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Meet Our Team

KINDRED CURIOSITY       âœ¹        KINDRED CURIOSITY       âœ¹      KINDRED CURIOSITY       âœ¹      KINDRED CURIOSITY       âœ¹    KINDRED CURIOSITY       

Board of Directors

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Vivian Thai

Executive Director

Vietnamese Chinese American

Vivian is thrilled to be the founding Executive Director for Kindred Curiosity, channeling her passion into cultivating a space where individuals gather the courage to take action towards personal growth within a supportive community. Aligned with Kindred Curiosity's vision and mission, Vivian believes in the transformative power of curiosity, unlocking opportunities, and gaining fresh perspectives through shared learning experiences. Since 2017, she has dedicated her time to various non-profits in the Bay Area, holding diverse roles to contribute to the community. Concurrently, she works as a Program Manager in Sales Operations at Snowflake.  Vivian’s innate curiosity extends beyond her professional endeavors; she delights in connecting with individuals from diverse backgrounds, finding inspiration in their unique narratives. Vivian likes to begin her day with her skincare routine and a homemade cup of matcha latte. Beyond her morning rituals, she embraces her passion for wine, evolving into an aspiring wine geek through the WSET. Vivian is also an avid traveler who delights in learning languages before embarking on her journey abroad.

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Joanne Lau

Community & Programming Director

Chinese American

Joanne loves helping others in her community by creating fun, safe spaces for people to discover who they are through their passions. During the pandemic, Joanne discovered her love for making sloth art and realized the impact of exploring her interests and hobbies as part of her self care journey. Fast forward to today, you can find her making digital sloth art everyday, making her own stickers, and creating sloth-filled art journals! During her tenure at Kindred Curiosity as Community & Programming Director, she hopes to help others find the same joy and love through exploring one’s passions. In addition to Kindred Curiosity, Joanne is passionate about workforce development for Asian immigrants (career pivoted from 5+ years in retail HR) and works at Diversity in Health Training Institute in Oakland Chinatown that aims to expand and diversify the healthcare workforce by connecting immigrants to healthcare career pathways in the U.S.. This year, you can also find her slowly working towards her lifelong goal of becoming mental health therapist to serve the second generation Chinese community. She is also currently a Community Health Coach at MindRight Health, a tech startup that provides mental health coaching over text message to empower communities to heal from trauma. She looks forward to meeting you at a future event!

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Paige Omandam

Public Relations Director

Filipino American

Paige is excited to serve as Kindred Curiosity’s Public Relations Director. She firmly believes that community has the power to ignite individual aspirations and hopes that we can accomplish this through our events and initiatives. Beyond her role in KC, she works as an Affiliate Marketing Manager at Dynadot, a domain name registrar. Much of her work involves communicating the brand’s value to potential partners, which she also applies to her work in KC. Paige enjoys unplugging in nature by camping or hiking in her free time. She also stays active through activities like weightlifting, yoga, and pickle ball. More than anything though, she is a homebody and loves to cozy up at home with her tuxedo cat, Maple.

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Maddie Wong

Marketing Director

Chinese American

Maddie is excited to be Kindred Curiosity’s Marketing Director. She has always loved creating fun content for her multiple Instagram accounts for skincare, rollerskating, and her dog. She believes that a good community involves a safe space, advocating for others, and empowering people to take action. As a Marketing Director, she hopes to reach like-minded people who can feel seen and heard in each social media post; whether this be through intriguing or new content, sharing new perspectives, or creating awareness of struggles within the Asian Diaspora community. She’s always enjoyed dabbing in graphic design and playing with colors and different elements for posts. In her free time, Maddie loves to go to the gym, catch up on anime and kdramas, try new recipes, and spend time with cats and dogs. She’s a UX Researcher by day (almost became a therapist at one point) and a cozy potato by night. Some of her favorite foods include Korean food, boba, all things with a chewy texture, and brown butter chocolate chip cookies. She also loves everything related to skincare and uses it as a form of daily self-care.

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Marketing Team

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Catherine Wu

Graphic Designer

Chinese American

Cat is excited to begin her journey as a Designer for Kindred Curiosity. She thrives in environments that foster creativity, curiosity and innovation. With a profound belief in the power of curiosity and learning, she considers these attributes as a fundamental source of continuous growth and inspiration. As the Designer for KC, she is eager to contribute to the growth of a community that is united by their shared pursuit of learning and curiosity. Beyond her commitments to KC, she is also a Visual Designer at ThirdLove, as well as a freelance Designer and Illustrator on the side. Cat finds solace and inspiration in a diverse range of interests, from video games and digital media to the tranquility of painting and nature walks, where she often indulges in moments of cloud gazing to recharge her creative spirit.

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Strategy & Operations Team

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Roann Pao

Content and Operations Specialist

Taiwanese American

Roann is thrilled to be joining Kindred Curiosity, bringing her expertise in content creation and operational leadership to the organization. She has over 4 years of experience in tech startups managing Customer Experience teams and leading Voice of the Custom Programs. In 2023, Roann co-founded Rhizo Media, a social media content agency, and currently serves as an advisor. She also works as the Communications and Social Media Manager at Pachamama Alliance, an environmental nonprofit in San Francisco, while providing freelance photography and videography services to small businesses across Northern California. At her core, Roann is a storyteller, driven by her endless curiosity in people and their experiences. Her mission is to share impactful stories that foster meaningful connections and she is excited to be building a safe and supportive community for Asian diaspora women as an immigrant from Taiwan. Beyond her work, Roann is an avid hiker, thrifter, cinephile, yogi and your local farmer’s market gal. She loves shopping for fresh, locally grown produce and geeking out about the sweetest and tastiest fruits of the season. When she isn't working or engaged in creative projects, she likes to slow down and intentionally unplug in nature. You can find her either glued to her desk or in the great outdoors — breathing deeply on meditation retreats or tuning into her environment on camping trips.

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