Our Team

President & Executive Director

Tamara Chao (She/her) is the President & Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Fund. A visionary leader with a deep commitment to equity and social impact, Tamara brings a wealth of experience in philanthropy, international development, and transformative grantmaking.

As the daughter of a Japanese mother and Chinese father, raised in the Dimond district of Oakland, Tamara’s passion for service is rooted in the vibrant, multicultural spirit of the Bay Area. Her career has spanned global diplomacy, grassroots economic development, social enterprise and mission-driven philanthropy. She began her professional journey in the public and international sectors, serving as a Political Officer with the U.S. Department of State in Myanmar and with Chemonics International, where she oversaw agriculture and economic growth initiatives in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Her early domestic policy work at the Center for American Progress focused on human rights and national service. 

Prior to joining APF she served as Vice President for Learning & Impact at the Women Donors Network, leading strategy development for donor organizing, grantmaking and collective impact. Tamara holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University. She currently resides in Oakland, with her husband and two young children — hiking, having kitchen dance parties and playing in the garden.

Director of Community Initiatives & Grantmaking

Tavae Samuelu (she/her/hers) is the daughter of a pastor from Leulumoega and a nurse from Saleimoa. Rooted in fa’a Samoa, she is a storyteller who empowers people to own their narratives, articulate their healing, and resource our movements.

Tavae was born and raised on Tongva Territory, in what is presently known as Long Beach. She left home to attend UC Berkeley where she majored in Ethnic Studies. After college, Tavae took a job as the District 5 Field Organizer for Jean Quan’s Oakland Mayoral Campaign which allowed her to grow her skills and learn how to impact local institutions. When the campaign concluded, Tavae took her abilities to various Bay Area nonprofits and eventually made her political home at the RYSE Youth Center. She credits her time on unceded Ohlone land for her political consciousness.

In 2017, Tavae returned home to Long Beach to serve as the Executive Director of a national Pacific Islander nonprofit, where she advocated passionately for her community locally in LA, statewide in CA, and nationally. During her five-year tenure, she saw the importance of sustainable leadership and the ways that anchored care can bolster an organization during and after crises.

Tavae joined the Asian Pacific Fund as the Director of Community Initiatives & Grantmaking in 2023. During the pandemic, she learned that her most important title is Aunty Vae.

Director of Finance & Operations

MaryAnn Martinez Treble serves as the Director of Finance and Operations of the Asian Pacific Fund. Her role focuses on managing accounting, human resources, and information technology.

MaryAnn brings over 15 years of accounting, operations, and business management experience and holds a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis, as well as an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts from the California Culinary Academy.

Previously, MaryAnn worked for Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF), a statewide philanthropy with a dual mission of increasing health equity and ending domestic violence. While at BSCF, she most recently served as the Finance, Operations, and Grants Transformation Manager, where she led organization wide projects focused on improving processes and systems, ranging from accounts payable automation and grant process refinement, to strengthening workplace culture. Prior to that, she served as the Accounting and Operations Manager at BSCF, and has also held various accounting and operations roles throughout her career including running corporate catering units where she was able to apply her culinary, management, operations, and accounting skills.

A native of the Bay Area, MaryAnn currently resides on the Peninsula with her family. In her free time, you will find MaryAnn baking, gardening, or playing with her two pugs.

Manager of Executive Operations

Development Coordinator

Emily’s role as Development Coordinator focuses on being the resident “expert” on various software programs used for the Fund’s development efforts and meeting the administrative needs of her team.

Hailing from New York City, Emily brings a unique perspective and skillset to Asian Pacific Fund with over three years of experience in DEIJ and education spaces. After graduating a year early in 2019 from New York University, Emily started her career in DEIJ at a white-shoe law firm as Diversity & Inclusion Assistant during the peak of the COVID pandemic and anti-Asian hate. Then, she switched gears to teaching fourth grade as one of the founding grade teachers at a charter school based in upper Manhattan. Throughout her career, she has readily adapted to various roles and responsibilities within her teams while assuming a growth-oriented, “roll-up-your-sleeves” mindset. Her passion for helping people and serving communities in the name of equity, empathy, and justice fuel her professional journey.

Emily currently resides in San Jose with her extended family and two dogs – Coco and Milo! Outside of work, you can find her at her community gym, Warcat Strength, training in the sport of powerlifting, in front of her gaming PC playing competitive video games with her best friends on Discord, or exploring all of the delicious hidden gems the Bay Area has to offer!

Accounting & Operations Associate

Kelly Wu (she/her) is the Accounting and Operations Associate at the Asian Pacific Fund. In this role, she provides finance, accounting, operations, and administrative support.

Kelly has devoted 20 years of her career supporting museums, contemporary art galleries, and non-profits in development, finance, and administration. As a professional photographer, she’s helped art non-profits with event and exhibition documentation. Her work has been published on major news outlets and websites.

Community Initiatives & Grantmaking Manager

Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Kathrine has been meaningfully shaped by her experience growing up in the multicultural, immigrant communities of Queens, NYC and San Jose, CA. Funded by Fulbright and Wenner-Gren grants, she had the opportunity to carry out field research on sustainable development and household and community resilience in Ifugao Province. While in Ifugao, she was a research affiliate with Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement, an organization dedicated to protecting Ifugao heritage and advocating for Indigenous peoples’ rights, this deepened her belief in the necessity of community-led initiatives.

Kathrine holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of London, SOAS and a B.A. in Visual and Public Art from CSU Monterey Bay, and has taught anthropology in England, United States, and South Korea, exposing her to the nuances of higher education challenges in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining APF, she served as the Research and Program Manager at Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, where she worked closely with city and county teams to implement guaranteed income pilots across the United States, strengthening her desire to contribute in systems change work.

Kathrine enjoys surfing all across Santa Cruz County and in Pacifica, checking out exhibitions, and frequenting her local boba tea spot.