I’m a first-generation college graduate turned executive leader. For two decades I have run operations, budgets, and enterprise strategy inside a research university, a federal agency, and a national nonprofit coalition.
Six areas I have led, with the work behind each one.
Led an agency-wide strategic plan implementing a federal executive order across all 27 NIH institutes and centers, and presented it to NIH and HHS executive leadership.
Directed a center serving 3,000+ people a year and led its continuity of operations through COVID-19, coordinating housing, communications, and instruction. Also led institutional crisis response and communications at Johns Hopkins.
Led the agency’s federal EEO compliance reporting (MD-715) at NIH as one of the final approvers. Drafted and finalized RFPs, managed vendors, and carried reporting across HHS, DOJ streams including VOCA and VAWA, and Department of Education TRIO programs.
Operational lead for a Gates Foundation-funded coalition of 20+ organizations reaching 1,700+ institutions, where I ran national strategy, contracting, and reporting and relationship management with several major national foundations.
Raised $5M+ across federal and foundation funders, and as Board President guided a $2M Yield Giving grant, the largest single gift in that organization’s history. Also a grantmaker, stewarding a family donor-advised fund and founding a national scholarship nonprofit.
Built and led teams of 200+, and now coach and advise leaders across the university, federal, and nonprofit sectors. Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Qualified Administrator of the IDI®, and Civil Treatment® Certified Facilitator.
Two decades, many cities, one throughline: leaving institutions stronger than I found them.
Flew solo to my first day at UT Austin, the first in my family to go. Taught middle school science with Teach For America, advancing to summer principal, founding a Students Run LA chapter that still exists today, and earning Toyota International Teacher of the Year. Then a Fulbright Fellowship in Taiwan, teaching and studying education systems in my family’s homeland.
Earned my doctorate under Dr. Victor Sáenz while directing one of UT’s largest student success programs, co-designing the university’s Summer Bridge program with the Provost’s Office, and building a Beijing study abroad program that won Diversity Abroad’s national EDIE Award.
Directed UC San Diego’s largest student success center, serving 3,000+ students a year, founding the Research Methodology Training Lab, and scaling Summer Bridge from 100 to 300 students. Led the center’s continuity of operations through COVID-19, coordinating with executive leadership across housing, communications, and instruction. San Diego became home, and it’s where our family gives today.
Served as Associate Dean over a six-department portfolio, building Hopkins’ first pre-orientation program for international students, an award-winning workshop series on pluralism, and its Disability Student Community Outreach initiative. Also led the division’s response to student protests and partnered with the chief communications officer on institutional crisis communications.
As Branch Chief of Strategic Initiatives, led an agency-wide strategic plan implementing a federal executive order across all 27 institutes and centers, and presented it to NIH and HHS executive leadership. Also led the agency’s federal EEO compliance reporting (MD-715), serving as one of the final approvers before submission.
Served as operational lead for the Partnership to Advance Transformation in Higher Education (PATH), a Gates Foundation-funded coalition of 20+ organizations reaching 1,700+ institutions. Ran national strategy, contracting and vendor management, and grant reporting to several major national foundations.
Leading the Ivory Bridges Foundation and advising mission-driven organizations on strategy and operations across education, health, and social impact.
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I lead strategy, operations, and system transformation across education, health, philanthropy, and the public sector, including at the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s medical research agency. I got here by a long road. I started my career dissecting frogs with seventh graders in Los Angeles, where I was named Toyota International Teacher of the Year (no car included).
I’m a first-generation college graduate and proud son of Taiwanese immigrants, raised in the Washington, DC area, speaking English and Chinese at home, with Spanish picked up along the way. That experience continues to shape how I think about opportunity, belonging, and what institutions owe the people they serve.
“I didn’t accomplish anything by doing it in isolation. I studied with people, built alongside people, brainstormed with people. I had people who had my back.”
My campus career took me from UT Austin to UC San Diego to Johns Hopkins: more than a decade leading student success at scale, with teams of hundreds and multimillion-dollar portfolios. At the National Institutes of Health, I led enterprise-wide strategy and organizational alignment across 27 institutes and centers. Most recently I served as the operational lead for a Gates Foundation-funded national coalition. Across those roles I have overseen budgets and contracts, drafted and finalized RFPs, managed vendors, led federal and foundation compliance reporting, and presented to governing bodies and executive leadership. Along the way I was honored to be part of the ACE Fellows Program, the APAICS National Leadership Academy, and Renaissance Weekend, and to hold faculty appointments in organizational theory, qualitative methods, and higher education leadership.
I have also worked every side of the grant table. I have raised $5M+ across federal and foundation funders and carried the reporting that comes with it, and I have given from the other side as a donor, as steward of a family fund, and as the founder of a nonprofit that makes awards of its own. Knowing how mission and money actually move together is one of the more useful things I bring into a room.
Outside of education, my brother and I co-founded a family real estate firm, a venture that taught me as much about long-term thinking and community investment as any classroom.
Outside of work, I’m happiest wandering a new city for its history and architecture, in the gym, or writing from the corner of a coffee shop. And I can stir fry just about anything.
Six things I keep coming back to, across a research university, a federal agency, and a national nonprofit.
Most organizational problems get described as people problems. Usually they are structure problems wearing a costume. I look at how work actually moves before I look at who is moving it.
Partnerships are not a communications function. The agreements that hold under pressure are the ones built before anybody needed them, which means relationship work is real work and belongs on the plan.
I want the data and I want it early. But evidence narrows a decision; it does not make one. At some point a leader has to choose, say why, and carry it.
Universities, federal agencies, and nonprofits reward completely different things. Getting them to work together means knowing what each one is actually optimizing for and speaking to that, not around it.
The clearest measure of a leader is what keeps working after they leave. I would rather build a bench than be indispensable.
Strategy dies in the handoff. I care about the unglamorous half: who owns what, by when, and how we will know it worked. I want the measure defined before the work starts, not reverse-engineered afterward to make the results look good.
These days my time goes to a few places, all tied to the same purpose.
I founded and lead the Ivory Bridges Foundation, providing scholarships, mentorship, and success coaching for first-generation college students nationwide. I also personally guide a handful of first-gen students and families through college admissions each year.
I currently serve on advisory boards for San Diego State University’s College of Education and Teach For America Southern California. My fiduciary board service spans four sectors: Board President of the Ivory Bridges Foundation and previously of Asian Family Support Services of Austin, plus board seats at Everyman Theatre and Wayside Schools.
Fiduciary governance · Advisory boards · Strategy
I advise education, nonprofit, and mission-driven organizations on strategy, systems, and leadership development. Recent engagements include university partnership strategy, coalition coaching, and leadership training design for national research and education organizations.
Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach · Qualified Administrator, IDI® · Civil Treatment® Certified Facilitator (ELI, 2024)
I write for national and regional outlets on philanthropy, leadership, and access, including Inside Philanthropy and Times of San Diego, alongside peer-reviewed research on college access and student success.
I speak on leadership, organizational strategy, and what it takes to build institutions that actually work, for the people inside them and the people they serve. My talks draw on two decades across universities, a federal agency, and the nonprofit sector.
Your values are not what you write down in a plan. They are what you choose to protect when it is expensive to do so. A talk about the moments that actually test a leader, and what it costs to lead with conviction rather than convenience.
I open by asking students to describe a scientist. The words that come back, “nerdy,” “brilliant,” “not me,” reveal how identity gates opportunity long before ability does. Using a science-identity framework, I show how programs can shift not just students’ skills but their sense of belonging, a lens that transfers well beyond science.
Immigrant and working-class families often raise children to collaborate out of necessity: shared rooms, shared resources, shared responsibility. Many institutions reward the opposite, prizing independence and the solo project as proof of merit. This talk examines what that mismatch costs first-generation students, and how leaders can build programs that stop treating a cultural style as a deficit.
Asian America is not a monolith, and treating it as one obscures both its history and its present. I speak on racial triangulation, the model minority narrative, and what it takes to build and sustain Asian American leadership inside institutions not designed with it in mind.
I have led inside a research university, a federal agency, and a national nonprofit, worlds that rarely speak the same language. This talk is about what transfers across them, what doesn’t, and how leaders translate between institutions with very different rules.
“Your values are not what you write down in a plan. They are what you choose to protect when it’s expensive to do so.”From a lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University
Peer-reviewed lessons from scaling UC San Diego’s Summer Bridge program without losing quality or cultural engagement.
On the Lu Family Collaboration Hub and backing the educators who shape our community.
On breaking barriers in leadership, with Rachel Saathoff.
On moving from living in San Diego to belonging to San Diego.
Peer-reviewed research spanning science identity, college access, and student success, along with book chapters, policy papers, and essays for national outlets.
Guest co-editor, Latinx Students at Minority-Serving Institutions, a special issue of the AMAE Journal (2020). Editorial service: Journal of Student Affairs Research & Practice (2021-2025) and Journal Committed to Social Change on Race & Ethnicity (2019-2023). Former editor, Texas Education Review.
I’ve been the grant-seeker, the grant-maker, and the donor: raising $5M+ across federal and foundation funders, stewarding a family fund, endowing a named space, and founding a nonprofit. Understanding how mission and money move together shapes how I lead.
A national nonprofit providing mentorship, financial support, and success coaching for first-generation college students.
ivorybridges.org →Advocacy and confidential support for immigrant and refugee survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. As Board President, I helped guide the organization through a high-growth phase, including a $2M grant from Yield Giving.
afssaustin.org →Supporting racial equity, education access, and immigrant-serving organizations across the San Diego region.
Read the profile →An endowed gift to the Dean’s Excellence Fund at San Diego State University’s College of Education, recognized with the naming of the Collaboration Hub in Lamden Hall.
Read the story →Board service: currently the Dean’s Advisory Council for San Diego State University’s College of Education and Teach For America Southern California’s Advisory Board; previously Board President of Asian Family Support Services of Austin and board member of Wayside Schools and Everyman Theatre.
“I trusted Charles to lead one of the most complex initiatives in my portfolio: the agency-wide DEIA strategic plan reaching all 27 NIH institutes and centers. He combined strategic judgment with hands-on execution, and presented to executive leadership and an agency-wide plenary.”
“As our Board President during a high-growth phase, Charles guided AFSSA’s board to secure and steward a $2M grant from Yield Giving, the largest single gift in our 34-year history. He never lost sight of strategy in the celebration, and any organization would be lucky to have him at the table.”
“As Associate Dean, Charles reimagined what was possible within his division, launching programs that didn’t exist before he arrived: Hopkins’ first pre-orientation program for international students, a community outreach initiative for disabled students, and a nationally recognized workshop series on pluralism. He pairs strategic vision with genuine compassion, and has a rare ability to connect with people and inspire them to excel.”
Whether it’s a speaking invitation, an advising question, a conversation about a leadership role, or a first-gen student who needs a hand, I’d love to hear from you.