Our Team

Doyeon Kim is the founder and executive director of Simple Steps. Before starting Simple Steps, she worked in several nonprofit organizations, including the UN Global Compact Foundation. Doyeon is also a co-founder of JUMP, an international nonprofit with a mission to provide fair educational opportunities for youth from multicultural and underserved backgrounds. As an IT consultant-turned-social entrepreneur, she is passionate about tackling hard-to-solve societal problems, especially in education, gender equality, and employment. Doyeon received her B.S. and M.S. from KAIST and her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

- Professional skills: Problem-solving, adaptability, team building

- Life skills: Driving long hours, being full of resources, grit

- Happiness: A refreshing mint mojito iced coffee, a good night's sleep, staying curious.

Dr. Bokyung Kim is a program director at Simple Steps. She is a psychology Ph.D. Her current works are developing self/career development programs, supporting job-seekers, and nurturing the environment where females can pursue their careers sustainably. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Psychology from Korea University and a Ph.D. degree in Psychology from Stanford University. At home, she is tech support for her first-grader and a snack fairy for her four-year-old daughter.

- Professional skills: Ideation and planning, reaching audience and selling ideas

- Life skills: Meal planning and surviving on low-stocked fridge, making things happen and getting things done

- Happiness: A summer day at the beach

Kat Choi hails from Canada with 10+ years of diverse work experiences ranging from art curation, exhibition design marketing, customer relations, blog editing, and community operations. By day, she works as a community operations manager at Blind and by night, as a headd of community at Simple Steps, leading English study groups and hosting webinars. She is dedicated to fulfilling its mission to reach out to as many hidden talents as possible to boost their self-esteem, self-awareness, and assist their journey to re-start their careers in the U.S. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts History and Architecture from the University of Toronto and lives in the East Bay with two adorable daughters who look identical to herself.

- Professional skills: Adaptability, tech-savvy, problem-solving

- Life skills: Board gaming, throwing (the pottery kind)

- Happiness: Making a perfect cup of hand-ground, pour-over coffee, and enjoying the entire cup without any disturbance, savoring every sip.

Soyoung is an accounting manager at Simple Steps. She has rebooted as the first volunteer of Simple Steps and then restarted a new career after eight years since she came to the US. She tries to stay balanced in her work and life.

- Professional skills: Problem-solving, Responsibility, Learning

- Life skills: Being curious, Keep calm, Not doing my best

- Happiness: Morning Coffee, Weeding with podcast, Pottery

Keeyong has been working for various companies in Silicon Valley since 2000 and is an expert in the data domain. Most recently he was the head of Data at Udemy (the biggest online learning platform). Prior to joining Udemy, he was the Data/Search team manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo in 2015) and a director of engineering at Yahoo Web search team. He started his professional career from Samsung Electronics in Korea before moving to Silicon Valley. Keeyong graduated from Seoul National University with MS and BS in Computer Engineering.

Doyeon Kim is the founder and executive director of Simple Steps. Before starting Simple Steps, she worked in several nonprofit organizations, including the UN Global Compact Foundation. Doyeon is also a co-founder of JUMP, an international nonprofit with a mission to provide fair educational opportunities for youth from multicultural and underserved backgrounds. As an IT consultant-turned-social entrepreneur, she is passionate about tackling hard-to-solve societal problems, especially in education, gender equality, and employment. Doyeon received her B.S. and M.S. from KAIST and her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

- Professional skills: Problem-solving, adaptability, team building

- Life skills: Driving long hours, being full of resources, grit

- Happiness: A refreshing mint mojito iced coffee, a good night's sleep, staying curious.

Miseon is a volunteer director and our Treasurer and Secretary. She is currently a senior treasury manager at Sr. Treasury Manager at Applied Materials. Prior to Applied Materials, Miseon worked at HP as a treasury manager. Miseon holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Kiae is a volunteer director and a lead product manager at Swit. Prior to Swit, she was co-founder and CPO at Qoom, an ed-tech startup. Before moving to the US, she worked at Nokia in the UK and Germany and Samsung Electronics in South Korea as a User Experience specialist for 10+ years. Kiae received an MS in Management of Science, Technology, and Innovation from Manchester Business School and holds MS and BS in Industrial Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Amy is a volunteer director and a Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at FormFactor, a leading semiconductor test and measurement company Director headquartered in Livermore California. Prior to FormFactor, Ms. Leong worked in a variety of management and engineering roles at Gartner, KLA, and IBM. She holds an M.S. in Material Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a passionate champion of advancing female leadership in tech industries, married and mother of boy-and-girl twins.

Eun-Joo has 30-plus years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including in international health & development, professional associations, and philanthropy. Recently, she served as the Founding Executive Director of the Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco, where she continues to volunteer. She has consulted for the United Nations and nonprofits in strategic planning, programming, evaluation, and grant writing. In addition to Simple Steps, volunteer work includes the Asian Women’s Shelter and Korean Center, Inc., both in SF. Eun-Joo is passionate about mentorship and empowering women and has been involved in both throughout her career.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Eun-Joo lived most of her life on the East Coast and is relatively new to the West Coast. She has an A.B. from Harvard University and a Master’s from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She loves traveling (60 countries & counting), photography, cooking, and hiking/taking long walks.

Prior to joining Uber, Bo was the first Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Risk and Insurance Services businesses for Marsh McLennan, where she oversaw D&I strategy for 40,000 employees across 89 countries. Bo also launched and led Hewitt Associates’ Global Emerging Workforce Solutions consulting practice and held diversity leadership roles at Ernst & Young and National Grid. Bo also served as a Director of Advisory Services at Catalyst, the leading non-profit focused on the advancement of women in business. As a consultant and thought leader, Bo has enabled dozens of clients to achieve their diversity & inclusion goals. Past clients include Marriott International, Northern Trust, John Deere, Allstate, Booz & Co., Discover, Aon, Human Rights Campaign, McKesson, and many others. Bo has an MBA with distinction from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a BBA magna cum laude from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She is a frequently sought-after speaker and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Tech Crunch, The Huffington Post, MSNBC, and other media outlets and conferences. She lives in New York City with her husband, daughters, Annabelle and Beatrice, and two dogs.

Megan Myungwon Lee is the Chief Executive Officer at Panasonic Corporation of North America in Newark, N.J. In addition to her responsibilities as CHRO and VP of Corporate Planning of Panasonic Corporation of North America, Ms. Lee also serves as the Chairperson of Panasonic Foundation, a non-profit organization working to address the widening gap between future tech jobs in education in science tech, engineering, arts and math, especially in underserved communities.   Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is also part of her responsibilities and priority. She earned her B.A. from Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea. She is also a certified coach completing Columbia University Coaching Certification Program.

With more than two decades of experience in US immigration law, Judy J. Chang has helped clients navigate even the trickiest immigration challenges with expertise and integrity. Judy is a child of an immigrant family and has experienced first-hand the everyday challenges in an immigrant’s life. As a long-term representative of immigrant entrepreneurs since 1999, she takes pride in participating in the transformative process immigrants created for this country. These experiences have led her to be sensitive to government policies while being an active advocate of immigrant rights and an effective immigration system.

JUDY’S PRACTICE FOCUSES ON FIVE MAIN AREAS:
1) Employment-Based Temporary and Permanent Visa Solutions
2) Family-Based Green Card Solutions
3) Maintaining Lawful Nonimmigrant Status
4) Maintaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status and Naturalization
5) Complex USCIS and Consular Decision Appeals and Waivers

Before founding Judy Chang Law Firm (formerly, J Global Law Group) in 2006, Judy practiced U.S. immigration and nationality law at national and global law firms as part of the international transaction team and built an excellent track record of successfully representing a diverse clientele in challenging matters. Judy is a regular media contributor and a frequent guest speaker on various legal issues dealing with foreign businesses and immigrants. She has also served the legal and immigrant community in various leadership roles.

Judy Chang considers herself a global citizen, committed to humankind and not any specific national interest. She cares about tech innovation which improves human dignity and is an art enthusiast. Judy loves performance arts from opera to dance, would like to do more cultural trips, and occasionally enjoys blanking out doing puzzles.

Kathilynn has lived and worked in the Bay Area for many years as an Educator, Employment Counselor, Job, and Career coach, Program and Training Coordinator, and Transition Specialist. She recently retired from the San Mateo County Office of Education as a Transition Specialist though she continues to work as a Job Search Coach at the Palo Alto Adult School. She has helped hundreds of youth and adults to get jobs and explore different career opportunities.

She has a BA from the University of California and a Master of Science in Education and several teaching credentials from California State East Bay. She believes that a job search process is a tool for self-discovery and an opportunity for personal and career growth. Kathilynn lives on the Coast and in her spare time loves to take long walks and hikes along the ocean and in the nearby forests. She also enjoys writing and dabbling in drawing and watercolors and often uses her gardens and the ocean as inspiration.