Our Team
The following members with diverse backgrounds form the JIA Team
and are working to establish JIA Foundation as one of the leading
cultural and community development organizations in Montreal’s Chinatown.
Our Team
Yixin Cao
曹藝馨
Program and Communications Coordinator
she/they/elle
Yixin 曹艺馨 was born in 山东 and grew up on the island of Tioh’tià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. They started getting involved in Chinatown to learn more about the legacy of anti-Chinese racism in this country, as well as the history of community organizing in the neighbourhood. They hold a degree in law and became interested in the community practice of law through their involvement with legal information clinics working with marginalized groups of people. In their free time, they like making comics and learning the names of flowers.
Jessica Chen
陳婉瑜
Executive Director & Board Liaison
she/her/elle
Jessica Chen is a Canadian city planning professional currently based in Montreal, Quebec. Her career focus has been social inclusion and urban strategies that encourage a pluralistic understanding of cities. As an immigrant from Taiwan, Jessica started her professional career in the public sector, first in Philadelphia, then in Vancouver, tackling issues of gentrification, heritage conservation, affordable housing, social inclusivity and equitable development. She relocated to Montreal in 2013 and founded her consulting practice Wabi Sabi Planning Lab that often works with public agencies and non-profit organizations to examine how cultural and community-owned assets, including housing, help shape a more resilient urban landscape and city economy. Jessica has been active in Montreal Chinatown since 2019 to advocate for its cultural heritage protection and co-founded JIA Foundation in 2022.
Karen Cho
曹嘉伦
Program Development
she/her/elle
Karen Cho 曹嘉伦 is a fifth-generation Chinese-Canadian with family roots in Montreal and Vancouver’s Chinatowns. She’s also a documentary filmmaker whose work has touched on subjects like the Chinese Head Tax & Exclusion Act, the Japanese internment, refugees, artist-activists & women’s rights.
Karen’s latest film, Big Fight in Little Chinatown, is the story of community resistance and resilience in Chinatowns across North America. As part of the film’s Impact campaign, Karen worked with community organizers in 16 North-American Chinatowns to fundraise and mount screenings of the film.
Karen is passionate about the power of community storytelling for the placekeeping of Chinatown.
Elizabeth Dresdner
Researcher (Planning and Design)
she/her/elle
Elizabeth Dresdner is an undergraduate student in Urban Planning at Concordia University. She is interested in (de)constructing the material and social infrastructures of cities—their histories, contradictions, and possibilities—to help carve out equitable urban futures. Since Fall 2022, Elizabeth has been involved in Montréal’s Chinatown through JIA Foundation’s partnership with Concordia University, contributing to community-driven research and planning work.
Day’s Lee
Finances Coordinator
she/her/elle
Day’s Lee is an author and documentary filmmaker. She has worked for the Montreal Chinese Hospital Foundation and the Chinese Lions Club, and was a member of the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (FCCP) and Chinatown Working Group.
Melissa Lengies
胡美珍
Researcher (Heritage)
she/her/elle
Melissa Lengies 胡美珍 is an Intern Heritage Architect in Montreal. In her graduate studies, her thesis research explored the role of historic building reuse in equitable development for Montreal’s Chinatown, through which her work alongside JIA Foundation began. Her continued work with JIA is inspired by her curiosity as a third-generation mixed Chinese-Canadian and continued interest in pursuing community-driven strategies for urban revitalization at the intersections of built heritage, social and climate action, and cultural identity.
Nicholas Linh
凌海伟
Program and Communications Coordinator
they/them/iel
Art History graduate student and writer with an interest in diasporic studies, the (il)legibility of identity, decoloniality, as well as studies on cultural performances and structures of power. Chinatown to them is a place of deep familial ties and a physical manifestation of its inflorescent diasporic expression.
Monique Ling
林萬莉
Chinatown House and Volunteer coordinator
she/her/elle
Monique Ling 林萬莉 is currently a member of the Midnight Kitchen collective, a food security organization that operates out of McGill University. She has a bachelor’s degree in Global Development Studies and Indigenous Studies and is particularly interested in the link between larger issues of social justice and inequity to local grassroots struggles, a link that is well established in the Chinatown community. She initially got involved in Montreal’s Chinatown as a way to connect more deeply with her heritage, but has since become inspired by the possibility of Chinatown as a model for equitable community development.
Parker Mah
馬世聰
Programming & Operations Director
he/him/il
Parker Mah 馬世聰 is a fourth-generation Chinese Montrealer of Toisanese descent, based in Tio’tia:ke. Multimedia artist, musician, and DJ, his diverse body of work tackles themes and realities of migration, hybridization and identity. He is also active in different cultural and activist spaces as a curator, moderator, trainer and community organizer. He is a founding member of Progressive Chinese Quebecers, and of the Jia Foundation. He co-hosted the feature length documentary Being Chinese in Quebec (2013), with Bethany Or. He also acted as curator and artistic director for two major site-based Chinatown exhibitions produced by the MEM.
Théo Pagé-Robert
阮青𢀨
Research and Project Coordinator
he/they/il
Théo is an aspiring human geographer whose work aims to unravel the granular experience of spatial (in)justice in the city. Born on the coast of the Biển Đông, they were raised on Kanien’kehá:ka territory which they have learned to call home. They are involved in Chinatown where struggles meet and fights converge, striving for the softer urban landscapes of tomorrow.
Michelle Tatebe-Larocque
余缘
Chinatown House Coordinator
she/they/elle
Michelle has been involved in Chinatown since fall 2023. She is an active member of Kahéhtaien Lumb Garden, Chinatown Youth and JIA Foundation. They have now been working in agriculture for 4 years and are interested in this field as a tool for cultural (re)appropriation. Michelle has a strong interest in the intersection of issues related to identity, race, social justice and food (in)security.
Isabel Teramura
Researcher (planning)
she/they/elle
Isabel Teramura has been involved with JIA Foundation since late 2024. They are completing a master’s degree in Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University, focusing on community-led planning. With a background in housing advocacy and food justice, Isabel strongly believes in the power of community interventions to create more just cities. Of mixed Japanese Canadian descent, they value Chinatown as a place where multiple communities can feel at home. Isabel is also a member of the Kahéhtaien Lumb Garden.
Walter Chi-Yan Tom
譚志仁
Community Relations Advisor
he/him/il
With over 30 years of experience in immigration, business and human rights law, Me Walter Chi-yan Tom 譚志仁 is the principal partner of a law firm and Manager of the Concordia Student Union Legal Information Clinic. Me Tom has been an executive board member and advisor of more than a dozen community and professional organizations, such as the Chinese Canadian National Council, the Center for Research- Action on Race Relations, the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals – Quebec, the Montreal Chinese Community United Centre, Tom Families Association, the Comité aviseur sur les relations interculturelles de Montréal, advising the City of Montreal on economic development, immigration and integration of ethnocultural communities, as well as a Roundtable member for the Montreal Chinatown Development Plan of 1996.
Lan “Florence” Yee
余承佳
Curator
they/them, il/lui
Lan “Florence” Yee 余承佳 is visual artist and cultural worker, with roots from Toisan, Hoiping, Saigon, and Amoy. They collect text in underappreciated places and ferment it until it is too suspicious to ignore. Lan uses visual storytelling through installation, textiles, and painting to unearth speculative bonds between the historical and personal. They published A Haphazard Handbook of Artists & Organizers across Chinatowns, a collection of essays and conversations between collectives with Yolkless Press. Along with artist Arezu Salamzadeh, they created the Chinatown Biennial in 2021. Lan curates exhibitions with The JIA Foundation that activate artefact and history through community memory. Lan is currently learning the drums with Chinatown Community Lion Dance in Toronto.
Sandy Yep
葉堅立
Programming Development
he/him/il
Sandy Geen Lup Yep 葉堅立 is a policy analyst, educator and community organizer. Born and raised in Montreal’s Chinatown, he is 4 generations Chinois-Quebecois. Graduating with a teaching degree from McGill University he has spent years as an educator in the areas of equity, human rights and anti-racism at local, provincial and national levels. Sandy currently works with the Inclusive Education branch of the Ministry of Education of Ontario.
In 2019, when grandfather ‘Loh Yeh Gung’s’ home in Chinatown Montreal was threatened for demolition, he returned to join the Chinatown Working Group. With the successful designation of heritage status, Sandy is committed to work alongside the community and with the JIA Foundation to re-vitalize and re-build Chinatown.
Jessica Chen (lead)
陳婉瑜
Théo Thanh Sang Pagé-Robert
阮青𢀨
Melissa Lengies
胡美珍
Elizabeth Dresdner
Isabel Teramura
Madeleine Wong
黃詩敏
Our Board
Jessica Chen
陳婉瑜
Executive Director & Board Liaison
she/her/elle
Sonia Li Trottier
姬银
Board Chair
she/her/elle
Sonia li Trottier 姬银 is the Director of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, a national organization that provides businesses and regulators climate governance guidance. She leads the strategic planning, programs, partnerships, operations, and budget. She is the Board Chair of JIA Foundation where she brings her governance and expertise in organisational management. She started getting involved in the Montréal’s Chinatown in February 2022. Sonia li also completed the Governance Leadership Program of the Jeunes administrateurs de l’Institut sur la gouvernance (IGOPP) in 2023 and was part of the Young Women Leaders 2022 cohort of Concertation Montréal.
Cassandra Ma
馬秀芸
Board Member
she/her/elle
Cassandra Ma is Legal Counsel for Bell Canada. She previously practiced at a leading labour and employment boutique firm in Toronto and as in-house counsel for a major federal Crown corporation. In these roles, Cassandra has provided advice and representation to organizations of various sizes and industries in respect of a wide range of legal issues.
Cassandra is frequently invited to write and speak about labour, employment, human rights, and legal practice topics, including at conferences organized by the Law Society of Ontario, the Ontario Bar Association, and LexisNexis Canada. She also served on many Section Executive teams within the Ontario Bar Association from 2019 to 2023.
In her spare time, Cassandra provides pro bono legal advice to and volunteers with a number of non-profit organizations across Canada. Among other endeavours, she was a Board Member of the Chinese Canadian National Council – Toronto Chapter from 2021 to 2024, where she held roles as the Board Secretary (2021-2024), Chair of the Human Resources Committee (2022-2024), and Chair of the Policy & Governance Committee (2023-2024).
Howard Tam
譚忠豪
Board Member
he/him/il
Howard Tan was born in Tokyo, Japan. He is a trained accountant, member of CPA Quebec. He graduated from McGill University. Howard is a past President of the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professional (Quebec), a team captain, participant, and volunteer of the Montreal International Dragon Boat Festival, and a Committee Member of the Montreal Chinese Hospital Foundation Ball. He has been involved in Chinatown and Asian communities for many years. He was a volunteer for Matsuri Japon, Alzheimer Society of Montreal, and Montreal Chinese Hospital Foundation. Howard is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.