FOUNDERS & BOARD

Mala Patel - Founder, Board Treasurer

Mala Patel is an activist who serves to uphold equality and justice for all.  She particularly focuses her efforts on the areas of domestic violence and civic engagement. She works to improve the lives of Asian Americans.

She co-founded a chapter of the Asian American Action Fund in Cincinnati. She has served on the boards of Asian Community Alliance, Inc. and The Seven Hills School and has been on the advisory board of Great Oaks Vocational School.

Mala’s work with Asian Community Alliance involved working with Asian community leaders and local agencies to develop programs and offer services addressing the specific social and economic needs of Asian-Americans. Some key areas of accomplishment include assessing healthcare needs of the Asian American population in Greater Cincinnati: developing domestic violence awareness programs specific to several Asian cultures; developing parenting workshops and college scholarship program.

Mala earned her MBA from Wright State University and her BS from University of California Davis.

Lisa Kuan - Founder, Board President

Lisa W. Kuan is a doctor for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

She has strong roots in the Tri-State area. After graduating from Michigan State University Medical School in 1989 and completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of Chicago in 1992, Lisa became a fellow in Neonatology at a joint Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and University of Cincinnati program.

After finishing her training, she practiced general pediatrics in Northern Kentucky. She returned to Cincinnati in 2000 and became an outreach pediatrician for the University of Cincinnati, delivering indigent care. 90% of her patients lived below the poverty line. In 2008, she decided to change career paths and now focuses on developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

In addition to her medical background, Lisa co-founded the Tri-State chapter of Asian American Action Fund with Mala Patel, with a goal of affecting elections in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Elizabeth Coley - Founder, Board Secretary

Elizabeth Coley has worked in statewide and local political campaigns as a field volunteer and campaign treasurer. She comes to TARGETOHIO as an ally excited to raise the voices of an unheard but vital constituency of our state. She is a member of the Tristate AAAF chapter.

Raised in San Diego, California, she was educated in the East, and landed in the Midwest almost 30 years years ago to raise her children.

Elizabeth studied biochemistry at Yale and took her masters degree in Management at MIT Sloan, she worked in hospital strategic planning and marketing, facilities management, and operations for nine years at UC San Diego Medical Center. She was deeply involved in hospital service and capacity planning during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, a $30 million dollar renovation and asbestos abatement project, and a cultural change initiative called Quality Management Process.

In Ohio, she began a second career as an author, penning short stories, novels, and stage plays for the theatre.