Nkauj Iab Yang (pictured holding microphone, center) works with state legislators to secure special funds for community-based organizations providing mental health, legal services, and prevention programs in Asian American communities.

TRIO alumna Nkauj Iab Yang says Upward Bound taught her “to dream big.” Dreaming big led to college and graduate school, a life of community advocacy, and her appointment by California Governor Gavin Newsom as the first executive director of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs.

Yang, 38, is the youngest of six children, all of whom participated in Upward Bound at the University of California-Davis, where Ping Chan was the director, and COE Board Chair-Elect Sam Blanco III served as the Upward Bound summer math teacher.

As an “Upward Bound-er,” she toured the University of California-Berkeley campus, where she would later enroll. In her sophomore year, she became part of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program, studying the challenges facing Vietnam-era refugees, and proposed an ambitious research project that took her to Vietnam.

Over the last two decades, Yang has earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s in ethnic studies from San Francisco State University and pursued a career in community service and advocacy with nonprofit organizations serving the diverse Asian American communities in California.

When Yang was appointed in 2020 to lead the California Commission staff, its primary mission was to ensure California responded appropriately to the needs of the AAPI community, including addressing the issue of Asian hate, which intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission has worked with state legislators to secure special funds for community-based organizations providing mental health, legal services, and prevention programs in Asian American communities and has also won line-item appropriations for culturally relevant student support services in the California community colleges and the CSU system.

Both Upward Bound and McNair—they mean everything to me, and they are the spaces that helped me to learn how to dream and to prepare for those dreams. I know my fight will continue to be working to see that all communities have the resources to thrive.

Nkauj Iab Yang

Yang’s experience in Youth Together, Banteay Srei, Serve The People, Hmong Innovating Politics, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, among other organizations, was a logical extension of her work as a community organizer at school and municipal levels to promote equity and hold public officials accountable. “As someone who has benefited from programs for young people, I wanted to ensure there are programs and services for low-income, limited English communities,” she says. “I’m a true believer that we can attain equity so that everyone can thrive.”

Yang, whose parents are Hmong refugees from Laos, says the TRIO programs are critical for low-income students and families like hers to erase barriers to college access and allow students to envision themselves and their futures in unforeseen ways.

“Both Upward Bound and McNair—they mean everything to me, and they are the spaces that helped me to learn how to dream and to prepare for those dreams,” she says. Whatever follows her current role, she adds, “I know my fight will continue to be working to see that all communities have the resources to thrive.”

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