Anh Thang Dao-Shah was born in Vietnam, grew up in Germany and Poland and earned her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her dissertation is a multilingual and multidisciplinary research on the intersection of race, gender and ethnicity in Vietnamese migrant literature in the United States and Europe. She has received multiple awards including 3 years of academic merit fellowship from USC and an American Association of University Women International Fellowship.
Ms. Dao is a published writer with academic essays, poetry, and prose featured in Positions, the Vietnamese Studies Journal and multiple anthologies and textbooks. She is a language aficionado who loves to travel.
Ms. Dao has 10 years of experience in research, teaching, and consulting in equity, with a special focus on the cultural sector. She has taught ethnic studies, women's studies and American ethnic literature at the University of California, Riverside, San Francisco State University and California College of the Art. Ms. Dao-Shah served as the Development Director of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, a non-profit organization in San Francisco that aims to connect artists of the Vietnamese diaspora with the diverse audience of the Bay Area. She is currently the Senior Policy Analyst at the San Francisco Arts Commission, where she conducts program evaluation, research and policy analysis to assist the agency in aligning with the value of cultural equity.
Dr. Anh Thang Dao-Shah
Dr. Anh Thang Dao-Shah
Kate Faust, MPP
Kate Faust wants to live in a world where people from all income segments can afford to live in beautiful cities, neighbors plan block parties at least once a year, and she gets to walk to work.
Ms. Faust earned her Master’s of Public Policy from the Goldman School at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on urban arts policy and community economic development, housing equity and creative placemaking, funding structures in the creative economy, and disrupting exclusionary practices in museums and cultural centers. She has been honored with various awards including a UC Berkeley Graduate Fellowship, Ralph Bunche Institute Fellowship, and the Goldman Faculty Summer Research Grant.
Ms. Faust has been the lead analyst for a range of clients including the San Francisco Arts Commission, the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. Prior to her work as a policy and evaluation consultant, Ms. Faust managed programs for the City University of New York, managed communications for the Social Science Research Center, and supported community engagement projects for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She has nearly a decade of experience in the not-for-profit sector and has worked in a broad range of policy areas including international relations, gender, housing, public arts, economic, urban planning, and education.
When she is not busy with research and data analyses, you can find her recording and touring with her band BLKKATHY. Their work has been featured in Waxed Poetics Magazine, Complex, Spin Magazine, Fader, Vice, and BBC Radio 1..