Past Tien Award Recipients

Mun Y. Choi was named the 24th president in the history of the University of Missouri System in November 2016, and began in March 2017. As president, Dr. Choi serves as the chief executive and academic officer of the UM System, a land-grant institution that provides centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, and extension program, and ten research and technology parks. Dr. Choi oversees all academic, public, business, financial and related affairs of the UM System under the policies and general supervision of the University of Missouri Board of Curators.… Read More

Jerry Kang has served as Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at UCLA since July 2015. He is Professor of Law, Professor of Asian American Studies, and the inaugural Korea Times – Hankook Ilbo Endowed Chair in Korean American Studies and Law.

Vice Chancellor Kang’s teaching and research interests include civil procedure, race, and communications. On race, he has focused on the nexus between implicit bias and the law, with the goal of advancing a “behavioral realism” in legal analysis.… Read More

Dr. Mia Tuan is the Dean of the University of Washington College of Education and has served in this role since 2015. Throughout her career, Dr. Tuan has worked to strengthen equity and inclusion for students of all backgrounds across educational settings. Her commitment to helping all students know that they matter and belong originated with her upbringing as a 1.5 generation American. Born in Taiwan, Dr. Tuan migrated to the U.S.… Read More

Dr. Ming-Tung “Mike” Lee is the former Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Administration & Business Affairs at California State University, Sacramento. At the time he received the award, he was Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. In the 69-year history of the university, Dr. Lee is the first Asian ever served as the Provost and the Vice President/CFO positions.

Dr. Lee has dedicated his career to providing a life-changing higher education to students from all backgrounds and social economic statuses. … Read More

Dr. S. David Wu is President of Baruch College, a constituent college of The City University of New York (CUNY). At the time of his award, Dr. Wu was the Provost and Executive Vice President at George Mason University. In that role, he was responsible for coordinating and overseeing the full range of the university’s academic activities, including curricular, instructional, and research affairs.

Prior to joining Mason, Dr. Wu  served as Dean of the P.C.… Read More

Dr. Liza Cariaga-Lo is the former Associate Provost of Academic Development and Diversity at Brown University. She has dedicated her career to understanding inequality and she is an advocate for more diverse educational systems. She continues a tradition of Asian American activism on college campuses and she focuses her work on addressing inequality in academia. Dr. Cariaga-Lo is a leader in the fields of education program evaluation, minority student development, ethnic minority health care and public policy affecting children and families.… Read More

Dr. Ellen Junn is the President of California State University, Stanislaus. At the time of her award, she was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at San Jose State University. During her time at SJSU, she worked to increase and coordinate multiple support programs to improve student learning, retention, and graduation rates, with special attention to closing the under-represented minority student graduation gap. Dr. Junn graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan with High Honors in Psychology in 1979, and earned a Ph.D.… Read More

Dr. Jacqueline L. Mok is the Vice President for Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Prior to this position, she was Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Vice President and Chief of Staff at Johns Hopkins University. At the time of her award, Dr. Mok was at the University of Arizona, where she was appointed the first Vice President and Chief of Staff.… Read More

Dr. Suresh Subramani is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and at the the time of his award, the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and a Chancellor Associates Chair at the University of California San Diego. A professor of Molecular Biology and a highly distinguished cell and molecular biologist, he has been a member of the UC San Diego faculty since 1981. Dr. Subramani received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley, was a post-doctoral fellow in Biochemistry at Stanford University, and has won numerous awards and fellowships.… Read More

Dr. Phyllis M. Wise is the former Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At the time she received her award, she was the Interim President of the University of Washington.

At the University of Washington, she had responsibility for all programs and operations of the University, reporting directly to the Board of Regents. The University of Washington is an AAU research university with an annual operating budget of near $4 billion and nearly 35,000 full and part-time employees.… Read More

Dr. S. Shankar Sastry is the Dean of Engineering, Roy W. Carlson Professor of EECS, BioE & ME and faculty director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. An internationally recognized expert on embedded and autonomous software, Dean Sastry has an exceptional background in technology research, spearheading projects to improve the nation’s cyber security and network infrastructure as well as initiatives in robotics and hybrid and embedded systems.… Read More

Dr. Meredith Jung-En Woo is currently the president of Sweet Briar College. At the time of her award, she was serving as the dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. She came to UVA from the University of Michigan, where she served most recently as professor of political science and associate dean for the social sciences in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.… Read More