Korea Academy for Educators

Susanna Park
Executive Director
222 Purchase Street, Suite 136
Rye, New York 10580
(914) 967-6444
Email:
Website: http://www.paahe.org

Susanna Park founded PAAHE, Parents Association for Asian History Education (www.paahe.org), in 2007 after she saw the need to improve the teaching of Asian history and culture in lower, middle, and high schools. Such need became apparent after her daughter walked out of the lesson on So Far From the Bamboo Grove (aka “the Yoko Story”). Her daughter stayed home from school for a week because she refused to accept the depiction of Koreans as aggressors when the Japanese had controlled Korea for thirty-five years. Subsequently, in late 2006 her school became the first of many schools to stop teaching the book as part of the required curriculum, but this book is still taught in many schools throughout the United States and around the world.

So Far from the Bamboo Grove is taught in lower and middle schools as an autobiography, even though the Library of Congress categorizes it as “fiction." It chronicles the tale of an eleven year old Japanese girl describing her harrowing experience as her family escapes from Korea at the end of the World War II, but the book reverses the role of victims and aggressors. This kind of gross distortion of history can go on undetected for more than twenty years because of an insufficient knowledge of Asian history, especially among school teachers.

Her family immigrated to the United States when Susanna was twelve years old. She graduated from Maryland Institute in 1984 with a degree in Fine Arts. Then in 1988, she graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York with a Master's degree in Fine Arts. Before joining the Korea Academy for Educators, she worked for the Brooklyn Museum, served as the manager of a medical office, taught at a Korean Language School, and volunteered at her daughter's school.

But now, thanks to her daughter, she has a different mission in life, essentially the same as that of KAFE, which is to “provide opportunities for educators to learn about Korean history and culture in order to promote cross-cultural understanding,” bring Korea into America’s classrooms, realize inadequacies in past teaching, have reliable sources, and enable children to have compassion for one another so that they can better strive for world peace.

Mary Connor
President & Program Director
505 Plymouth Road
San Marino, CA 91108

Mary Connor taught Asian Studies and United States history for 35 years in the Los Angeles area. She is the author of The Koreas: A Global Studies Handbook (ABC-CLIO, 2002), a response to the need for a high school reference book and text on Korean history and culture. She is the editor of Asia in Focus: The Koreas (ABC-CLIO, 2009), a reference book and textbook that covers the history and culture of both Koreas. She is the co-founder of the Korea Academy for Educators (KAFE) and director of seminars and workshops at the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

Connor has received national and local recognition for her efforts to improve teaching about Asia. She has received prestigious fellowships: the Keizai Koho Center Fellowship to Japan (1997) and two Korea Society Fellowships (2000 and 2004). She is the recipient of the Peace Corps Association Global Educator Award (2002) and the Tachau Award (2005), the only award given to a pre-collegiate teacher by the Organization of American Historians. In 2007, Connor received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles for her efforts to promote Korean culture to public and private school teachers and for the outstanding achievements of the seminar program. The Los Angeles Forerunners Lions Club has twice honored Connor for her efforts to educate teachers about Korean history and culture and the Korean American experience.

As a result of her passion for teaching, Connor shared her expertise for ten years as a presenter at conferences (National Council for Social Studies and the California Council for Social Studies Conferences). She has taught in programs about Korea at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Illinois, University of Washington, University of Colorado, East Rock Institute, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of the Pacific, and Cal State Fullerton. Connor has published over twenty-five articles in leading journals, such as Education About Asia, Social Education (NCSS), News and Reviews (Asian Educational Media Service, University of Illinois), and Independent School (the journal of the National Association for Independent Schools). An essay, “Teaching United States History Thematically,” was published in the Teachers’ Edition of The Americans (McDougal Littell), one of the most widely used United States history textbooks.

The first seminar on Korean history and culture and the Korean American experience was created in July 2004. In order to sustain and broaden programs, the Korea Academy for Educators (KAFE) was founded in 2006. Its mission is to bring Korean history and culture into American classrooms, respond to changing demographics, improve cross-cultural understanding, and meet the needs of Korean American students and their families. By the end of 2009 more than 1,600 educators had participated in KAFE programs.

Helie Lee,
Chief Financial Officer
Co-Director Seminars and Workshops
505 Plymouth Road
San Marino, CA   91108

Helie Lee is the author of the United States bestseller Still Life With Rice (Scribner 1996), and In The Absence of Sun (Harmony Books 2002), memoirs in which she chronicles her family’s experience in war-torn Korea from the 1930s to 1997.  Her second book, In The Absence of Sun specifically details her Korean-American family's risky attempt to rescue her uncle from North Korea. Her courageous story led Cosmopolitan Magazine to select Lee out of thousands of women nominated for their "1999 Fun Fearless Female" competition as a "Freedom Fighter."

Born in Seoul, Korea, Lee’s family immigrated to America when she was four.  She graduated from UCLA in 1986 with a degree in Political Science.  After college, she sojourned back to her birth country to rediscover her roots. When she returned to the U.S., Lee began writing her first book while working on such shows as In Living Color, Saved By The Bell, and the Martin Lawrence Show.

As a bestselling author, Lee has been featured on Nightline, CNN, the Associated Press, NBC Nightly News, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, People Magazine, Life & Times, Today Show, and Oprah. She has spoken as a guest lecturer at Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Northeastern University, Amherst, the Korean American Coalition, KASCON, The Museum of Tolerance, and many other venues.

Lee has also been published in Mademoiselle, Essence, and KoreAm Journal.  Lee is currently working on a documentary titled "MACHO LIKE ME." It highlights her six-and-a-half month journey living as a man to explore the dynamics of how society treats men and women differently.  Ms. Lee has adapted “Macho Like Me” into a one-woman performance piece. 

Lee is the co-director of The Korea Academy For Educators (KAFE), an honorary board member of the San Diego Asian American Film Festival, a board member of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a member of the Asian American Writers Workshop, and PEN, a community of writers defending freedom of expression and building a literary culture. 

Lee lectures around the country on her bicultural heritage and human rights issues for North Korea refugees.  In June of 2002, Lee was invited by Senator Ted Kennedy to testify at the Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Immigration.

John Duncan
Director, Center for Korean Studies and Dept. of EALC
Box 951540
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA  90095-1540 

Professor John Duncan is a graduate of Korea University and received his Ph.D. at the University of Washington. Since 2001, he has directed the Center for Korean Studies. Since 2005 Professor Duncan has also acted as Chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. He is an expert in Korean history and especially Korean intellectual history. His publications include The Origins of the Choson Dynasty (2000), The Problematic Modernity of Confucianism: The Question of Civil Society in Chosun Dynasty Korea (in Charles Armstrong, ed., Civil Society in South Korea, and Rethinking Confucianism Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam (2002 co-editor). John works hard to foster improved Korean American understanding and is highly respected by the Korean American community in Los Angeles. He is very generous with his time in educating teachers about Korean history and culture at seminars and workshops at the Korean Cultural Center.

Jung Hae Kim
Principal, Wilton Place School
745 So. Wilton Place
Los Angeles, CA   90005
Phone: (213) 389-1181

Jung Hae Kim received her BA in Asian American Studies-Korean from the University of Washington, a Masters in Educational Administration from California State University, Los Angeles, and attended UCLA Graduate School for her Educational Administration Credential. She has demonstrated her leadership ability as President of the Korean American Educators Association, President of the Korean Women’s International Network, and Principal and Deputy Superintendent of the Korean Saturday Language School, Los Angeles. After being Assistant Principal of the Brentwood Science Magnet School (LAUSD), she became Principal of the Farragut Drive School (Culver City) and from 1999-2006 Principal of Topeka Drive School (LAUSD). In January 2007 she was hired to serve as Principal, Wilton Place School (LAUSD). As a result of her dedication and service, Kim has been honored by the Ministry of Education (South Korea) and the Korea Media Association. She also received the Exemplary Educator’s Search in America Grand Prize Award.

Lee Ann Kim,
Founder, San Diego Asian Film Festival
Anchor ABC San Diego
7969 Engineer Road, #206
San Diego, CA 92111

Lee Ann Kim is an Emmy award-winning journalist for KGTV, the ABC station in San Diego, California where she currently anchors the 4 PM newscast with Carol Lebeau and reports in the evenings. Awarded by Metropolitan Magazine as of San Diego’s Top 40 under 40 and Best News Anchor by 944 Magazine, Lee Ann is one of the few Spanish speaking reporters at KGTV and is extremely active in the community. In 1999, she re-started the San Diego chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and during her presidency, also founded the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Today, she continues to serve as founding executive director of the Film Festival and Asian American Film Foundation. Born in Seoul, she grew up in Chicago. Lee Ann is married and has two baby boys – one who is adopted from South Korea.

Sung S. Kim
Assistant Director, KAFE Seminars and Workshops
Vice President, KAFE
Certificated teacher, Korean Dual Language Program,
Cahuenga Elementary, Los Angeles Unified School District

16156 High Tor Drive
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
(626) 855-0449 (H)
(909) 973-0449 (C)

Sung Kim, a graduate of Seoul National University, is a dedicated professional who has developed creative Standards-based lessons for elementary teachers throughout the Los Angeles area since 1996. She achieved MA degree in TESOL at California State University. She teaches fifth grade students in the Korean Dual Language Program at Los Angeles Unified School District since 2002.

As Assistant Program Director and a grant writer, she has assisted in managing the general operations of KAFE since 2005. Kim has also helped to create numerous power point slide lectures on Korean history and culture for elementary and secondary classes. In recent years she has participated in the California Association for Bilingual Education Conferences, a Symposium on Asia at UCLA.

She has also worked to establish Korean language classes in public high schools in East Los Angeles. She has been a board member of the Foundation for Korean Language and Culture and was honored for her contribution to the SAT Korean Practice Book Project (2005-2007). Kim was involved in developing an English Village Project with Kyeonggi Province to bring Los Angeles area teachers to South Korea in the summer of 2007. She is currently working as an instructor in the Teachers College and Korean Heritage Education program facilitated by Korean Education Center, Los Angeles.

Terrie Lee,
Treasurer, KAFE
Certified Public Accountant
Lee and Bae
3660 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 612
Los Angeles, CA  90010-2705
(W) (213) 380-3322

Terrie Lee received her MS Degree from Cal State Northridge and Masters Degree in Business Taxation at the Goldengate University in 2007. For over fifteen years she has practiced public accounting. Her experience includes six years with Ernst & Young and three years with RSM McGladrey. In 2002 she established her CPA firm with Stephanie Bae. Terrie has generously offered her time and expertise to the Korea Academy for Educators. She is also affiliated with the Korean American CPA Society as the seminar coordinator.

Linda Rose-Winters,
Director of Diversity Programs
Admission Officer
Middle School Advisor
Oakwood School
11600 Magnolia Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
818-752-4456
www.oakwoodschool.org

Linda Rose-Winters, who received a BA in Art History from Sarah Lawrence, is the Director of Diversity Programs, an Admission Officer and Middle School Advisor at Oakwood School, an independent K-12 coeducational school located in North Hollywood, California. In her role as Director of Diversity Programs, she is responsible for creating and implementing diversity programs in support of Oakwood’s Board of Trustees’ Strategic Plan for Diversity. As Director of Diversity Programs, Linda creates and organizes for the entire Oakwood community programs and forums that critically examine issues related to difference, equity, inclusion and social justice. In a variety of innovative ways, she has been responsible for changes in curriculum and admission policies. In 2006, she collaborated with students and colleagues to create a highly successful Diversity Day that involved workshops conducted by more than 25 speakers. Effective 2009, Diversity Day has evolved into Diversity Week, to integrate the exploration of the issues of difference, equity, inclusion and social justice into the regular school schedule. Linda has served on the Oakwood Board of Trustees and currently serves on the Board of the National Association of Independent School’s Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools.