Power moves: Andy Kang named executive director of Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition

1. Andy Kang will become the executive director of PICC July 1.

The board of directors of Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC) announced today that Andy Kang will become the executive director of the organization —which advocates for immigrants, migrants, and refugees throughout Pennsylvania — effective July 1.

Kang succeeds Sundrop Carter, who has served as the ED for the past eight years. In the organization’s May 5 newsletter Carter said she “came to this position with the strong belief that as a white, US-born citizen, I had an obligation to create space for immigrant leaders within our organization. For me, this meant focusing on recruiting and supporting a diverse staff that reflects the diversity of immigrant and refugee communities in our state, and ultimately stepping aside as executive director.”

In the same newsletter, Kang recounted about how in early 1965, his father, a young immigrant from South Korea who had just graduated from Georgia Tech, got his first full time American job working for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Pittsburgh. “He was alone in America, had little money to his name, and had left his parents, brothers, and sisters to escape a war-torn country still rebuilding itself,” Kang wrote. “The road to Pennsylvania led to more than just a job … On behalf of his family and all their collective dreams, he bet it all on America.”

Kang joins PICC after serving as executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago for the past three years. Prior to becoming executive director there, Kang served as its legal director for five years, and as senior staff attorney a year before that. Early in his career he served as attorney at a number of firms in Boston and Chicago, as well as at the Legislative Reference Bureau in Springfield, IL.

During his time as legal director for AAAJ-Chicago, Kang was appointed by then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to serve as a commissioner on the board of commissioners for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, a role which he fulfilled for more than four years.

He serves as the board president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and as the co-chair of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s immigration committee. Kang previously served on the Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s transition team; and co-chaired the Good Governance Committee for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s transition team.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law.

L to r: Michaela Manzieri, Coumba Faye, Sundrop Carter, Andy Kang. (Courtesy photos)

2. Michaela Manzieri and Coumba Faye join New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.

The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia recently announced that Michaela Manzieri has been named the organization’s new communications and development coordinator, and Coumba Faye was named community organizer for the organization’s Driving PA Forward campaign.

Manzieri previously served as educational and cultural programs coordinator at the American-Scandinavian Foundation in New York City; as a marketing associate at the ECO Office in Munich, Germany, and in a variety of positions in companies in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.

Manzieri holds a bachelor’s degree and an BFA from The New School, and a master’s from Imperial College of London.

Faye was previously an international business fellow of the City of Philadelphia. Prior to moving to the U.S. in 2018, Faye worked helping HIV-positive people in Senegal get access to health insurance.

She holds a master’s degree from the University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar in Senegal.

3. Tara Quinn appointed director of development for the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Recently the Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ASB) announced that Tara Quinn was named the organization’s director of development.

She is the founder and has been the principal of Quinn Consulting for the past three years.

Quinn most recently served as the capital campaign director for West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington, DE. Prior to that she served as the regional director of Vision to Learn; as nutrition support dietician specialist at Penn Medicine; and as a clinical dietician at New York Hospital.

She serves on the boards of The Ministry of Caring, Inc., the Kendal Charitable Fund, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals Brandywine Chapter.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Immaculata University, a master’s degree from Widener University, and holds a CFRE certification.