Fritz Friedman - President, The Filipino American Heritage Association

"Mr. Friedman has been President of The Board Of Directors of the Filipino American Heritage Institute since 1999 during which he oversaw the move of The Filipino American Library to its current headquarters in Los Angeles. Born in Manila, he was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, received his BA in Asian Studies at Vassar College and a Masters in Communications from The Annenberg School of The University of Pennsylvania. Besides sitting on the Institute Board, Mr. Friedman is Executive Director of The Assembly For Justice, Chair of the Asian American Alumni of Vassar College, a member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival andthe advisory board for the San Diego Asian American Film Festival. Mr. Friedman is also Senior Vice President of Worldwide Publicity for Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Releasing."

Tania Azores Gunter, Vice President

Tania Azores Gunter was one of the incorporators and charter board members of Pamana Foundation, Inc., renamed Filipino American Heritage Institute in 1999. The president of Pamana Foundation from 1991 to 1999, she is currently Vice President of the Filipino American Heritage Institute. She is also a full time lecturer in the South and Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures Program at UCLA where she has taught Tagalog since 1990. Prior to that she served as an Assistant Director and as a Research Associate at UCLA's Asian American Studies Center where she co-authored a number of publications on Asian American demographics, immigration, labor participation and political participation. She also taught Tagalog at Loyola Marymount University. Her community involvement includes having served as Vice President, and later, Chairman, of the Los Angeles Science and Technology Advisory Council and of the Assumption Alumnae Association of Southern California. Tania was a consultant in the 1980 census when she served as Chair of the first national Asian and Pacific Islander Advisory Committee to the Census Bureau. She finished high school in Assumption (Manila) and obtained her B.A from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She holds an M.A. in Language Teaching from Ateneo de Manila, and an MA and PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA.

Cisa Payuyo works as Secretary for the Filipino American Library and has volunteered since 1996. Besides supervising the library's daily operations, Cisa coordinates the Children's Filipino Community School during the summer, and organizes the Children's Storytelling Hour. Cisa is also active in her faith community, as the Regional Moderator for the Pacific Southwest Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Executive Board Member of the North American Pacific Asian Disciples. She is currently pursuing a Certificate of Ministerial Studies Program, sponsored by the Disciples Seminary Foundation and the Pacific School of Religion.

Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz is the Board Resource Committee Chair and Website Coordinator

She is instrumental in conceptualizing and coordinating the creation of the website for the library. She is also the chair of the Resource Committee, overseeing the expansion of the book collections in the library, soliciting Filipino-American authors to provide copies of their intellectual work-products to the library, and securing other community-based resources for the library. She is the regional administrator for the California Department of Health Services' Food and Drug Branch, overseeing the regulatory oversight of 3,000 food processors, using a combined approach of education, inspection, enforcement and standards-setting. She is also the Assistant Secretary of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center's Board of Directors and the Public Relations Chair of the Filipino Civil Rights Advocates - Metro LA Chapter.

Van Gerard Dichoso, C.P.A., Treasurer

Van Gerard Dichoso, C.P.A. is President of Dichoso and Company, CPA, Inc., a successful CPA and business consulting firm with offices in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, California. Mr. Dichoso's involvement with the community has earned him the distinction as one of the most prominent CPAs of Filipino-American descent that he was awarded the coveted "Twenty Most Outstanding Filipinos in the United States and Canada" by the prestigious Fil-Am Magazine in Washington, D.C. in 2001. In September 1999, he was also awarded "Who's Who Among Filipino-Americans in California and Nevada" presented by Governor Benjamin Cayetano of Hawaii. In May 2000, he received the "Community Leadership Award" at the Philippine-American Convention and Exposition, the largest and most recognized Filipino-American trade show in the West Coast. He has also received numerous awards as former officer and board member of the Philippine-American Society of CPAs (PASCPA), including the "Presidential Award", the highest award of recognition given to a PASCPA member.

Mr. Dichoso has written various articles in professional publications, had been a speaker in various community events, and had been responsible for the first "Tagalog" translation of the official IRS Publication 1 "Your Rights as a Taxpayer". Filipino immigrants can now read and understand their U.S. tax rights in dealing with the Internal Revenue Service in their own language.

Currently, he is a member with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the accounting profession's rule-setting body; a member of the California Society of CPAs (CSCPA), the state's largest CPA society; a former officer and board member (1996 - 1999) of the Society of California Accountants - Los Angeles Chapter (SCA), an influential society which acts as advocate on behalf of practitioners before the California Board of Accountancy and other legislative bodies; the former President (1999-2000) of the Philippine-American Society of CPAs (PASCPA) with nearly 300 members; and a member of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce.

<<BACK TO ABOUT THE LIBRARY

>>