Monica is the Education Advocate for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). Prior to joining SEARAC, Monica worked at Banteay Srei, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to providing the tools and support necessary for young Southeast Asian womyn to empower themselves. Monica’s involvement in the community began as a student. She was heavily involved in REACH!, UC Berkeley’s Asian Pacific Islander Recruitment & Retention Center, and the Southeast Asian Student Coalition (SASC). In SASC, Monica worked on the first Southeast Asian Intercollegiate Summit with the hope of encouraging young people to use their privilege as students to lift up the entire community as they themselves rise. Monica has also interned at UNESCO in Bangkok, Thailand and the Rights Working Group in Washington, DC. Monica is Tai Lue, an ethnic minority group indigenous to the Mekong Region of Southeast Asia. She was born and raised in San Diego, California but her family arrived to the U.S. as refugees from Laos in 1980. Monica received a BA in Political Science, a BA in Social Welfare, and a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.