Debra Louie - Counselor at San Joaquin Delta College

Debra Louie has been an employee at San Joaquin Delta college for 30 years. At first, she was a classified manager in charge of outreach, and transfer of students, but later on, she became a counselor, and professor. She is currently retired, but decided to come back and work part time as a counselor. She, and some of her co-workers created the first API learning community called E.P.I.C at San Joaquin Delta college since they discovered  that API students, especially Southeast Asian, and Filipinx students didn’t receive the help they needed. At a community college level, they are struggling to get the support, and resources they need to transfer to reach their educational goals. She shared her work through E.P.I.C and helped API students reach their educational goals by overcoming challenges before and through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Shunned. Spat On. Beaten.  With the rapid spread of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic in 2020, so too have videos of anti-Asian hate and violence “gone viral.” This hate and violence have become normalized due to politicians' repeatedly referring to coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus.” Shunning, being spit upon, and being beaten are among the many forms of bigotry reported to the Stop AAPI Hate website by Asian Americans across the country. In its first week of operation, the Stop AAPI Hate website documented over 600 cases.  Today, over 6,600 cases have been reported. This podcast humanizes the Asian American experience of COVID-19. This community-engaged project, led by Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez and produced by Asian American Studies student, Jennifer Bernal Nguyen, supports efforts already underway in the Greater Sacramento region, led by the API Regional Network, to amplify the experiences of APIs who are not only suffering from the virus itself but are suffering from anti-Asian hate and violence as well. This project was supported by a grant from the UC Davis Humanities Institute.

This series is brought to you by The Laban Group, a Filipino Ethnic Media Collaborative that aims to promote anti-Asian hate awareness in our beloved Filipino American community by advancing narrative change work that uplifts stories of Filipino American resilience, resistance, justice and transformation.

The Laban Group is funded by the "Stop The Hate" campaign from the California State Library in partnership with the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. It is a collaborative comprised of the Amado Khaya Foundation, the Asian American Liberation Network, Everyday Impact Consulting, and Philippine Fiesta News. For more information, visit linktr.ee/labangroup.