Awareness - Advocacy - Action

Image description: faces of panelists, names listed below

Panelists

About Our Panelists

Elijah Chhum, New Light Wellness & Pardon Refugees Coalition

Elijah Chhum is CoFounder and Executive Director of New Light Wellness. Out of the transformative Bay Area and statewide organizing, he has helped build Southeast Asian defense and lead against deportation to keep families together. He is passionate about researching and uncovering modalities of intergenerational healing that is steeped in trauma informed care, decolonized mental health, and frameworks that uplift ancestral wisdom and centers joy. As a child of Khmer genocide survivors and a queer organizer born and raised in Minnesota, Elijah wields the power of his identities in his community building, creating innovative models for advocacy and wellness within the most vulnerable refugee and immigrant communities.

Josh Kaizuka, Civil Rights Attorney & Activist

Josh Kaizuka has been an attorney for 25 years with experience in criminal and civil rights law.  He is a past president of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento, currently serves as co-President and a co-chair of the civil rights committee for the Florin-Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, on the board of the Asian American Liberation Network and a local community organizer.  Josh works and collaborates with many organizations and groups on social justice and civil rights issues, race equity initiatives, addressing anti-Asian hate, and many other community-based projects.

Giselle Garcia, NorCal Resist

Giselle Garcia currently serves as Programs Director at NorCal Resist, a mutual aid organization dedicated to uplifting marginalized community members and creating a political organizing home for all. NorCal Resist is the immigration rapid response network for 25 counties in Northern California and is dedicated to strengthening our region's united front of resistance against immigration enforcement action and government abuse inflicted upon our immigrant neighbors. The network is composed of hundreds of volunteers and various community partner organizations from Sacramento to the Oregon border who are trained in best practices to observe, document, and triage folks who are detained by ICE into support services, as well as provide pro se assistance for asylum petitions and other motions in an attempt to address the dearth in accessible immigration legal services. NorCal Resist believes that only we can keep each other safe, and is dedicated to empowering community efforts to do so.

Kishwer Vikaas,  Asian Bar Association of Sacramento & Assistant Public Defender

Kishwer Vikaas is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration & Nationality Law. She works as an Assistant Public Defender with Sacramento County. Her previous jobs include working at McGeorge Immigration Clinic and Opening Doors. She is the 2025 president of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento.

Mona Tawatao, APIs RISE Fund & Equal Justice Society

Mona Tawatao joined EJS as Legal Director of the Equal Justice Society in 2019.  Mona directs EJS’s litigation and advocacy on behalf of and in partnership with community-based organizations and families to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline and to fight race discrimination and promote equity in K-12 and higher education, the justice system, and other institutions. Mona is a member of the APIs RISE Fund, a giving circle supporting community engagement and empowerment.