jazz scene in San Francisco’s Fillmore District and nearby Japantown, linking musicians from Chinatown and Manilatown as well. In striving to promote jazz within Asian communities, Wong and Jon Jang gave jazz workshops and taught instrumental classes as Artists in Residence from 1990 to 1998 at the Cameron House in Chinatown. Through their efforts to integrate Chinese music into jazz, under the auspices of the California Arts Council, the two exercised true citizenship by drawing on their musicianship to enrich the community. The residency engendered the rise of a new generation of artists with whom Wong and Jang have performed – musicians Jeff Chan, Leon Lee, and dancer Lenora Lee. Wong remains committed to community work; he served as resident artist at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and in Japantown, providing technical assistance to a local taiko drumming group, and teaching music classes and organizing concerts for young students. Performances persist with the support of Asia Improv Arts (AIA) under Wong’s artistic leadership. The “IMPROVISASIANS!” annual series of performances and workshops explore the connection between the performing arts and community building. As a community organizer Throughout his career, Wong has helped numerous Asian American small-to-medium non-profits that focus on the arts, culture and heritage. His activities include strategic planning, meeting facilitation, grant writing, communications, operations, project management, and human resources. In 1987, he co-founded Asian Improv aRts (AIR), an organization dedicated to producing, presenting and documenting artistic works that represent Asian American experiences. Among the young artists he mentored at AIR are Vijay Iyer, Miya Masaoka and Jen Shyu. For nearly three decades, he was affiliated with Kularts (1991-2020), a San Francisco-based organization promoting traditional and contemporary Filipino arts, first as manager and later as a long-time Board President. Wong was also the former Co-Director of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (2000–01). As an academic Wong has long been active as a college-level educator. He taught jazz saxophone and jazz ensembles at San Francisco State University (1996–98), where one of his students was the Mescalero Apache jazz composer and bassist John-Carlos Perea. He also taught a course entitled "Aspects of Asian American Culture" at the UC-Santa Cruz (1996-2001). Since 2017, he has been a Lecturer in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. Personal Wong is married to Julie Yumi Hatta. Awards and honors Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow (2000-2001) Senior Fellow, Wildflowers Institute (1999-current) Ford Foundation Mid-Career