Executive Officers

Julie Kil Joo Lee Kurumada, Board Chair, was born in 1945 in Manchuria, China and graduated from Seoul National University in 1968, majoring in music. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1970, and with the late Han Bong Yoon, founded the Korean Resource Center in 1983. She served as Board Chair of the Korean Resource Center from 1989 to 1999. Since 1993, she has served as Board Chair of NAKASEC.
La Crescenta, CA

Nanwon Kim, Vice Chair, is a founding member of NAKASEC. Residing in New Jersey, Ms. Kim currently teaches at the Princeton Korean Language School and is a ceramics artist currently taking classes at the Princeton Arts Council. She has previously held positions at Princeton Bio Meditech Corporation, the United Methodist Church Office for the United Nations, and the Korean United Methodist Church of Manhattan.
Princeton, NJ

Inhe Choi, Vice Chair, immigrated from Seoul, Korea in 1973 at the age of 12. Educated in the Chicago public schools and then the University of Chicago, Inhe has worked for the Crossroads Fund, a public foundation that support community organizations working on social and economic justice in the Chicago area, the United Way-Community Service Council, a policy insitute, and the Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs under the Washington, Sawyer and Daley mayoral administrations. A Vice Chair of NAKASEC, she is also a longtime volunteer with the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center. She is one of the founding members of KAN-WIN, a Chicago-based Korean American organization fighting against domestic violence. Currently, Inhe works as an independent consultant working with non-profit organizations in the area of strategic planning, program development and fundraising.
Chicago, IL

Becky Belcore, Treasure, is the Executive Director of the Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (KRCC). She worked as a Union Organizer for five years. After completing the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute Training Program in 1995, she worked mainly for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the Midwest Region. Since leaving SEIU, Ms. Belcore also had the opportunity to work for the Quality Education as a Civil Right Campaign in New Orleans, LA, with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. Ms. Belcore became a volunteer at KRCC in 1996, served as a Development Associate from 1999 to 2002 and a board member in 2005 before becoming the Executive Director in 2006. She serves as the Board Secretary of the Coalition of African, Asian, Arab, European & Latino Immigrants of Illinois (CAAAELII) and is a founding member of Helping Adoptees Lead Together (HALT). Ms. Belcore is also a registered nurse and graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Sociology.
Chicago, IL

Board Members

Prisca Bae is an attorney, receiving her BA from Columbia College, Columbia University and JD from the University of Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). Upon graduating from law school, Prisca served as a judicial law clerk in Miami to the Honorable William M. Hoeveler, Senior Judge in the Southern District of Florida and worked at Latham & Watkins, LLP in New York. Prior to law school, Prisca worked for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. and Ron Kirk for United States Senate Campaign in Texas, where she conducted outreach to Asian American voters. She currently serves on the young professionals’ boards of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Litworld, a nonprofit literacy organization. She was born in South Korea and raised in Chicago.
New York, NY

Isabel Kang is the Program Director at of the Shimtuh Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Program at the Korean Community Center of the East Bay (California). Isabel has over two decades of experience designing and implementing holistic support programs for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault, as well as community education and trainings. She is a founding member of Korean American Women in Need (KAN-WIN) and previous steering committee member of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and CWPE Committee on Women, Population Control and Environment.
Oakland, CA

Wan-Mo Kang is a Partner at Fox Rothschild, LLP in Princeton, NJ and practices general corporate law, labor and employment law, and corporate litigation. Mr. Kang is also chair of the firm’s International Practice Group. Since immigrating to the United States, Mr. Kang has been a tireless community advocate. He is a founding member of and NAKASEC, and was recently selected as a “New Jersey Rising Star” by New Jersey Monthly Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine in 2007.
Princeton, NJ

Cliff Sukjae Lee was a high school math teacher in Philadelphia, PA, with experience in community organizing and neighborhood-based ESOL popular education, when he first became involved with the then NAKASEC-affiliated Korean American Community Center and also with Young Koreans United (YKU). With other volunteers he became one of the founding members of SoRi-MoRi Philadelphia Korean Cultural Troupe in 2000. After moving to California in 2004, he became involved with the Korean Resource Center (currently serving as a board member) and HanNuRi Korean American Cultural Troupe in Los Angeles. Later that year he was elected President of (now defunct) Young Koreans United of USA. Cliff is currently practicing as a Traditional Asian Medicine doctor (acupuncture/herbs/bodywork) in Garden Grove, CA.
Irvine, CA

Edward C. Lee was born in MunSan, Korea on January 15, 1962. He immigrated to the U. S. with his family in June 1980, 4 months after he graduated Sung Dong High School in Seoul. He enrolled into Drexel University in 1982, and since 1986, he has committed much time and effort to the movement for peace & justice in the US and Korea. He has been actively involved with Young Koreans United of Philadelphia since 1986 and with Korean American Peace & Justice since 1987. He currently serves as President of Korean American Peace & Justice of Philadelphia. Currently, he is a business owner of Q Disposition, Inc., and prior to this, he ran a small food market from 1992 to 2002 and was an independent distributor from 2002 to 2006.
Philadelphia, PA

Rev. Eun-sang Lee is a United Methodist clergy currently serving First United Methodist Church of Salt Lake City, UT. He came to the United States in 1978 as an immigrant. In 1987 he joined Young Koreans United (YKU). He regards his involvement in YKU one of the pivotal events in his life journey. He graduated from Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO (Master of Divinity), was ordained in the United Methodist Church in 1993, and has served inner-city churches in Colorado and Utah. Urban ministry with a heart for multi-culturalism, social justice and inter-faith collaboration is his passion. He has served on several non-profit community organizations and is currently on the board of Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City, UT

Kent Chaegu Lee is the Program Director of the Salvation Army Mayfair Community Church & Center, coordinating social services, education, and media. He lives in Chicago and was the former Executive Director at the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (KRCC) for over a decade. Currently, he serves on the KRCC board and has been active with Il Kwa Nori (Work and Play) Korean Cultural Troupe since 1995.
Chicago, IL

Sung Shim Lee was born on September 2, 1950 in Koheung, Korea and immigrated to Alaska on February 14, 1978. She moved to San Francisco in May of that same year and currently resides in San Jose. After attending the May 18th Foundation Forum in San Francisco in 1982, she became involved in a movement for independence, democracy, and unification that was being led by the late Han Bong Yoon. In 1985, she began serving as President of the Korean Resource Center in Northern California until it closed down in 1998. She currently runs a beauty supplies shop.
San Jose, CA

Carrie Hoojoo Pugh joined the National Education Association (NEA) as the NEA’s National Campaign Manager, where she oversees the Campaigns Unit for the Campaigns and Elections Department. Prior to joining the NEA, Pugh held various positions at SEIU’s National Political Department, including Deputy Political Director, National Field Director and Midwest Regional Political Director. Carrie has served on a number of boards, including the Chicago Foundation for Women, the Asian American Institute of Illinois and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Pugh received her B.A. from Ball State University’s Honors College and has nearly two decades of experience in grassroots organizing, politics and immigrant rights work.
Washington, DC

Sik Son has served as the executive director of NAKSEC’s Chicago affiliate KRCC since December 2009. Before becoming the director, he worked at KRCC for 3 years first as ESL/Citizenship Instructor and later as a Immigrants Rights Organizer. Sik Son earned a Doctorate Degree in Adult Education from Northern Illinois University where his focus was education for social change. Prior to immigrating to the United States, Sik Son was a student organizer and labor organizer for about ten years in South Korea in the fight for democracy under military regimes. He is a 1^st generation immigrant, bilingual in the Korean and English languages. Mr. Son has served on the board since 2010 and is a part of the Transition Committee.
Chicago, IL

Dae Joong Yoon has a B.S. degree in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has served as Korean Resource Center (KRC)’s executive director from 1998 to 2000 and resumed his position in July 2003. Since 1993, Yoon has more than 15 years of community education and organizing experiences for the issues of immigration policy, health access, civic participation, voting rights, environmental justice, and affordable housing. Currently, Yoon serves on the board of directors at the Strategic Concept in Organizing & Policy Education (SCOPE), Advisory Board member for the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and the Community Advisory board member for the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services.
Los Angeles, CA

Son Ah Yun is currently the Director of Advanced Leadership Trainining for Generation Change. Son Ah is responsible for creating strategies to train, develop, and mentor existing community organizers. She’s been at the Center for Community Change since 2000, beginning as an intern and staffing the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of over 1000 anti-poverty groups to impact the reauthorization of TANF. She recently served as the Immigration Co-Team Leader and was instrumental in the building of CCC’s immigration work, which led to the development of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) into the leading voice for grassroots immigrant organizations across the nation.
Smyrna, GA