ASIANS FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION
Asians for Collective Action harnesses the strengths of Asians and Asian Americans to drive systemic change to create a just, healthy, and thriving community for all.
OUR MISSION
Asians for Collective Action harnesses the strengths of Asians and Asian Americans to drive systemic change to create a just, healthy, and thriving community for all.
OUR VISION
We envision a world of collective action and liberation where Asians and Asian Americans can lead and thrive in a community of inclusion, equity, and agency.
OUR LEADERSHIP
ACA Spokane is a BY and FOR organization led by Asian and Asian American (A/AA) community members. We center the voices and experiences of A/AA people in Spokane County. Our board and staff reflect the many identities and cultures within Spokane’s A/AA communities. Guided by our lived experiences and commitment to collective action, we practice shared leadership, drawing on each other’s strengths and staying accountable to the communities we serve.
Lillian Hochleutner (she/her)
Co - Executive Director, Community Voice
Born in Shanghai and now based in Spokane, Lillian brings over 20 years of international experience in social impact and communications, spanning tech startups and global organizations. At ACA, she builds connections through storytelling and leads operations and organizational development, guiding a shared vision for what comes next.
She questions inherited ways of organizing and leading, asking how we might share power, make room for one another, and build organizations that embody the care we hope to see in the world.
Her study of Tibetan Buddhism, yoga, and traditional medicine shapes how she navigates conflict and nurtures connection. Teaching yoga grounds her and strengthens her capacity to hold space for others to reconnect, heal, and take collective action together.
Outside of work, Lillian is often settling into the comforts of home with her husband and their miniature schnauzer. She loves dancing, hiking, paddleboarding, working on her vintage stand-up jetski, and creating texture art. She follows her curiosity through traditional medicine, nature, and human connection, finding beauty in the places where they meet.
Contact Lillian at lillianh@acaspokane.org
Lea Molina (she/they)
Co - Executive Director, Community Wellbeing
In this role, Lea leads the organization’s environmental justice, climate education, and community wellbeing work, with a strong focus on healing-centered programming, coalition building, and culturally grounded approaches to climate justice.
Lea’s work includes designing and facilitating Eco-Healing workshops, Asians in the Outdoors, Climate Chats Café, Boba Breaks, and other community care spaces that support mental wellbeing, connection, and collective resilience. Her work also includes mental health education that helps community members navigate eco-anxiety, climate grief, and the emotional impacts of systemic injustice. Alongside programming, Lea engages in local and statewide policy spaces, supports advocacy and funding efforts tied to environmental justice priorities, and helps shape ACL/ACA’s shared leadership and community-centered organizational model.
Lea is grounded in the belief that environmental justice and mental wellbeing are deeply interconnected, and that sustainable movements require care, creativity, and emotional resilience. Their motivation comes from lived experience navigating systems that exclude marginalized communities, and a commitment to building spaces where people feel supported, seen, and empowered to take action.
Outside of work, Lea finds joy in crafting, doing poi, and spending time in nature, especially near water. She loves creative spaces, thoughtful conversations, and bringing people together through art, music, and shared experiences.
Contact Lea at leam@acaspokane.org
Frances Grace Mortel (she/her)
Co - Executive Director, Community Belonging
As the Co-Executive Director for Community Belonging, Fran oversees the organization’s cultural, civic and political engagement, and serves as Co-Chair for Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition of Washington (APIC WA) – Spokane Chapter. She is passionate in co-creating spaces and pathways that bring people together to connect meaningfully and participate collectively in making a world of empathy and justice. She believes that arts, culture, and grassroots organizing are critical tools to movement building and sustaining community power. Being an immigrant raised by migrant and domestic workers, she is fueled by the labor and care of the historically undervalued communities she is committed to serve.
As a parent and artist, she often builds site-responsive installations about displacement and extraction—mapping out memories through unmaking and placemaking with her son, Soleil. Cats, cinnabon buns, long transit rides, third spaces, and public art are some of the things that bring her joy. In her free time (when she finally gets one), she finds comfort in the darkness of a movie theater, catching films with her husband, Cory. Fran cries easily when moved by anything she watches.
Contact Frances at francesm@acaspokane.org
Maria Sarmiento (they/them)
Advocacy Coordinator
Maria is a Filipino immigrant with a passion for educational policy, coming from a family full of educators. Before moving to Washington State in 2018, they previously lived in the Philippines and Thailand. In 2024, Maria packed their bags and moved from Moses Lake to Cheney to finish their degree at Eastern Washington University. During their time at EWU, Maria participated in extracurriculars that fostered their cultural identity, uncovered their passion for academic research, and sparked their interest in civic engagement. They served in EWU’s Asian Student Association as Secretary and later, as Vice President. They also served as the Associate Justice of the Associated Students of Eastern Washington University where they reviewed bylaws, conducted hearings, and put on events that encouraged student involvement on campus.
In their senior year of undergrad, Maria was selected to be an intern at the Washington Legislative Internship where they worked with the Senate Democratic Caucus as their Research and Policy Intern. For three months in Olympia, they conducted research on various bills, attended Caucus meetings for different committees, and participated civic engagement events such as Mock Senate Floor Sessions. As of June 2026, Maria graduated with their Bachelors of Arts in Political Science.
Maria currently serves as the Advocacy Coordinator for Asians for Collective Action, where they support civic engagement and activities affecting different communities in Spokane. Throughout their years living in the United States, Maria strongly believes in the importance of civic engagement, accessible current and upcoming policies, and dedicating their efforts to their community. Every piece of legislation, every bill, and every initiative affects individuals, involvement is key to having your voice heard.
In their free time, Maria is a full time nerd who plays cozy and competitive video games with friends, journals using trinkets found during their ventures, makes Kandi bracelets for concerts or anime conventions, and reads from their endless list of books.
Contact Maria at marias@acaspokane.org
Joan Iva C. Fawcett
President
Joan Iva C. Fawcett (a.k.a. JI) joined ACA to find a sense of community and work towards social justice in her own background. Born in the Philippines, this LA – San Diego – NYC – Bay Area transplant moved to Spokane in 2017 with her partner and son. She serves as the Dean for Social Justice Leadership & Community Empowerment at Gonzaga University, drawing on over two decades of experience advancing student success and diversity initiatives.
She earned a B.A. in Literature/Writing from UC San Diego, an M.A. in Creative Writing and Asian/Pacific/American Studies from New York University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Gonzaga. Outside of work and school, JI enjoys K-dramas, penguins, and international cuisine (eating, not cooking).
Emily Shiraishi
Vice President
Emily Shiraishi is from Orange County, CA and graduated from Gonzaga University in 2023 with a BA in Psychology and a BA in Sociology. Since graduating, Emily has been very involved with the Spokane community in many different ways such as serving as an AmeriCorps member in Gonzaga’s Center for Community Engagement, as Youth Programs Manager of The ZONE/NECC, and most recently, as Vice President of the ACA board! Growing up in a multicultural, multigenerational household, Emily learned from a young age that recognizing and celebrating culture strengthens and builds community. With strong Asian and Latina familial roots, she admires the significance of each culture and is grateful to feel a sense of belonging in both. Because of strong matriarchal influence in childhood, Emily hopes to continue to advocate for all people, especially women of color, to live equitably and thrive freely!
Kendra Guttridge
Treasurer
I first got involved in ACA as an opportunity to further connect with and support the Asian and Asian American community in Spokane. My mother is Chinese-Indonesian; she grew up in Indonesia, then came to the U.S. for grad school where she met my father. Growing up mixed race in small town Oregon, I longed to connect with others that come from backgrounds like mine. It is a privilege to serve alongside such incredible folks at ACA as we seek to further the voice and presence of our community throughout our city!
Tori Hungerhurst (They/Them)
Secretary
Tori Hungerhurst is a first-generation Indo American writer, flower farmer, rural organizer, and advocate based in Northeast Washington. They serve as a Washington Democrats State Committee Member for the Stevens County Democrats and as Secretary of the Board for Asians for Collective Action. Their work focuses on rural communities, agricultural policy, and civic engagement, shaped by seeing firsthand how immigrant and undocumented communities are too often left out of political conversations and decision-making. Tori brings a rural Asian American perspective to their work, with a focus on building stronger connections between historically overlooked communities and the institutions that represent them.
Trevor Iwata
Board Member
Trevor was born in Southern California and moved to Eastern Washington for college in 2008. His Husband and him have called Spokane Home since 2017 and split their time between Spokane and Olympia. Trevor currently serves as a Leadership Portfolio Manager for Inatai Foundation, a Washington-based c(4) funder. Outside of work, Trevor is also a Spokane City Arts Comissoner, avid dinner host, and biking advocate.
Our Work
Sarah Dixit
Spokane District 1 Council Member
Sarah Dixit
Spokane District 1 Council Member
Sarah is honored to represent the communities of Northeast Spokane and Downtown, which make up District 1. She was elected to office in November of 2025, after years of advocacy and community organizing both in Spokane and statewide.
Sarah moved to Spokane in 2014 to attend Whitworth University, where she got her degree in Sociology. During her time on campus, she began organizing around reproductive rights, which started her career as a community organizer. Since graduating, Sarah has spent her professional career in the reproductive rights movement, having worked for organizations like Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice Washington. As an organizer, she has mentored college and high school students, educated folks on civic engagement, and advocated for policies that would help people both in and outside of Spokane through state and local legislatures. Alongside her work with reproductive rights, Sarah has fought for social justice as a founding member of Asians for Collective Liberation and now serves as their Board President. She also was the Chair of the City’s Equity Subcommittee, which she now sits on as council liaison.
Sarah looks forward to collaborating with community members and fellow electeds to create positive change in our region. She believes strongly that government should be accessible to the people, and that we have to build a city that works for all of us
Danny Tarkenton
Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney
Danny Tarkenton
Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney
Asians for Collective Action endorses Danny Tarkenton for Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney.
A decision in the prosecutor’s office can change the course of someone’s life. For a survivor seeking safety, a young person facing charges, or an immigrant or refugee family navigating an unfamiliar legal system, justice is deeply personal.
Spokane deserves a justice system that earns public trust through accountability and respect for every person’s humanity. Getting there requires leadership with the courage to confront systemic failures, challenge harmful practices, and recognize the people behind every case.
Spokane deserves leadership that understands the human weight of that power.
That is why we at Asians for Collective Action (ACA) support Danny Tarkenton’s candidacy for Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney. Her commitment to restorative justice and alternatives to incarceration reflects our belief that justice in each individual case is connected to our collective liberation. We must recognize the whole person while addressing the social conditions that allow harm to continue. Accountability must help repair harm, address its root causes, and create meaningful opportunities for healing and change.
Her background in psychology and philosophy, alongside her studies in forensic psychology, brings attention to the whole person: their circumstances, relationships, needs, and capacity for growth. We believe that perspective belongs at the heart of prosecution.
Recent coverage in Spokesman-Review has not shaken our endorsement. It has strengthened our support for Danny. Our partner at SCAR reviewed documents and interviewed Danny, offering additional context about her disagreements with supervisors and her concerns for people’s rights.
It raises familiar questions: How often are women who challenge authority judged for their temperament instead of heard on the substance of their concerns? How often are people pushing for change treated as the problem?
For ACA, we value the courage to challenge established practices, defend people’s rights, and stand firm through institutional resistance. We see that courage in Danny.
For Asian and Asian American communities in Spokane who have felt unheard, dismissed, or harmed by the system, rebuilding that trust requires more than promises. It requires listening, explaining decisions, acknowledging failures, and following through. That work will take sustained effort, and our commitment will extend well beyond Election Day.
ACA will remain engaged, advocate for meaningful reform, and hold Danny accountable for her decisions and the transparency, integrity, and care this office demands.
Our endorsement is a commitment to the work ahead: ensuring the change we stand for builds trust our community can experience, in how they are heard, how their rights are protected, and how they are treated when they turn to the justice system.
Local elections reach into our lives in Spokane. Our ballot determines how our community is governed. Our votes are an expression of our collective power to demand accountability and build lasting change.
Return the ballot by Nov.3.
Vote Danny Tarkenton for Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney.
Yes For Buses
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Yes For Buses
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Asians for Collective Liberation in Spokane and Asians for Collective Action say Yes for Buses: Support STA Prop 1 on the Ballot This August 4th! Access to reliable and efficient public transit is essential to a thriving and connected Spokane. It gives families the freedom to move through our community, helps students get to school and pursue learning opportunities, connects workers to jobs, and ensures residents can reach healthcare, groceries, public services, and community spaces. Public transit makes all of this possible at an affordable cost. It helps families save money, reduces traffic congestion, lowers pollution, and protects our climate. A strong transit system benefits everyone, whether or not you ride the bus every day. Without enough funding, Spokane Transit Authority could be forced to reduce routes and service hours, delay critical improvements, and fall behind the needs of our growing community. Many commuters will lose access to public transportation. For working families, elders, students, immigrants, refugees, and people with disabilities, buses are more than a service, they are a lifeline. Proposition 1 allows us to protect this lifeline. This is not a new commitment. It is a continuation of the commitment we have already made to one another and to a community where everyone has the freedom to move. We proudly endorse Proposition 1 and urge our community members to Vote Yes for Buses.
No Hate WA
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No Hate WA
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Vote NO on I-001 & I-638
When a girl steps onto the field ready to play sports, they should never have to wonder whether a medical exam will decide if they belong. When a young person reaches out to a trusted teacher or counselor, they should be able to ask for help without fearing that their private information could expose them to greater harm.
REAL FAIRNESS DOESN’T PUT GIRLS’ BODIES UNDER REVIEW. REAL PROTECTION DOESN’T PUT YOUNG PEOPLE’S PRIVACY OR SAFETY AT RISK.
We get it: the world feels pretty messed up right now, that’s exactly why we can’t sit this one out.
BRING THE R.A.V.E. ENERGY TO THE ELECTION. VOTE FOR A WORLD WHERE YOUNG PEOPLE CAN GROW, NOT GROW AFRAID.
R.A.V.E.
RISE — Turn up. Turn out.
ASK — Get curious. Question the system.
VOTE — Drop your ballot. Cast your vote.
ENERGIZE — Keep organizing. Build the movement.
LET’S R.A.V.E. LET’S MAKE WAVES. Learn more at aclspokane.org/nohatewa
Defend WA
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Defend WA
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We are teaming up with Fuse WA (https://www.fusewashington.org) and our community partners to turn conversations into action and mobilize voters to vote NO on three Ballot initiatives I-001, I-638, and I-645 before November 3rd, 2026. Learn more at defend-washington.com
2026-2027 Asian Youth For Collective Liberation Fellowship
The Asian Youth for Collective Liberation (AYCL) Fellowship is a civic leadership cohort for Asian and Asian American high school-age youth who are passionate about building the skills, confidence, and community power to create meaningful change in Spokane, their lives, and beyond.
Turn Your Voice into Collective Action
At ACA Spokane, voter engagement starts with connection. We meet our community where they are—on campuses, at neighborhood gatherings, and at their doorsteps—to share voting resources, answer questions, and help people feel ready to participate. We empower young and first-time voters to grow as civic leaders, connect with their peers, and turn their voices into collective action. From rallies and neighborhood canvasses to voter registration drives and Get-Out-the-Vote activities, there are many ways to take part. Explore our upcoming events and volunteer!
Upcoming Events
Defend WA GOTV Canvassing at Mission Park
Oct 18 | 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Mission Park • 1208 E. Mission Ave, Spokane, WA 99202 US
Let’s R.A.V.E. make waves!
ACL Spokane is teaming up with Fuse and our community partners to turn conversations into action and mobilize voters to vote NO on I-001, I-638, and I-645.
The Polling Patch & Youth-Led Haunted House
Oct 23 | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Just One | 4421 N Nevada st Spokane, WA 99207
Let’s R.A.V.E. Make Waves at The Polling Patch!
Join ACL Spokane and our AYCL youth fellows on Friday, October 23, for Halloween fun, community connection, and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) action!
Voters Night Live: A Student-Led Election Event
Oct 28 | 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Spokane Public Library — Central Library
Live from Spokane… it’s Voters Night Live!
Think Rock the Vote meets SNL: a student-led show packed with interviews, interactive segments, prizes, and a fresh take on what—and who—is on your ballot.
ACL Spokane and our Asian Youth for Collective Liberation (AYCL) fellows will be there! Stop by our booth to meet the fellows, ask questions, and get voter information to help you feel ready to cast your ballot.
Halloween GOTV Canvassing & Reverse Trick or Treat at Grant Park!
Oct 31 | 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Grant Park • 1015 South Arthur Street, Spokane, WA 99202 US
This Halloween, Let’s R.A.V.E. make waves!
ACL Spokane is teaming up with Fuse and our community partners to turn conversations into action and mobilize voters to vote NO on I-001, I-638, and I-645.