Washington, D.C., August 22, 2008 — The acclaimed AAA-Fund blog team will be headed to Denver to cover the Democratic National Committee convention as a DNC-credentialled blog. Headed by Publisher and AAA-Fund Executive Director Gautam Dutta, with co-Editors-in-Chief Caroline Fan and Justin Gillenwater, the team plans to cover the events on the stage and behind the scenes.

The members of the AAA-Fund Blog Team are:

Theo Chen

Theo Chen is a long time autograph hound, who, thanks to the power of the internet, was able to convert his hobby into a full time business, AutographsForSale.com, in 2000. Along the way he developed a strong interest in Democratic political activism thanks mostly to Howard Dean's presidential campaign. Theo is a past president of Asian Pacific Islander Democrats of San Diego County (which sadly is now inactive) and a charter member of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress.

On the side, Theo contributes a monthly column about baseball collectibles for Junior Baseball Magazine and someday intends to write a book about his autograph collecting experiences. When he's not chasing or selling autographs or blogging/writing, Theo enjoys spending time with his wife Doanh and his two cats, Magic and Monkey. He is a movie buff and sports nut, and although he is a proponent of gun control, he enjoys playing violent video games on his computer (particularly when he's angry at Republicans).

Maytak Chin

Maytak Chin currently works as a law clerk for the Legal Counsel at American Progress. Before joining the Center, Maytak has had a long history in organizing. She has worked at EchoDitto, an Internet communications strategy consulting firm located in D.C. where she served as an Online Organizer and provided general support to the Strategy Team in building out campaign plans and strategy. She has also interned for APIAVote, an Asian American Pacific Islander advocacy group that seeks to increase civic engagement within their communities, giving voice to the APIA voting bloc.

Prior to moving to Washington, she worked in Silicon Valley as an Internet Research Analyst at a boutique recruiting firm, helping to optimize sales and engineering teams for start-up to mid-level web 2.0 and mobile companies. Maytak is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Mass Communications and minored in Public Policy.

John Delloro

John Delloro is the Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute, Los Angeles Community College District. The experiences of his hardworking immigrant parents led to his commitment to socioeconomic issues. He is also a visiting lecturer at the UCLA Asian American Studies Department, where he teaches a course on leadership development and strategy in Asian American Pacific Islander communities and is a faculty member of the Los Angeles Trade Technical College Labor Studies Center.

He previously served as a manager of the southwest California area of the 90,000 member SEIU Local 1000, the Union of California State Workers and a staff director for the acute care hospital division of SEIU Local 399, the Healthcare Employees union. He has also worked as an organizer for the Culinary Union (HERE Local 226) in Las Vegas and AFSCME International organizing Los Angeles Superior Court clerical employees. He was one of the co-founders of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California (PWC) and served as the president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). He currently sits on the Legal Advisory Board of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) and the Board of Directors of the PWC.

Selma D'Souza (AAA-Fund Board, Chicago Chapter Chair)

Selma D'Souza is the Chair of the Asian American Action Fund of Greater Chicago. She is a partner in the law firm of D'Souza & Gosrisirikul Ltd. in Chicago, practicing in the areas of real estate, family law, litigation, and estate planning. Selma is an Obama delegate and was also a delegate to the 2000 and 2004 Democratic Conventions. She also serves as a member of Obama's AAPI National Leadership Council.

In addition to the AAA-Fund, she has served as a board member on other PACs, and volunteered on numerous local, state, and federal campaigns. She is a Past President of the Indo-American Democratic Organization (IADO), having served on their Board for ten years, and also has served on the Board of the Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (DL21C). Selma has also served on the Board of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR).

Gautam Dutta (Blog Publisher, AAA-Fund Executive Director, and CA Affiliate Vice-Chair)

A Yale and Georgetown-educated lawyer, Mr. Dutta has been Tax Counsel to California State Controller John Chiang, an enforcement attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a commercial litigator at the Los Angeles firm of Buchalter Nemer, and law clerk for a federal judge in Washington, D.C. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed him to the position of commissioner on the Los Angeles Industrial Development Authority, which he served in from 2006 to 2007.

Mr. Dutta also serves on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union-Southern California and the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California, and was previously Chair of the South Asian Bar Association Public Interest Foundation. In Washington, D.C., he was President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund, Vice Chair of the District of Columbia's Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, and Vice President of the South Asian Bar Association. He was Editor in Chief of the Yale Political Monthly, and is fluent in Spanish, German, Hindi, and Bengali.

Marybelle Eng (AAA-Fund Board Member and CA Affiliate Chair)

A Stanford and Northwestern Law-educated attorney, Marybelle Ang is currently a Regulatory Manager at Southern California Edison in Rosemead, California. Prior to joining Edison, Marybelle was an Attorney at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, DC where she counseled scientists on transportation and regulatory issues relating to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Marybelle was also an associate at the law firms of Kirkland & Ellis and Baker Botts in Washington, D.C.

A visible community leader, Marybelle serves as Vice President of the Organization of Chinese Americans (Los Angeles Chapter). Before moving to Los Angeles, she was Secretary of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association in Washington, D.C

Caroline Fan (Co-Editor-in-Chief)

Caroline Fan directs online outreach for Massey Media and has media experience at labor unions including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, as well as grassroots nonprofits like Alternatives for Community & Environment. She has a keen sense of media and political strategy and is passionate about crafting creative and proactive messages for progressive causes. She has worked on several voter education campaigns, and has traveled extensively throughout the United States, including her experience on the Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides. She was on the APIA Host Committee of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairs her alma mater's Asian American alumni association. Caroline is a graduate of Williams College, and holds a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College through the National Urban Fellows, a national leadership program.

She has also served as a speaker and trainer for national conferences including the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, the United States Students Association, and Hmong National Development.

Lee Fang

Lee Fang is currently a media analyst for the Progressive Accountability Office. Previously, he served as an intern for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He graduated in 2008 from the University of Maryland College Park with a B.A. in Government and Politics. At Maryland, he led the campus College Democrats chapter and statewide organization, and served on the Advisory Board of Campus Progress. He has also interned for Congressman Steny Hoyer, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the public affairs firm Westin Rinehart and for Media Matters for America. He is originally from, and still resides in, Prince George's County, Maryland.

Justin Gillenwater (Co-Editor-in-Chief)

Justin Gillenwater will graduate from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 2009. In 2008, he spent his summer in Houston, TX clerking at Boat People S.O.S. and the Law Office of Harry Gee, Jr. & Associates. He has also served as a legal intern at Asian American Justice Center where he researched immigration law and policy. While in college at The University of Texas, where he majored in Asian Studies, he spearheaded a 2004 voter registration drive for an Asian American youth church and interned in Jennifer Kim's successful campaign to become the first Asian American on Austin's city council.

A staunch vegetarian for over one year, Justin enjoys the delicious and varied cuisines from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the western shores of the Pacific. As such, he encourages all to observe the mantra "fish are friends, not food." When he's neither blogging nor pursuing his legal studies, Justin enjoys reading from his ever-growing library of books about his favorite musical group.

After law school, Justin plans to take the take the Texas and/or California bar exams and settle in Houston, Austin, the Bay Area, or Southern California. A member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since starting law school, Justin hopes to practice immigration law where he settles.

Paul Igasaki (AAA-Fund Board Member)

Paul Igasaki is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Equal Justice Works, an organization that provides Fellowships for lawyers doing public interest law. Prior to that he was a consultant on management, equal opportunity, diversity and public policy matters. President Bill Clinton appointed him Vice Chair and acting Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mr. Igasaki served as Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus, Washington Representative for the Japanese American Citizens League, staff person for Rep. Robert Matsui's U.S. Senate campaign, and APA liaison for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. A lawyer in Illinois and California, he was staff director of an American Bar Association program to preserve legal services for the poor and was a founder of the Chicago and National Asian Pacific American Bar Associations. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of California School of Law in Davis, he has received many awards, including the ABA's Spirit of Excellence Award, NAPIL's Public Interest Advocate of the Year award, and MALDEF's Excellence in Government Award.

Olivia Luk

Olivia T. Luk is an associate in the Litigation Department of Latham & Watkins LLP. Ms. Luk has a Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Juris Doctor from the American University Washington College of Law.

Prior to joining Latham & Watkins, Ms. Luk served as a Patent Examiner for the United States Patent and Trademark Office for five years in the Electrical arts. Afterwards, she prosecuted patents, trademarks and copyrights for government and private entities for a law firm in Washington, D.C. Her prosecution work covered all aspects of patent procurement and included strategic counseling and licensing.

Ms. Luk is currently the Membership Chair for the Federal Circuit Bar Association after serving as Chair of the Patent and Trademark Committee and the Law Clerks and Students Committee. She is a founder and Officer of the Richard Linn American Inn of Court in Chicago, member of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, and committee member for the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition 2008 for the International Trademark Association.

Ms. Luk volunteers her time to the community by mentoring a teenager through the Partnership to Educate and Advance Kids, by assisting with the All Stars Project, and plans to be an assistant coach with the Urban Debate League at a Chicago Public School. She is also a newly elected Vice-President of the Organization of Chinese Americans Greater Chicago Chapter.

Ms. Luk is admitted to practice before the Illinois Bar, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Maryland Bar, the District of Columbia Bar and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Cao Anh Quan

Quan lives and works between Florida and California. In addition to his university teaching, he also provides strategic planning and mind-mapping facilitation to community-based groups in 12 different states, ROI evaluation to the corporate community, and teacher training and curriculum development to local school districts and State Departments of Education. He was one of five National Chairs of Vietnamese Americans for Hillary and the Co-Chair of Florida's Vietnamese Americans for HRC.

True to the tradition his father started of giving him all the "good books" to read when he was 11, he raised his three daughters to be citizens of the world. As it turns out, Sylvie Michelle converted to Judaism, Christi to fundamentalist evangelism and Juliette to Islam three months before 9/11. He devotes most of his free time to reviewing grant proposals, tending his herb garden and talking to his two goldfish Robinhood and Machiavelli.

Anil Somayaji

Anil Somayaji is an Associate Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. There he studies computer security, operating systems, complex adaptive systems, and artificial life, topics that he sees as all being very related to the field of politics. While currently an expatriate, he grew up in Nashville and has spent many years in school in both Boston and Albuquerque.

Helen Tran

Helen Tran would like to meet you for afternoon coffee and conversation. Often mindful, sometimes spontaneous, Helen dreams of achieving clichés and making the world a better place. Her political interests are in health and education policy, and she enjoys commenting on pop culture and telling people to vote Obama for President. Vote Obama for President.

After spending eight months in DC as a starry-eyed-turned-almost-jaded intern in the offices of lobbyists and her Congressman, she returned to Los Angeles to continue her career as a professional political intern. She is currently finishing her senior year and Master of Health Administration degree at the University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning, and Development. She lives between USC and Alhambra, where she grew up, and has an untrained beagle.

Manan Trivedi

Manan is an internal medicine physician and a health policy/health services researcher currently living in Washington, DC. In the past, he has been as a health policy advisor to political candidates and elected officials. In 2003, he served as a Battalion Surgeon for a Marine Corps infantry unit in Iraq and Camp Pendleton, CA. Besides health care, other areas he likes to blog about are education, government reform, and military and veterans issues.