Meet The Staff
HAAP is blessed with very dedicated and hardworking staff members and students. The team consists of two directors, seven community coordinators and many U of M students. The community coordinators recruit participants from their community and also provide interpreting and other assistance to Asian Americans residing in Michigan.
Our Director- Dr. Tsu-Yin Wu
In January 2007, Dr. Tsu-Yin Wu assumed the position of director at the Healthy Asian Americans Project. Although it was her first time taking on an official role at HAAP, Dr. Wu is familiar with the project's mission and goals. She first became affiliated with HAAP as a University of Michigan graduate student under the mentorship of the late Dr. Mei-yu Yu (Founding Director of HAAP).
In addition to her position as director, Dr. Wu is currently an associate professor of nursing at Eastern Michigan University. She holds a doctorate in health promotion and risk reduction from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in community health in nursing from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in nursing from the National Yang Ming University in Taiwan. With more than ten years of community and research experience in promoting Asian American health, Dr. Wu's research encompasses health promotion and health behavior. More specifically, she has conducted studies on factors that influence mammography screening among Chinese American women, gender differences in health risk behaviors and physical activity among middle school students, and cultural effects on breast cancer screening. Her most recent research projects and interests, in conjunction to HAAP's efforts, focus on promoting breast cancer screening (i.e., breast self-exam, clinical breast exam, and mammography) among Asian American groups including Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian and Korean through the design and implementation of culturally-tailored educational interventions for each group.
She is responsible for maintaining the overall scientific integrity of the research and coordinating efforts of all co-investigators and research team members to achieve the aims of the project. She oversees all screening procedures at health fairs and referrals, maintains liaison with medical specialists and answers or obtains answers to client and staff questions about project-related issues. She monitors adherence to the overall time schedule of the project, evaluate progress, and report annually to the funding agencies as required as a condition of the grant. She also maintaisn the overall scientific integrity of the research, working with the grants officers to manage the grant budget, and have ultimate fiscal responsibility for grant funds. Additionally, she is responsible for analyzing study results and preparing a series of scientific publications and presentations that report the findings of the study for dissemination locally and nationally and ensures that procedures to protect human subjects are implemented during all phases of the study. She has been a tenured faculty who is experienced with mentoring students at various levels (undergraduate, master, and doctoral) and currently mentors and supervises all the UM-Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) students at HAAP. Email: tywu@umich.edu
Associate Director- Dr. Janilla Lee
Janilla Lee is currently a research faculty at the University of Michigan, School of Nursing. She was a professor at Central Michigan University teaching material engineering for 4 years before joining U of M. She is actually a retired engineering manager from Ford Motor Co. Her automotive expertise is in product design/development and program management, mostly in interior systems. She graduated in chemistry from National Taiwan University and has a Ph.D. in Quantum Mechanics from University of Notre Dame.
She is very active in Asian American communities and the community at large; she leads and participates in many service programs, e.g., soup kitchen, Asian Women health program, Coalition of Chinese American Organizations, Chinese Community Center, Asian Women Leadership, cancer foundation fund raising, and junior diabetes walk etc.
She initiated the study at HAAP for the prevalence of hepatitis B among Asian Americans in Michigan. Her research also includes bone health and other infectious diseases among Asian Americans. She has been a mentor to all HAAP UROP students. Email: janilla@umich.edu
Office Manager and Chinese community coordinator: Mei Shan
Mei and her family emigrated from Beijing, China ten years ago. Before she joined HAAP, she worked as an accountant. Fluent in Mandarin and English, Mei has been involved in the translation of various documents and providing assistance to Chinese participants, in addition to manage the daily office operations and HAAP's billing accounts and financial issues. Characterized with a very friendly personality, Mei is easy to approach for help. Her goal is to help underprivileged individuals to gain access to medical care. Email: meishan@umich.edu
Chinese community coordinator: Judy Chen
Judy is the pillar for carrying out all HAAP's work, also a very active member in the Chinese community. She graduated with a bachelor degree in music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Following her interest in advocating to bridge the gap for the disadvantaged in the health care, she joined HAAP as the Chinese coordinator in the year of 2004. With her passion in assisting others, she has reached out to and recruited many people including Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese for various health screening projects initiated by HAAP. Having the passion for excellence and continuous improvement, Judy has received certificates as a Lay Health Advisor (LHA), Personal Action Toward Health (PATH) leader from HAAP, and Medical Terminology, Body Systems and Cross Cultural Health Care's Bridging the Gap from University of Michigan Health System .Furthermore, she expanded her own responsibilities to include data administration for all HAAP research projects including, but not limited to Colon Cancer Project and Hepatitis B Project, and simple statistical analysis. She is also a mentor to all other coordinators and research students. Email: shie@umich.edu
Filipino Community coordinator: Tess Tchou
Over 20 years ago, Teresita (Tess Miranda) Tchou, left her position as an instructional associate at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry to move to Detroit with her husband. Now back at U-M as Filipino Community Coordinator for HAAP, she runs into former colleagues as well as new associates as she drops off reports and comes in for staff meetings. Since November, 2005, Tess has actively recruited Filipino participants into HAAP programs such as screenings for breast and cervical cancer, colon cancer, and HBV. She has also conducted HAAP related educational programs for Filipinos, including colon cancer prevention workshops and most recently a workshop series on self-management of chronic diseases. Her work with HAAP satisfyingly complements her personal involvement with various Filipino American organizations and the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan where she teaches adult Tagalog language classes. Email: raytesstchou@sbcglobal.net
Vietnamese Community coordinator: Kim-Hao N. Olbrys
Kim-Hao joined HAAP in July 2008. She was born in Hanoi (North Viet-Nam) and was raised in Saigon (South Viet-Nam). She was educated in both French and Vietnamese systems in Viet-Nam and in France. Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, she emigrated to France (1977) and finally settled in Michigan - USA in 1980. She went to Law School in Viet-Nam and in France. She has a bachelor degree in Accounting and Business French and a master in Computer Aided Drafting and Computer Aided Manufacturingfrom Eastern Michigan University. After 5 years of working as an accountant for Wayne County Government, she left to become a full-time mom for her 2 children. She taught French for more than 14 years at University of Detroit - Mercy and is a trained and registered interpreter in French and Vietnamese languages. Devoted to special needs communities, she is involved with the Special Olympics. She is also active in the Vietnamese community as a community health promoter.
Asian Indian coordinator: Aruna Chowdhry
Aruna came to the United States in 1975, and has been living in the Ann Arbor area since 1980. She can speak three languages fluently; Hindi, Punjabi, and English. She has a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in Psychology from Meerut University, India. She has also taken computer courses at Washtenaw Community College and has Graduate Certification in Gerontology from Eastern Michigan University. In 2007, she helped with the HAAP breast cancer screening project and was a volunteer with the American Cancer Society. In 2008, she completed training and was certified as PATH leader. She is passionate about helping people and has experience with counseling the elderly and helping underprivileged mothers. Email: Aruna12@aol.com
Asian Indian coordinator: Meera Vijan
Meera Vijan joined HAAP in May 2008 as the Asian Indian coordinator. She retired as President of Ovonic Battery Company, a subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices in April 2007 and has worked in the Advanced Battery and Flat Panel Display industry for over 30 years. She has had experience working with domestic and international high technology companies including setting up manufacturing plants, joint ventures etc,. She graduated with a BS in Physics from India and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Detroit. She has been very active in the Asian Indian community and since joining HAAP has actively recruited Asian Indian participants into colon cancer screening and conducted a workshop on Self Management of Pain and Chronic Disease. Email: mvijan@comcast.net