Past Keynote Speakers

Dr. Mimi Hoang (she/her) is a nationally-recognized psychologist, educator, author, and grassroots activist specializing in the LGBTQ+ and Asian Pacific Islander communities. She works as a Staff Psychologist at Loyola Marymount University's Student Psychological Services, as the Clinical Supervisor of the LGBTQIA Affirmative Therapy Center at Airport Marina Counseling Service, as a consultant/trainer on issues of diversity, and is the creator of the “Bi on Life” self-empowerment series. Even more broadly, Dr. Mimi has co-founded three organizations for bisexual, pansexual, fluid, and other nonmonosexual (AKA "bi+") individuals -Fluid at UCLA, amBi (LA's Bisexual Social Community), and the Los Angeles Bi Task Force -and has served as a Board member of the South Bay LGBT Center in Torrance, has led or volunteered with multiple API and queer API organizations in Los Angeles, authored multiple publications on LGBTQ issues, and earned a seat at the landmark 2013 White House Bisexual Community Roundtable. Her steadfast leadership has earned her multiple awards, a feature in Jan Dee Gordon's LGBTQ of Steel photography book, and being named “One of the Most Significant Women in the Bisexual Movement.” During her time as a Bruin, Dr. Mimi worked at the Neuropsychiatric Institute, the Biochemistry Department, and the Norman Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and volunteered for the Bruincorps Americorps Teach for America Program. She also kept her extra-curricular plate full by serving as Publicity Co-Chair of the Vietnamese Student Union, member of Mahu (Asian Pacific LGBT Support/Social Group), and the Student Alumni Association. and in 2000 she won the LGBT Campus Resource Center's "Volunteer of the Year" award.

Krystal Torres-Covarrubias (she/her) is a queer brown xicana femme. She comes from a lineage of strong brown women and was raised by a large extended family in a northern California farm town. She is a first-generation college graduate and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from UCLA and a M.Ed. in Education Policy from Harvard University. She has spent her career discovering the many ways school systems can better support ‘othered’ students, parents and families. She currently serves as the Director of the Tools for Tolerance™ for Educators program at the Museum of Tolerance where she works with school leaders across the state to advance equity and inclusion initiatives at the district and campus levels. In her spare time, she enjoys loving up on her extended queer family, supporting community conversations about structural injustice, day-dreaming about new approaches to adult learning, and being a godessmother to a 4-year old Scorpio and a 13 year old Leo. She’s a Capricorn sun, Aquarius rising and Leo moon with a budding spiritual practice.

Eric Shaw is an urban planning professional with extensive experience in establishing and leading cross sector, cross discipline and cross jurisdictional partnerships in the areas of community and economic development. He has been recognized for his work establishing strategic initiatives that support inclusive development and resilience in communities throughout the nation. He most recently served as director of the Washington DC Office of Planning.

In addition to serving on the UCLA Alumni Association Board of Directors, Eric currently serves as chair of the board of the online publication Next City, is a member of Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council, and serves on the National Trust for Historic Preservation board of advisors. In 2017 and 2018, he was recognized in the OUTstanding Leading LGBT+ Public Sector Executives List, presented by the Financial Times.



As a student, Eric was the Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) Facilities Commissioner, Campus Tour Guides coordinator and southern regional vice chair for the National Society of Black Engineers. He is a member of both the UCLA Lambda (LGBTQ) and UCLA Black Alumni Associations and an active supporter of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.



As a member of the UCLA Alumni Association Board of Directors, Eric has served on the Diversity, Finance and Career committees. In addition to his UCLA degree in international development studies, Eric holds a Master in Urban Planning degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is the third member of his family to attend UCLA.

Author, LGBT historian, and playwright Dr. Ronni Sanlo is the Director Emeritus of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center (LGBT) Center and a frequent keynote speaker and consultant on LGBT issues in Higher Education. Now retired, Dr. Sanlo directed the UCLA LGBT Center, was professor and director of the UCLA Masters of Education in Student Affairs, and was a Faculty in Residence in De Neve Residence Hall. Prior to coming to UCLA in 1997, Dr. Sanlo was the director of the LGBT Center at the University of Michigan. In a previous life, Dr. Sanlo was an HIV epidemiologist in Florida from 1987-1994. Ronni earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida, and a masters and doctorate in education from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. She developed the initial standards and guidelines for LGBT work with the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS), was founding chair of the Consortium of LGBT Professionals in Higher Education, and was presented with the Legacy Award from NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Ronni is the originator of the award-winning Lavender Graduation, a commencement event that celebrates the lives and achievements of graduating LGBT college students. Ronni continues to research and write with a focus on LGBT history which is the foundation for the award-winning documentary Letter to Anita. Ronni may be emailed at ronnisanlo@gmail.com.

Patrisse Cullors is a artist, organizer, and freedom fighter living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Internationally known as the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse is also the founder and a board member of Los Angeles based organization Dignity and Power Now, and the director for truth and reinvestment at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. She is also active in many other social justice organizations including Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity.

A self-described wife of Harriet Tubman, Patrisse Cullors has always been traveling on the path to freedom. Growing up with several of her loved ones experiencing incarceration and brutality at the hands of the state and coming out as queer at an early age, she has since worked tirelessly promoting law enforcement accountability across the world while focusing on addressing trauma and building on the resilience and health of the communities most affected.

When Patrisse was 16-years-old she came out as queer and moved out of her home in the Valley. She formed close connections with other young, queer, woman who were dealing with the challenges of poverty and being Black and Brown in the USA. At 22-years- old Patrisse was recognized for her work as a transformative organizer by receiving the Mario Savio Young Activist Award. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, Patrisse received her degree in religion and philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2012. That same year she curated her first performance art piece that fearlessly addressed the violence of incarceration, STAINED: An Intimate Portrayal of State Violence. Touring that performance lead to the formation of the Coalition to End Sheriff Violence and eventually her non-profit Dignity and Power Now, both of whom have achieved several victories for the abolitionist movement including the formation of Los Angeles’ first civilian oversight commission over the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. In the summer of 2013 fueled by the acquittal granted to George Zimmerman after his murder of Trayvon Martin, Patrisse co-founded a global movement with a hashtag. Black Lives Matter has since grown to an international organization with dozens of chapters and thousands of determined activists fighting anti-Black racism world-wide. In 2014 Patrisse completed a fellowship at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership where she prepared and led a think tank on state and vigilante violence for the Without Borders Conference. There she produced and directed a theatrical piece titled POWER: From the Mouths of the Occupied. In 2015 Patrisse was named a NAACP History Maker, a finalist for The Advocate’s Person of the Year, and was invited to the White House. Since then she and other activists have been disrupting presidential debates demanding the candidates address the Black state of emergency. Patrisse will continue to create, organize, and shut it down until all Black lives matter.

D'Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comedian whose work ranges stand-up comedy, solo theater, plays, films and music production, poetry and spoken word. He is a co-producer for DisOriented Comedy (mostly female Asian-American nationally-touring stand-up comedy showcase).

Aside from touring and facilitating workshops on the university/college circuit with D’FaQTo Life (defacto), D’Lo tours Ramble-A tions: A One D’Lo Show (dir. Adelina Anthony) which received the NPN Creation Fund Grant inclusive of residencies in 9 US cities with additional support from the Durfee Foundation Grant.

D’Lo is the creator of the “Coming Out, Coming Home ” writing workshop series which have taken place with South Asian and/or Immigrant LGBTQ Organizations nationally, which provide a transformative space for workshop participants to write through their personal narratives and share their truths through a public reading. These workshops are specifically designed to provide emotional and spiritual support for individuals working through the complexity of their intersecting identities. His work has been published in various anthologies and academic journals, including: Desi Rap: Hip Hop and South Asia America and Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic (co-edited by Sharon Bridgforth) and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.

D’Lo also holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York’s School of Audio Engineering (SAE).

Mia Frances Yamamoto is one of the most distinguished and successful criminal defense attorneys in Southern California. She has tried over 200 jury trials and represented thousands of clients accused of criminal offenses, including murder, assault, sex offenses, drug offenses, theft, white-collar offenses, regulatory offenses and DUI. She has been honored by the Criminal Courts Bar Association, National Lawyers Guild and Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.

She was named “Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year” for 2002 by the Los Angeles County Bar Association Criminal Justice Section; “Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year” by the Century City Bar Association 2006; and one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in California” in 2002 by the California Daily Journal. She has been voted a “Southern California Super Lawyer” by her peers, in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, in polls published by Los Angeles Magazine in each of those years. She was awarded the “Spirit of Excellence” Award by the American Bar Association and the “Trailblazer Award” by the National Association of Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

She is a former deputy public defender and has been in private practice since 1985. She is the past president of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (a statewide organization of over 2,500 public and private defenders), past president of the Japanese American Bar Association, past president of the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance as well as co-founder and past chair of the Multi-Cultural Bar Alliance (a coalition of minority, women’s and LGB T bar associations in Los Angeles). She has been appointed by the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court to serve on the California Judicial Council Task Forces on Jury Improvement and on Fairness and Access in the Courts. She has lectured and presented for President Clinton’s Initiative on “Race and Criminal Justice”, George Washington University, 1999, as well as several panels, classes and demonstrations for the American Bar Association, Los Angeles County Bar Association and International Bridges to Justice, wherein she conducted training for criminal defense attorneys in the Republic of China. (IBJ is involved in Due Process education for human rights advocates throughout Asia, Africa, and South America). She is a well-known media commentator for print, radio and television.

She is the recipient of the Golden Key Award by the City of West Hollywood, The Liberty Award by Lambda Legal, The Harvey Milk Legacy Award by Christopher Street West/LA Pride and she has also been honored by API Equality and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission for her advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community.

Moof Mayeda is a community organizer turned software engineer. For the last three years, Moof has been building web apps utilizing a number of languages and frameworks, including Ruby on Rails, AngularJS, Drupal, and .NET. Moof currently works at Marmoset Music as a Back-End Engineer, focusing on Ruby and PostgreSQL. During the eleven years they spent as an organizer at the National LGBTQ Task Force, Moof played a significant role in winning the freedom to marry and advancing racial justice in the LGBTQ movement. When they’re not busy programming, Moof loves hiking all over the Pacific Northwest, working out, and playing German board games.

Torie Osborn earned her MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and served as CEO for four nonprofit advocacy and philanthropic organizations. From 1997 through 2005, Torie Osborn was executive director of the Liberty Hill Foundation, one of the nation’s most admired social-change foundations. Liberty Hill funds grassroots community organizing for environmental, social and economic justice in Los Angeles County.

In the mid-1990s, Torie Osborn served as executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington DC, the nation’s oldest gay and lesbian civil rights organization, and, from 1988 to 1992, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles, she led the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Throughout those years, Torie was a nationally respected leader in fighting AIDS, and in the LGBT movement for equality.

Since leading those organizations, Torie has served as a senior policy advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on homelessness, poverty and economic development. She initiated the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Partnerships that implements joint projects between government and philanthropy. Torie also served as Chief Civic Engagement Officer for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and currently is senior strategist for California Calls, a network of 27 organizations throughout California committed to common-sense government reform – including fair tax and budget policy. In addition to her MBA from UCLA, Torie holds her B.A. from Middlebury College. She is a 25-year resident of Santa Monica, California.

John A. Pérez was elected to the Assembly in November 2008, representing Downtown Los Angeles and communities of East Los Angeles. In January 2010, his colleagues elected him California's 68th Assembly Speaker. He was subsequently reelected in 2010 and 2012, making him one of the longest serving Speakers in the era of term limits.

Prior to his service in the Assembly, Speaker Emeritus Pérez was a lifetime member of the Labor Movement, eventually serving as the Political Director for the California Labor Federation. His lifetime spent fighting for working families can clearly be seen in the legislation and policy initiatives he pursued in the Assembly. He fought for policies that put people back to work and helped workers on the jobsite.

As Speaker, he brought together his colleagues to end California's era of chronic budget deficits. He worked with Governor Brown and members of the Senate to eliminate the structural deficit that left California's budget imbalanced for more than a decade, and successfully passed back-to-back balanced, on-time budgets that resulted in across the board upgrades in California's credit rating.

He has made affordability and accessibility of higher education one of the most important statewide priorities through passage of the Middle Class Scholarship Act. This effort, which brought together thousands of California's students and parents, sought to reduce student fees by two-thirds for middle class families, and was later adopted in a modified capacity by the 2013 State Budget. The landmark Middle Class Scholarship Act, has provided tuition relief of up to 40 percent for nearly 100,000 California State University and University of California students.

Speaker Emeritus Pérez's victories and accomplishments have received prominent national attention. In 2012, he was the only state legislative leader in the United States to address the Democratic National Convention. In August of 2012, he was elected by fellow Speakers from across the nation to serve as President of the National Speakers Conference. He has previously been appointed by President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush to serve on the President's Commission on HIV/AIDS and is a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee.