The Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society Directors & Honorary Advisory Council
2024-2025 Officers & Board of Directors (revised 5/5/25)
Bill Zajicek retired from 3M from roles of Project Engineer, Mfg Manager, & Product Engineer. He is presently on the board of the St. Paul Payne-Phalen Community Council and volunteers at Merrick Community Services. He has a passion for backpacking, gardening, biking, swimming, and is becoming a serious student of Chinese Gardens. [Board member since August 2016, President 2020 to 2025.]
Chen Zhou is a community activist who organizes numerous community events: Mid-Autumn Festival, Dumpling Feast, May Forum, Asian Fair. He was responsible for organizing an effective grass roots media and donation campaign for Phase I and his engineering knowledge and Chinese and English language skills were invaluable during Phase I construction. [Board member since 2018.]
Linda Mealey-Lohmann speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese and has a deep interest in China, Chinese culture, and China Gardens, and has traveled to China 23 times in 40 years. Through the China Garden she melds her passions of gardening and bringing Chinese culture to Minnesota and educating the community about Chinese culture and language. [MCFGS Co-Founder (2005), President from 2005 to 2020, Board Member since 2005.]
Sue Klevan lives in Saint Paul and is proud to have the developing China garden in my neighborhood. In addition to being a lovely garden for all to enjoy, it highlights Saint Paul’s sister relationship with Changsha, China, and provides recognition of the Hmong people in our community and their ancestral relationship to China. [Board member since August 2023, Treasurer since June 2024.]
Yue Pearl Cheng is a passionate advocate for BIPOC educators and is committed to ensuring high-quality educational opportunities for all Minnesotans. The Liu Ming Yuan classical garden holds a special place in her heart—it is a living time machine that transports her across centuries the moment she steps inside, where every stone and leaf whispers the wisdom of a thousand years. [Board member since February 2025 (Committee member in August 2024).]
Brian Hammer holds a PhD in cultural and political geography from the University of Washington in Seattle, which combined his interests in architecture, horticulture, public space, and community building. He returned to Minnesota in late 2020, following a career in academia and global, experiential education, focused primarily on program design, practice, and management in China and the Asia Pacific. [Board member since January 2021.]
Christina Le is thrilled to participate in the growth of the China Garden’s second phase. She has studied in China, been an advocate for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and has experience investing in real estate and businesses for over 20 years, including local Asian/International-inspired lifestyle centers. [Board member since August 2023.]
Donglin Liang is passionate about building stronger communities or minorities groups, and has founded or chaired several local non-profits. [Board member since July 2022.]
Christina Deng Morrison is a community leader who created and organizes two major event annually, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Twin Cities Dumpling Feast. She has used these two events, along with Minnesota Chinese World, to actively promote Liu Ming Yuan. Christina’s extensive knowledge of Chinese culture adds valuable input to the MCFGS’s continued mission. [Board member since January 2021.]
Romi Slowiak works on this China Garden to find an exciting and creative way to marry art, culture and beauty in the heart of a city: a collaborative spiritual culmination to her professional life in urban planning and arts administration. [Board member since August 2016.]
Jeremy Tok grew up from Johor Baru, Malaysia. He has a BA degree in Finance and Investment from State University, and a Management, Master of Arts from St Mary’s University of Minnesota. [Board member since 2023.]
Pa V Thao is a dedicated business entrepreneur with a passion for community building and cultural connection. She has proudly served on the board of the Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society for the past five years, contributing her leadership and vision to its growth and outreach. [Board member 2021 to July 2022, 2023 to present.]
Mary Warpeha is a founding board member, as well as Past President of US-China Peoples Friendship Association-MN. Mary is an advocate for increasing friendship among our diverse peoples and recognizes that a Garden offers an appealing neutral ground where people can recreate together in a lovely natural environment within the confines of an ethnic cultural layout. Our Garden offers a stage to share our unique heritages through plantings, dance, poetry, music, and delectables – with young and old. [Board member since 2005.]
Gaoly Yang came to Minnesota in 1976 and bought her first home 2 blocks from Phalen Lake. She’s a long time Eastsider resident and was a Board member of the Dragon Festival at Phalen Lake. She joined the MCFGS Board to help build relationships and collaboration between the Asian communities and other communities in the Twin Cities. The China Friendship Garden at Phalen Lake is the utmost respectful way to introduce Asian cultures to the rest of the Twin Cities communities. [Board member since 2022.]
Haoyu Zhao brings a design perspective shaped by her Chinese heritage, graduate studies at Harvard GSD, and professional experience at Coen Partners. Her involvement in the Chinese Garden Phase I project deepened her connection to Minnesota, where she continues to find inspiration in landscape, culture, and community. [Board member since 2024.]
MCFGS Honorary Advisory Council
Advisor Carol Brash is an Associate Professor of Art History at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University. Her research interests include gardens and their representations in Ming China, the movement of Chinese garden aesthetics, and memory and identity in gardens and representations of gardens.
Advisor Brenda Fong is a strong advocate for diversity both at work and with the MN communities. She brings a wealth of organizing and fundraising experience from her experience as Chair of the Dragon Festival and her work with the Chinese Senior Citizens.
Advisor Barbara Harrison brings a lifetime of experience in working on US-China relations, as President of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association-Minnesota (USCPFA-MN) (1989-1991) and President of USCPFA-National (1991-2005.) Since 1986, she has traveled to China more than 25 times. [Founding board member 2005-2021.]
Advisor Barbara Harrison brings a lifetime of experience in working on US-China relations, as President of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association-Minnesota (USCPFA-MN) (1989-1991) and President of USCPFA-National (1991-2005.) Since 1986, she has traveled to China more than 25 times. [Founding board member 2005-2021.]
Advisor Ying Chu-Yang-Heu is passionate about our China Friendship Garden as a way of bridging my new country and my ancestral country of China. Furthermore, it is a testament of the commitment of the Hmong community in Saint Paul and I am proud to be a part of such a legacy. [Chair of the MCFGS Hmong Advisory Council from 2017, until joining the Honorary Advisory Council in 2023].
Advisor Caroline Hsiao Van is an independent advisor whose global career in banking in Asia and the USA evolved into work on boards for environmental, educational, and arts organizations. After her parents inspired a sense of adventure and a desire to bridge cultures seeded by a pioneering trip to China in 1973, she received degrees at Yale and University of Chicago, worked summers at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Saint Paul, and finally landed in international finance and the nonprofit world.
Advisor Carole Hyder has been a Feng Shui consultant since 1992 and, in 2006, she received her Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from the University of MN. She consulted on the Liu Ming Yuan garden project from its beginning inception to its present development.
Advisor Stuart Knappmiller and his partner, Mary Ellen, probably see the garden more often than any other folks here. Either running, skijoring or biking, they are past the garden many days of the week, earning the title “Garden Stewards” by picking up trash and shards from the roof. [Board member from 2021 to 2024, Treasurer until 2024.]
Advisor Ken Lau was born in China and grew up in Hong Kong. After obtaining a BA in Economics and a MBA in Finance from the University of Minnesota, he started working in and has held various corporate finance positions in Minneapolis, Boston, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Changsha, and Hong Kong. [Board Member 2020-2023 (Treasurer for 2 years) and Advisor since 2023.]
Advisor Bill Pesek is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA and is a licensed landscape architect in Minnesota. His professional experience spans over 40 years, including Restoration of the Charlotte Ordway Japanese Garden in Como Park. He was instrumental in having the Chinese Garden concept and site location included in the Phalen Regional Park’s Master Plan of 2011, and traveled to China in 2008 with Mayor Chris Coleman.
Advisor Christine Podas-Larson is a recognized leader and innovator in the arts with expertise and broad experience in multiple-media public art production. In 1987 she founded the non-profit Public Art Saint Paul (PASP) and served as its President/CEO and Executive Producer for 28 years. She produced the 2006 International Stone Carving Symposium that brought Master Lei Yi Xin and other artists from around the globe to carve sculptures from Minnesota rocks. The experience led directly to Master Lei’s commission to create the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington DC.
Advisor Ali Van cares for living and breathing values. Her practice gives focus to local, natural, virtual, and isolate communities around the world. Alongside therapeutic and psychoanalytic accreditations, Ali holds academic degrees from Yale and Columbia universities. She was born in New York, nurtured through Hong Kong and Minnesota, and presently lives with her family in The Hebrides. [Board Member between 2021 – 2024, Honorary Advisor since 2024. Editor and Creative Director for MCFGS News since 2024.]
Advisor Jeff Ganying Vang received his BA in East Asian Studies (China focus) from the U of M, TC. He has great interest and has been doing research on Hmong culture, language, and history and is dedicated to establishing and keeping relationship between Hmong in the U S and China.”
Advisor Noah Vang is a community researcher and volunteer. He is an author of a 412-page book entitled General Vang Pao: An Illustration of His Remarkable Life and co-curated the national award-winning exhibit “We Are Hmong Minnesota/Peb Yog Hmoob Minnesota” at the Minnesota Historical Society (2015). Vang is a Hmong history enthusiast, and has gathered one of the largest Hmong photographic collections of his people’s experiences in China, Laos, Thailand refugee camps, and the United States.
Advisor Wang-Yu Vu is the Hmong and AAPI Community Engagement Specialist for Hennepin County and the broker of Wang-Yu Realty, LLC, combining over 20 years of public service, entrepreneurship, and cultural leadership to empower communities of color, particularly the Hmong population. A dedicated community leader and strategic advisor, he fosters civic engagement, inspires young leaders, and brings cultural finesse to events and relationships through his lived experience, trust-building, and passion for service.
Advisor Walter S. Warpeha Jr. D.D.S. is a retired Prosthodontist with a 50-year career of private practice, holding many distinguished awards for his contributions. He is active in his community serving on the boards of Northeast Bank and East Side Neighborhood Services. His China connection is mainly though his wife’s activities with USCPFA-MN, Passage to China, and Sister Cities work, and offered their home to host numerous delegations from China.
MCFGS Committee Volunteers
Jay Her is an active participant in East Side community activities and its electoral processes. He is a practitioner of Hmong culture and traditions, and can speak, read, write and understand both White and Green Hmong language dialects. His most compassionate life-long interest is the pursuit of self-rediscovery.
Vue Chu became an MCFGS Committee member in August 2023. He is a long-time supporter of the China Garden Society. He is the Executive Director of the Hmong American Mediation Center in St. Paul and a member of the Hmong 18 Council. The Hmong American Mediation Center offers alternatives to going to court and to help resolve legal conflicts that are intertwined with cultural issues.
Yao Tu became an MCFGS Committee member in August 2023. She is the Associate Director of the Chinese Flagship Program at the University of Minnesota, a federally funded program to train college students to achieve a professional level of Chinese proficiency. She also serves as the Faculty Coordinator for the College in the Schools (CIS) at UMN, an educational program that enables Minnesota high school students to take college-level classes while still in high school.
Yimin Wen has over 20 years of Landscape Architecture experience as an educator. He also enjoys soccer, pickleball, golf, singing, and dancing. [Committee member since August 2023.]
Dona Vu Yang was born in Laos, with ancestors from China, and is proud to be a Christian Hmong Woman and the oldest child of 10. She is also a board member for Hmong Cultural Heritage Preservation Inc. She speaks Hmong, Lao, Thai, French, and English. Her hobbies are Hmong song writing, sewing, flowers arranging and traveling.
Jerome Younger is an Electrical Engineer by trade and enjoys outdoor work. He works at The Toro Company, which does community outreach in building playgrounds, baseball fields, grounds work etc. for schools and non-profit organizations. He has organized groups of Toro volunteers for weeding and mulching at the China Garden.