridge builder in our shared common interests. As an Asian American, he realizes his own privilege & disenfranchisement in our social construct and envision members speaking truth to power regarding the marginalization and bias that we as ANHPI experience WITHIN and outside of our communities to truly unify & heal.
Thanh is an inclusive servant leader with core strengths in public speaking, logistical analysis, group communication and facilitation that has helped other groups arrive authentically when engaging in conversations with diverse perspectives and lived experiences. As he has stated, “Our ANHPI communities are no different with over 80+ diverse ethnicities, languages, cultures as none of our lived experiences are monolithic. I’m hopeful this BRG will be the space to celebrate our diverse thought and truths as we organize and mobilize towards equality for all.”
Christina Pourarien - Administrative Liaison
Christina Pourarien (she/her) is an Information Technology Services Division Executive Operations Manager for the State of Washington Employment Security Department (ESD). After graduating from Central Washington University, she began her state service career in 1999 at the Washington State Lottery. She has worked at General Administration (currently known as Department of Enterprise Services), Department of Retirement Systems, The Evergreen State College, Department of Social Health and Services, Department of Licensing, and Labor & Industries before joining ESD in January of 2022. She is the past co-chair of the Family of Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiians, and Asians (FOPINHA) Employee Resource Group at ESD. She also served as the first chair for the Asian Pacific American Employee Resource Group at L&I.
Christina was born in Great Falls, Montana moved to South Korean with her family when she was six months old and returned to the United States as a young child in the early 1980s. Her father proudly served in the US Air Force and her mother is originally from Korea. She attended public school in the North Thurston School District in Lacey, Washington. She had the privileged to be the first one in her family to receive a formal college education from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She and her husband Cody have a teenage daughter, Sima.
Charice Pidcock - Communications Coordinator
Charice began her continuous improvement journey at the Frank Russell Company during the Total Quality Management era in the early 1990s and has honed and learned new techniques, including Lean. Charice started state service with the Washington State Patrol in 2006 and transferred to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in 2013. In the spring of 2014, Charice completed the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program through the University of Washington Tacoma. Charice has additional training and hands on experience facilitating large groups through change efforts and has success fully facilitated complex, department-wide and cross-agency events.
Continuous improvement work requires having the right people in conversation, requiring diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. If any one of these is not present, the improvements will not be as effective and impactful. One of Charice’s passions and strengths is developing diverse and disparate groups and organizations together to achieve collective impact. Charice creates space for people with different, and often polarized opinions to share freely and respectfully. This is accomplished by using human-centered techniques, creating psychologically safe and brave space for members to be vulnerable, authentic, and transparent.
In her spare time, Charice enjoys spending time with her family, quilting, watching movies, reading, and listening to music
Trixi Yotsuda - External Affairs Committee Lead
My name is Trixi Yotsuda (she/her), and I reside on ancestral Spokane Tribal lands. I currently work as a Regional Licensor for the Licensing Division (LD) with the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF). I’m seeking to fill the External Affairs Committee Lead with HAPPEN. My combined professional and life experience make me an ideal candidate. I am a founding member of the LD's Racial Equity Social Justice (RESJ) Advisory Group and served as the LD LGBTQIA+ Lead for Eastern WA from 2019-2022. I am also a member of the DCYF Inclusive Racial Equity Change Team (DIRECT), which works with the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice (ORESJ) to develop statewide initiatives concerning our strategic priority of equity. As an agency, we aim to eliminate disproportionality and advance racial equity within the child welfare system. As part of the RESJ team, I collaborated with our Executive Leadership Team to co-create the LD RESJ action plan. Specifically, I advocated for a guest speaker with experience operationalizing plans to become an anti-racist agency in Washington state. Lastly, I co-facilitate Affinity groups for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander staff groups. My commitment is to lay the groundwork for my sons and their generation to have the resources to continue educating the communities in which they choose to reside. Equity and inclusion need to be a collaborative effort. Therefore, state employees and leaders must reflect their communities’ racial and cultural characteristics.
Lynora Hirata - Leadership Development Lead
Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself in this nomination/acceptance process for Leadership Development Committee Lead for the Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders Promoting an Empowerment Network (HAPPEN). As a Washington State employee for over 25 years I offer a perspective that reflects both frontline and managerial experience that would complement the role of Leadership Development Committee Lead. During my tenure as a Washington State employee I have consistently worked to champion Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and value Racial Equity and Social Justice practice as a necessary relational component of relationship building.
I am committed to creating safe professional and personal learning ecosystems that foundationally foster an ethic of continuous learning from shared perspectives and self-reflective practice to reflect qualitative trends to better trail blaze new pathways towards proactive change. Bilaterally, I will also honor the individual voice as an equitability weighted narrative of value.
Nadia Damchii - Membership Coordinator
I would be honored to serve as the Membership Coordinator lead for the Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islander Promoting and Empowerment Network (HAPPEN) Business Resource Group (BRG). I am a person of grit and grace. I came to the US from Mongolia and had big dreams of going to school to learn English and settled in Los Angeles, CA.I fulfilled my dream and more.
My authenticity is proven in my personal life. After I completed my bachelor’s degree in Organization Management Leadership/ Human Resources in Kansas City, I went back to Mongolia and worked at Deloitte Auditing, the Mongolian Political Party, and the Red Cross of Mongolia, before I joined
DSHS 2 years ago as Management Analyst during the pandemic to support the ALTSA (Personal Protective Equipment) mission and currently supporting Leased Facility Maintenance Operations in Facilities, Finance, & Analytics Administration.
As for my previous positions, I was involved with international and domestic political parties and different segments of organizations and communities through membership, donations, charities, and government fundraising for the Red Cross project. In every position that I held, I learned so much personally and professionally. I am a life-long learner, enjoy self-study, and am firmly grounded in and guided by my faith.
I asked myself what I can do to support and engage in HAPPEN. First of all, I am an Asian woman who speaks fluent Mongolian and English, who loves to help others, loves to help our community, and fully supports HAPPEN and would love to be a part of the team.
I strongly believe that diverse organizations and groups allow employees to be their happiest and most productive selves. We can utilize our differences to better achieve our goals and objectives. We are all different in our own ways however we are one at HAPPEN.
Kennly Asato - Mentorship Committee Lead
Aloha everyone! My name is Kennly Asato (she/her) and I am excited to run for the Mentorship Committee Lead position. I believe that I would not be where I am today without mentors that have guided me and provided me with advice over the years. I have worked in state government for the last 10 years and have created internship, fellowship, and mentoring programs at two state agencies. I have also mentored several fellow state employees during my time with the state. I am passionate about creating a flourishing mentorship program for us in our BRG.
Brian Lock - Policy Committee Lead
I am very honored to serve as the Policy Lead for the HAPPEN BRG. In Board volunteer roles as Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of South Puget Sound (APIC SPS) and the Multicultural Service Center of South Sound, I have been involved in policy and legislation that directly impact the Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Communities. Some of this work has involved putting together policy statements and education materials for legislators and in coordinating meetings with local state legislative delegations and occasionally our Congressional representatives.
In my early state government career, I had been Co-Chair of the Asian Pacific State Employee Network. I have been in Washington State government for nearly 29 years with stops at the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, Office of Financial Management (Serve WA Commission), Department of Commerce, Pierce College, and now at the Department of Health as a Contract and Finance Specialist.
My background has involved public policy, budget development, writing and managing federal grants and contracts, and program development. My educational background includes having a BA in Political Science from Western Washington University and an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University with an emphasis in Public Finance. I was also a Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Executive Fellow and Executive Development Institute (EDI) graduate.
Sarah Pamies - Treasurer
I hope to aide HAPPEN in attaining their goals by holding a position that utilizes my strengths, while still actively engaging with the Executive Committee to support the group mission of giving voice to ANHPI Washingtonians and their allies. My education and experience outline my qualifications for the position of Treasurer: I have a bachelor’s in accounting from San Diego State, as well as two master’s degrees; an MBA and a MS in Management & Leadership to provide some soft skills. I have 10+ years in accounting and finance. I have worked most of my career in the private sector as a staff accountant for large corporate companies, such as Red Bull and Universal. I began State service in February 2019, starting at the LCB in the tax excise unit, and later promoting on to LNI managing capital assets. I am currently supporting DSHS as a Fiscal Analyst 4, maintaining accounting and budget funds for 9 hospitals and facilities across the state. Aside from my education and experience, I am well acquainted with SAAM, OFM policies and State accounting systems. I can ensure budget and reporting will be accurate, easy to interpret, and adhere to policy. If elected, I can promise dependable and efficient support of HAPPEN’s financial well-being
Denise Ross - Legacy Ex-Officio Member
Denise Ross (she/her) is the Workplace Culture and Development Manager at the Puget Sound Partnership. She leads the cabinet agency in creating more human-focused employee experiences grounded in belonging and inclusion. Denise holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management and has been a public servant since 2011. She is one of the founders of HAPPEN, along with Nicholas Vann and other leaders, who helped transform a group of three passionate state employees into an official business resource group with hundreds of HAPPEN members now advancing that mission.
Denise grew up in the Pacific Northwest in a multi-generational home infused with proud Japanese culture, food, and values of honor and respect. She is a Japanese American (Nisei Generation) and the daughter and granddaughter of Issei Generation immigrants. She also has ancestry roots from the island of O'ahu, including a grandfather born and raised there who witnessed the infamous bombing of the 1941 Pearl Harbor from a coconut tree. He later proudly served in the US Army for over 20 years and then retired as a Washington state employee after 21 years of service.
Some of Denise’s passions include awareness for early detection of breast cancer screening, supporting veterans, spreading domestic violence awareness, and social justice. I am proud and honored that I can continue a role in HAPPEN’s legacy.