Speaker & Panelist Bios
Quick Links
LIGHTNING TALKS
PANELS: 1) Hustle for a Cause | 2) Decolonizing Business | 3) Wholeness. Wellness. & Work.
WORKSHOPS: Purpose | Practice (Choose 1 each section to attend.)
Guide to Workshops:
There are TWO workshop sessions during the day, and attendees will get to rank their choice of workshop for each timeslot. Use these guides to help you decide which workshop to pick based on how far along in your business you are:
Great for:
: You want to start a business and haven’t yet.
: You have started your business and are within 1-2 years of running it
: Have been in business 2-4 years and are nearing or are in growth phase.
: Have been in business 3-6 years, thinking about scale
10AM: “How I Entrepinay” Lightning Talks
Gina Mariko Rosales
Gina Mariko Rosales is the Founder of #Entrepinays, an events enthusiast, efficiency nerd, dancer, and nonprofit advocate. She is the Founder & Owner of Make it Mariko Events, as well as the Co-Founder of Undiscovered SF Creative Night Market. Prior to founding Make it Mariko, Gina spent 10 years doing corporate & nonprofit event planning, administration, and operations including 7 years working for Google, most recently as the Head of Marketing Events for Google X. Gina was also the former Executive Director of the award-winning, nonprofit performing arts organization, Funkanometry SF.
Today, Gina is focused on curating experiences and creating magical, meaningful moments for the community. She’s dedicated to amplifying the voices of creatives of color in the Bay Area with her work with the Endeavors Collective.
Gelaine Santiago
Yana Gilbuena
Yana Gilbuena, a Filipino-born, critically acclaimed global nomadic chef, started Salo Series to share with the world the vibrant food culture of the Philippines. The Salo Series hosts Filipino Kamayan dinners, in which food is served on communal tables decked with banana leaves, and guests are asked to eat with their hands. In her American tour, Yana hosted pop-up dinners in 50 states in 50 weeks, as well as across Canada, Mexico, Colombia and her home country, Philippines. She is a 2017 Stone Barns Exchange Fellow and has also been featured in major publications such as The New York Times and National Geographic. She’s been published in The Cherry Bombe Cookbook, Feed the Resistance and is self-publishing her own: No Forks Given this October 2018. This global culinary nomad aims to further her mission and aims to host a Salo on every continent.
Chera Amlag
Paloma Concordia
Paloma B. Concordia was born and raised in the San Francisco, Bay Area. In 2008 she founded the PapaLoDown Agency, a boutique public relations company specializing in a client base of POC creatives and organizations, with a focus on culture and community. When she’s not working with clients, Paloma is busy at home with four boys, ages 16, 5, and 4 year old identical twins!
SAMMAY
SAMMAY is a choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary artist of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent who envisions a future where our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. Born and raised in LA County/Tongva Territory and now a settler in San Francisco/Yelamu, she invokes ancestral healing and ritual within/around the intersection of performance art, dance theatre, and multimedia; their role as kinetic storyteller and healer is ancient medicine from their maternal lineage. SAMMAY is the Founding Artistic Director of URBAN x INDIGENOUS, Founding Member of I Moving Lab, and Core Member of Embodiment Project. She has been featured by Dance Mission Theater, Red Poppy Art House, CounterPulse, Kearny Street Workshop, and East Meets West Festival among others. She is a three-time recipient of the “Presented by APICC” Artist Award; YBCA Public Imagination Fellow 2018; and first-ever Featured Artist for United States of Asian America Festival 2018. SAMMAY holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Sociology with minors in Dance & Performance Studies and Global Poverty & Practice from UC Berkeley. To follow her journey: www.sammaydizon.com
Andrea Barrica
Andrea Barrica is CEO/co-founder of O.school, an online shame-free platform for pleasure education, powered by live-streaming and chat. Previously, Andrea co-founded YC-backed accounting and tax platform, inDinero.com, where she led sales and operations. She also served as a venture partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups, one of the world’s most active, global seed funds
Deanna Sison
Restaurateur and diehard foodie, Deanna is guided by her passion for connecting people through hospitality. She is co-founder of Farmerbrown, Little Skillet, Victory Hall & Parlor and most recently Mestiza Taqueria. She is a firm believer in the power of small business and building a community.
Irene Duller
11AM: purpose workshops
Pick one to attend!
Building Lasting Change as an Artist, Activist, and Entrepreneur
Presenter: Gayle Romasanta
Time: 11 AM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
This workshop helps participants delve into who they are artistically, what problems they want to solve in their communities and how their work can be at the center of and propel the change they want to see. Gayle Romasanta also shares her journey as a mother hustler, artist, founder of Kappa Psi Epsilon Pinay based sorority (with chapters at UC Los Angeles, SFSU, CSU Sacramento, CSU Long Beach and UC Davis), and currently publisher/owner of Bridge and Delta Publishing, focusing on the immigrant Filipino American story. She will dialogue with participants on the simple steps it takes to bring solutions to fruition, how to bring these solutions to targeted communities and what steps are necessary to ensure lasting change. Participants will be involved in two quick writing exercises to help them crystallize how their art can bring community and self change.
Great for:
ABOUT GAYLE:
Gayle Romasanta, MFA Writing, is an award-winning writer, artist and innovator. She is the former artistic director of Bindlestiff Studio, the only Filipino American theater in the United States, co-founder of California College of the Arts literary arts journal, “Eleven Eleven,” and her first children’s book, “Beautiful Eyes” (Meritage Press 2012) is part of the curriculum for the San Francisco Unified School District. As a musician, she also co-composed the music for the 2014 Google Philippines Overseas Filipino Worker campaign commercial. Currently, she is the founder and owner of Bridge and Delta Publishing, producing the first illustrated Filipino American history book, Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong, cowritten by the late and great Dr. Dawn Mabalon, and illustrated by Andre Sibayan.
Vi.B.E. (Visual Brand Essence) Personal Branding Workshop: Attract Your Tribe With Your ViBE
Presenter: Donna Arrogante
Time: 11 AM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
In today’s saturated world of solo-entrepreneurship, you need to stand out and shine more than ever to differentiate yourself from a sea of service providers and entrepreneurs. There’s only ONE you, so why look or be like everyone else?
This workshop is power-packed with simple steps and strategies you need to have a one-of-a-kind personal brand that not only speaks to the hearts of your audience, but also converts them into raving fans and clients.
What you’ll learn from this workshop:
– How to overcome the fear of being visible and putting yourself out there
– How to brand and market yourself with your original style & authenticity
– The 5 steps to Attracting your Tribe with your ViBE
Great for:
ABOUT DONNA:
Donna is the founder of The Essence Muse, a branding and web design agency for visionary entrepreneurs. In 2013, she left her career (of 10 years) as a senior art director for an award-winning creative agency, in pursuit of her mission to brand and position today’s leading transformational leaders so they may reach and attract those in need of their inspirational message, ground-breaking methodology and healing work. She’s also the founder of Design Visionnaire, a coaching consultancy for design-preneurs, where she turns ordinary designers into “design unicorns”, mentoring them how to develop a thriving design business or freelance career.
Confronting Appropriation in Artistic/Creation Work and the Struggle to Re-member Self
Presenter: Jana Lynne “JL” Umipig
Time: 11 AM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Jana Lynne Umipig has walked a continued path of Decolonization and Healing of ancestral disconnections and wounds. As a practitioner of healing arts, an educator, a community organizer and a multi-disciplinary Artist, she has come to an understanding of the necessity to be aware of the ways appropriation shows up in creation work in the Pilipinx diaspora. I this workshop, participants will connect to framing and receive intimate guidance on how to navigate inspiration and influence to ancestry with colonized practices of misrepresentation and exploitation of that with which we seek to re-member and re-connect to of our Motherland and lineages.
Participants will leave with visioning of how to follow their sacred path through the formulation in reflection of self while being honorable and purposeful in aligning their practice of creation with a sacred connection to ancestry. This session will also involve written and oral expression work.
Great for:
ABOUT JANA LYNNE:
Jana Lynne Umipig is a multi-disciplinary Creator, Healer, Teacher and Warrior who has dedicated her life to a path of Ancestral and Descendant Re-membering. She is a core member of the Center for Babaylan Studies and is known in community for her Artistic Decolonization Works including the internationally toured theatrical work of The Journey of a Brown Girl, the creation of the performativd storytelling process of Raised Pinay in connection to Roots of Health in the Philippines and her most recent communal offering Kapwa Tarot, a divination tool influenced by the Pilipinx diasporic, decolonization experience. She currently lives on Lenape Territory in the Bronx, NY where she practices her healing and expression work primarily at Minka Brooklyn and is currently working to create the foundations of a Radical POC Storytelling driven Theatre program as a full time High School teacher. Jana is also the creator of the Pilipinx divination tool Kapwa Tarot that has been distributed throughout the Pilipinx diasopra, across Turtle Island, in the Motherland, and internationally from France, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and China.
Honor Your Intuition in Business and Life
Presenter: Christina Ambubuyog
Time: 11 AM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Creating a life, career, or business that is meaningful, passionate, and authentic stems from your ability to recognize and trust in your own inner wisdom. In today’s lightning speed world of media and technology, it’s too easy to be inundated with information and noise and fall off your path of purpose. Therefore, creating a sacred space to explore your intuitive gifts and insights is important to owning your inner voice, expressing your Soul’s purpose, making smart business decisions, and living your truth.
You will discover:
– Interactive techniques to strengthen your intuition
– How to discern between fear and intuition
– Ways to focus your energy to receive answers from your Soul
– Live intuitive readings and coaching to support you in your life or business
Come ready to play! Please bring a journal and pen to take notes. This class is highly interactive, fun, and full of imagination so that you can naturally ignite the intuitive guidance that is already within you!
Great for:
ABOUT CHRISTINE:
Christina Ambubuyog is an intuitive consultant, spiritual teacher and creator of I Love Intuition. For nearly 15 years, she’s been teaching ambitious, spiritual seekers and heart centered entrepreneurs how to strengthen and trust their intuition, unleash their creativity and fully express their soul’s purpose. She’s worked with thousands of clients around the globe along with organizations such as United Way, Vistage International, Neiman Marcus, and as a TEDx Fremont East Women Speaker.
12:15PM panel: “hustle for a cause”
Hosted by: Gina Rosales, Make it Mariko/Entrepinays & Endeavors Collective
Joanne Encarnacion
Founder, GOFITJO
GOFITJO.com continues to be a source of raw, real, and authenticity in the fitness industry that is dominated by aesthetic and physical appearance. GOFITJO elevates the raw side of wellbeing from topics like eating healthy, juggling a demanding creative lifestyle while balancing modern day motherhood, overcoming depression and facing body image issues. The blog empowers people to tap into their inner strength and promotes the importance of self love and self care in order to live life at ones highest frequency.
Lily Prijoles
Founder, Arkipelago Books
Lily Prijoles is the co owner of Arkipelago Books, a bookstore specializing in Filipino & FilAm Books and goods. In her previous life she helped run her family restaurant in San Diego, while a mentor in KAMP (Kuya Ate Mentorship Program), as well as working for the Debut and with Kid Heroes Productions (Lumpia & Lumpia 2).
Stephanie Gancayco
Founder, Hella Pinay
Stephanie Gancayco is a SF Bay Area-based designer, stylist, content creator, and social entrepreneur with a personal mission of championing ethically-produced apparel and Filipinx cultures and voices. With a background in fashion and knitwear design rooted in craft, she has 10+ years of experience in the apparel and footwear industries in product development, design, production, styling and creative direction. She’s worked with leading designers such as Anna Sui and Vince Camuto, and has styled creatives like producer Suzi Analogue. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The IN Magazine, and on NBC Asian America.
With her brand HALIYA, Stephanie collaborates with Indigenous women artisans in the Philippines to incorporate ancestral techniques and textiles into contemporary ready-to-wear. Stephanie is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Hella Pinay, a digital media platform celebrating women of Filipina heritage, which launched in late 2016.
Pearl Parmelee
Founder, Filipino Food Movement
2:15PM panel: “decolonizing business”
Hosted by Irene Faye Duller, An Otherwise/SF State/USF/Susmaryosep.co
Chera Amlag
Chera Amlag is a self-taught pinay pastry chef and owner of Hood Famous Bakeshop, a wholesale bakery and dessert shop specializing in cheesecake and traditional to modern Filipino desserts in Seattle. Hood Famous Bakeshop started as a Filipino pop up dinner series called Food & Sh*t from 2013-2016. The success of the pop up grew into a full fledged business when Chera quit her decade long career in education to open up her bakery to wholesale her flagship ube cheesecake the following year. Today, Hood Famous Bakeshop has a brick and mortar dessert counter and will be opening up Hood Famous Cafe + Bar late 2018.
Aileen Suzara
Aileen Suzara is an eco-educator and chef who weaves together a background in agroecology, environmental justice, and public health nutrition. Sparked by the rise of chronic disease among Filipino Americans and communities of color, Aileen launched mission-driven food business, Sariwa, to lift up the healing possibilities of food and culture. Through Sariwa, she offers catering and pop-ups, workshops, community dialogues, and research, in settings that span community gardens, universities, to hospitals. She is proud to join the collective work of Sama Sama Cooperative and Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity.
Roseli Ilano
Roseli Ilano is the Founder of ILANO, a textile company that partners with women artisans from around the globe using natural dyes and fibers. Building off her decade of experience as a developer of storytelling campaigns for social justice and human rights, Roseli collaborates with master weavers to produce home and fashion textiles that blend indigenous techniques with modern design. Roseli is a Girlboss Foundation grant recipient and was awarded the Scion Motivate Prize for Young Entrepreneurs.
Verma Zapanta
Verma Soria Zapanta is of Visayan descent by way of Cebu and Leyte. Her work as a healer continues to be informed by her experiences of living between worlds as a child of the Filipina/o diaspora and colonial settler born in Yelamu Ohlone territory (San Francisco). She is a budding Manghihilot and currently attaining her Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine to become an acupuncturist. Through Hilot, Verma invites others to begin an intentional journey to healing and continue the conversation of re-indigenization through wellness in the Filipina/o American community.
3PM practice workshops
Pick one to attend!
PR Tips for the Independent Hustle
Presenter: Paloma Concordia
Time: 3PM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Do you want to be featured in a blog, podcast, tv, newspaper, etc., but don’t know how to make that happen? In this workshop you will learn 3 easy to execute PR tips that will amplify your brand to the next level. The PapaLoDown Agency will teach you how to get on the radar of writers, editors, and producers, and boost the visibility of your brand.
Great for:
ABOUT PALOMA:
Paloma B. Concordia was born and raised in the San Francisco, Bay Area. In 2008 she founded the PapaLoDown Agency, a boutique public relations company specializing in a client base of POC creatives and organizations, with a focus on culture and community. When she’s not working with clients, Paloma is busy at home with four boys, ages 16, 5, and 4 year old identical twins!
The Secret to Scale: Relationship Roadmaps
Presenter: Kristen Brillantes
Time: 3PM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
If you’re getting ready to launch or entering growth mode, attend this workshop to learn a foundational framework that ensures all of your working relationships support the speed and success of how you scale.
Great for:
ABOUT KRISTEN:
Co-Founder & CEO, The Sarap Shop
Design Operations Partner, Google Ventures
You can find Kristen in front of the room, facilitating workshops or behind the scenes, coaching and collaborating with executives and teams to evolve the way they work. She understands the intersection of craft, productivity, and relationships and does whatever it takes to empower people to build resilient, high-functioning organizations.
Startup Legal Basics
Presenter: Darlene Rabena
Time: 3PM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Should I incorporate?
What business structure should I use?
Am I protecting my personal and company assets?
How do I raise money from investors?
Congrats on taking the leap and starting your own business. Now let’s protect it! This workshop will provide a brief overview of some basic legal issues to consider as you form and continue to grow your company. Come ready with questions! This will be an interactive session.
Great for:
ABOUT DARLENE:
Darlene Rabena is an attorney with Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith, LLP and represents emerging growth companies at all stages of development and the strategic investors that finance such companies. Her work includes, but is not limited to, strategic decisions and coaching prior to incorporation, general corporate representation and counseling, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. Prior to joining the firm, Darlene co-founded a non-profit that opens mini libraries throughout impoverished ares of the Philippines.
Value Your Work (Knowledge Share)
Facilitated by: Glenda Macatangay & Gina Rosales
Time: 3PM
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Imposter Syndrome.
Apologizing for our rates.
Going above and beyond.
“Homie discounts”
Running a business, dealing with demanding clients, creating constant quotes, estimates, contracts, and setting expectations with clients is a daily struggle.
In this interactive KNOWLEDGE SHARE workshop designed for Seasoned/Established Entrepinays, we’ll ask all pinays to bring a sample quote/estimate/process to share with the group showing how they create quotes, estimates, and set expectations with clients. We’ll then open up for a broader discussion to share best practices with the end goal of making sure we VALUE OUR WORK and get paid what we deserve.
Great for:
*INTENDED FOR SEASONED/ESTABLISHED ENTREPINAYS WHO HAVE SAMPLE QUOTE/ESTIMATE PROCESSES THEY CAN SHARE WITH THE GROUP.
4:15PM panel: “Mama makers: Wholeness. Wellness. & Work.”
Hosted by Angelique Lobo, Community Responsive Education/Make It Mariko/UpperCloud Media
In Honor of Dr. Dawn Mabalon
Co-Founder of Little Manila Foundation, Herstorian, Profesora
Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon is well-known as the premiere historian of her generation. An Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of History at San Francisco State University, Dr. Mabalon is a third generation Pinay born in Stockton, California in 1972. She was well-known for her commitment to community-based history and her strengths in gender and ethnicity, her energy and humor within the social community, but also in her support for and solidarity with other graduate students. Community members who enjoyed her famous buko and ube cupcakes remember the tastes and describe in detail the delicious experience of eating her cooking and baking. A beloved colleague, teacher and mentor, her research and teaching interests included Filipina/o American history, oral history, urban history, immigration, women and gender, cultural memory and historic and cultural preservation, and American and Filipina/o American foodways. She devoted her moving voice, incisive writing and historical training and expertise to documenting, theorizing, and teaching Filipina/o Americans. In addition to her scholarly and creative endeavors, Dawn Mabalon worked extensively in the Filipina/o American community, particularly in its preservation and knowledge dissemination to the larger public not only in community events, festivals, conferences, symposia, and written public statements, but as a frequently featured expert on public radio and documentaries. She was a tireless advocate for saving Little Manila in co-founding the Little Manila Foundation, an organization which describes their story as follows: “In 1999, when two newly graduated college students, Dawn Mabalon and Dillon Delvo, returned to Stockton after learning about the significance of their hometown to Filipino American history, they literally found demolition equipment in front of buildings of what remained of the Little Manila community, the largest population of Filipinos in the world outside of the Philippines from the 1920’s to the 1960’s. They figured that someone should do something about this, so they started the Little Manila Foundation.” As co-founder and board member of the Little Manila Foundation, she continued to work for the preservation and revitalization of the Little Manila Historic Site in Stockton.
Professor, Daughter, Wife, Sister, Friend, Filmmaker, Historian, Activist, Author, Advocate, Aunt, Tita, Godmother, Ninang Dawn Bohulano Mabalon encouraged us to have “a conversation with the ancestors.” She left many gifts to help us figure out what happened to Filipina/o Americans so as to help us understand who we are. We take heed of her lessons: to talk with our ancestors about what kind of communities and families we created so that we may know who we can become. And in talking with each other, we will remember her and celebrate her life. Because of what she left behind we will continue our conversations with her, cultivate the laughter she shared with us, advocate for her activist and academic agenda, make the food she cooked for us, and relish the love she gave us throughout our lives and the lives of those who follow.
Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, PhD
FOUNDER, Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) & Community Responsive Education (CRE)
Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales was recently promoted to Full Professor of Asian American Studies in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. She is also a faculty member in the doctorate program for Educational Leadership in SFSU’s School of Education and the current coordinator of Master’s program in Asian American Studies. Prior to joining the faculty at SFSU, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales went to Ohlone Community College and transferred to UC Berkeley where she received a B.A. in Ethnic Studies and later she received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA. She has published several books and a wide array of articles that focus on the development of ethnic studies curriculum and community responsive pedagogy. Her research focuses on urban youth, community studies, critical performance pedagogy, motherscholaring, and Pinayism, a concept that she coined in 1995. She is also currently writing about Babaylan pedagogy and her life as a community-engaged-motherscholar-of-color.
Glenda Macatangay
Founder, UpperCloud Media
Glenda Macatangay embodies all the fierceness and mysteries of being a Pinay Mama of 4 and a creative social entrepreneur. She cultivates community through the collision of art, wellness and social justice. Her work spans the realms of education, tech, music, sustainability, public art, and wellness grounded in equity and inclusion.
Paloma Concordia
Founder, PapaLoDown Agency
Paloma B. Concordia was born and raised in the San Francisco, Bay Area. In 2008 she founded the PapaLoDown Agency, a boutique public relations company specializing in a client base of POC creatives and organizations, with a focus on culture and community. When she’s not working with clients, Paloma is busy at home with four boys, ages 16, 5, and 4 year old identical twins!
Gayle Romansanta
Founder, Bridge and Delta Publishing
Gayle Romasanta, MFA Writing, is an award-winning writer, artist and innovator. She is the former artistic director of Bindlestiff Studio, the only Filipino American theater in the United States, co-founder of California College of the Arts literary arts journal, “Eleven Eleven,” and her first children’s book, “Beautiful Eyes” (Meritage Press 2012) is part of the curriculum for the San Francisco Unified School District. As a musician, she also co-composed the music for the 2014 Google Philippines Overseas Filipino Worker campaign commercial. Currently, she is the founder and owner of Bridge and Delta Publishing, producing the first illustrated Filipino American history book, Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong, cowritten by the late and great Dr. Dawn Mabalon, and illustrated by Andre Sibayan.
partnerships + party!
Celebrating Entrepinays in the Arts, Mentorship Meetups, and Happy Hour drinks + food.
Because it wouldn’t be a party without pulutan…
Golda Supernova
Live performance
DJ Bitesize
DJ and Music Selector
Mestiza Taqueria
Pulutan eats care of Deanna Sison & Mestiza Taqueria
Infanta Lambanog
Signature cocktail provided by Infanta Lambanog, the first and only double-gold awarded brand in its category, and first available in the United States and United Arab Emirates.