2020 KQTx Steering Committee

Alex Lee-Llobell (they/them) is a non-binary sex worker and sex workers’ rights advocate residing in Chicago, IL. They spent early childhood in Korea and most of their adult life in the Midwest. As a Midwesterner who spent most of their life in predominantly straight white spaces, they are excited to be able to reconnect with other Koreans as well as to be a part of queer affirming community.

Jeffrey Lee Miranda (he/him) is a cis gay man who resides in Brooklyn, NY and was part of the planning committee for KQTcon in 2018, which was the first-ever national conference centering LGBTQ Koreans in the U.S. As a Korean adoptee, he is interested in creating meaningful spaces for queerness, adoptee narratives, and Korean identity to intersect.

Samuel Park (he/him) is a 2nd gen Korean American gay cis man born and raised in Madison, WI. Sam has been cultivating new roots in Washington, D.C. for the past two years while working at the Human Rights Campaign. To him, love and community encompass labor rights, his used bike, and copious amounts of tea. 

Dohyun Ahn (he/him) lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA, and has been in queer organizing since high school. Having been born in Korea and immigrating to Atlanta young, he soon put down roots as a Southerner and worked to make the South what he saw it as: full of queer, Black and POC love. Nurturing community is his passion, and he works with Atlanta Queer and Asian Community (ATL Q+A), a local Queer and Asian organization. He is also a baker and a gardener, and envisions a world where communities grow and make their own food together without big corporations controlling the supply chain.

John is a queer 2nd-generation Korean American cis man who lives in Oakland, California. For over 25 years, John has been an activist, advocate, facilitator, and leader in communities and movements addressing LGBTQ rights, racial justice, immigrant organizing, and HIV/AIDS/community health. Beginning in the 1990s, he worked in HIV/AIDS prevention for youth through peer education, activism, and direct action with ACT UP/NY. He was a member of early Korean LGBTQ groups in New York in the 1990s and 2000s including Chingusai and Iban/Queer Koreans of New York. In 2004, he co-founded the Dari Project which published the first bilingual stories by Korean LGBTs and their families. He currently serves in leadership of KQTx National Network which began with the 2018 KQTcon national conference which took place in New York City.  He has served on multiple Boards of Directors, including The Audre Lorde Project, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT). Professionally, John co-leads an innovation program focused on promoting financial inclusion for low-income people in emerging markets for a global design firm. 

Sandy Hong (he/they) is a 2nd gen Korean American person of Queer and Transgender experience based in Queens, NYC. Sandy first came into KQT organizing as a facilitator serving the core organizing team of KQTcon 2018. Sandy was also a presenter at KQTcon, moderating a conversation on the intersections of spirituality and social justice, where topics such as the Donghak Peasant Rebellion and Minjung Theology were discussed to illuminate the roots and relevance of Koreans struggling and mobilizing towards emancipation. Prior to serving in leadership with KQTx National Network, Sandy served as the co-founder and director of New Women Space, a community-based event space in Brooklyn, NY where 100% of programming is created by and for women, transgender, gender non-conforming individuals. Sandy believes in movement building as an ever-emergent process of relationship-making, moving at the speed of our trust, our well-being, and our connectedness to heart.  

Elena Chang (she/her/hers) is currently Director of Equity Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at Theatre Communications Group. There she manages internal and external programs as part of TCG’s Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Initiative, including the EDI Institute, the facilitation of EDI workshops & webinars, the docu-series #LegacyLeaders, At the Intersections Conference programming, and other initiatives such as the Rising Leaders of Color and Theatres of Color. Previously, Elena served as program director of the Asian American Arts Alliance, where she was responsible for the development, design/communications, and management of all artist-focused programs as well as community-centered initiatives. 

A longtime champion of POC & LGBTQ representation in the creative sector, she is thrilled to continue her leadership in inclusion in the theatre field through the lens of centering the intersections between art, culture & activism. Elena also works with Asian Pride Project, a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts & advocacy initiative celebrating the journeys, triumphs and struggles of LGBTQ individuals and Asian and Pacific Islander (API) families and communities. She served on the Programming Committee of KQTCon, the first national convenings arc of queer and trans Koreans in New York City, and has partnered in the past with National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA). She received a BFA in Theatre from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Jota Sosnowski (they/them) is a documentary editor and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. As a Transracial Korean Adoptee they are deeply moved to tell stories about marginalized communities and social justice. Their work includes Who Killed Malcolm X? a six-part Netflix series and Stanley Nelson's Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (assistant editor), which premiered at Sundance. Their latest project, Between Goodbyes reframes adoption as a form of family separation through the intimate voices of a queer adoptee and her birth mother. Jota is excited and honored to be a member of the KQT steering committee! 

Tate Benson (they/them) is a genderqueer transmasc biracial Korean individual living in Brooklyn, New York. They were born and raised in Minnesota. Another part of their identity is being a youth worker (previously at GLSEN, The City of Saint Paul, and Youthprise) in which they have focused on building opportunities for queer and trans youth to thrive, be joyful, lead, feel at home in their bodies, and be proud of their differences. At their most recent job they created resources and managed youth engagement trainings for volunteer Chapter programming throughout the U.S. They’re currently headed to get their Masters in Social Work at Hunter! They also love plants, cartoons, and cooking.