Board Members

Junann is President of the NAAAP-KC. She has worked at Hallmark Cards for 19 years, and is currently a Senior Credit Representative. She is the Vice Chair of the Asian American Resource Community at Hallmark, (AARCH). Through Hallmark’s volunteer program she has contributed to the community in a variety of organizations. She was lead for the Finance Division United Way Campaign, Special Olympics committee member, organized the first Disc Golf Fundraiser for Heartland MS Society, and judges debate and forensics tournaments for Basehor Linwood High School. Junann also volunteers for the Japanese Festival, Harvesters, Salvation Army, Headquarters Counseling Center, Friends of the Zoo, Christmas in October, Karios, Guadalupe Center and multiple church gatherings.

Junann has two children, Nicole a University of Kansas graduate working at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, Lawrence, Kansas, and Nick a Marine currently stationed at Ft Lee, Virginia for training. She crochets, reads and loves traveling to new places.

Ashok Meka is from South India and came to the USA to pursue higher education. Ashok earned a Masters degree from the Northeastern University (2005) and an MBA from the University of Kansas in 2017. Ashok is currently working for UMB Bank as an Enterprise Data Architect. Ashok is a steering committee member of the UMB Bank's Asian American BRG.

David is a Senior Production Artist at Hallmark Cards and has been with the company for more than 15 years. He has held various positions at the Kansas City based greeting card company including Production Designer, Process Artist, and Multimedia Designer. David is very involved with several Employee Resource Groups at Hallmark including the Military Interest Group and Hallmark Employees Reaching Equality. He has served on the Asian American ERG Steering Council for 3 years and was the 2015 Chair of AARCH, Asian American Resource Community at Hallmark. Prior to Hallmark, he was Operations Manager for Vanguard Airlines Reservations Center and served in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm.

David was born in Saigon, Vietnam, but has lived in various countries including Spain and Germany. He loves to travel, is obsessed with live theatre, and attends at least one local production a week. David travels to New York at least once a year and has seen 72 Broadway and Off Broadway shows to date. He lives in Shawnee, Kansas, with his partner of 19 years.

James is a Consultant at Cerner Corporation and has held this role since 2014. He graduated from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Master of Science degree in Operations Management.

James grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, then spent six years in Fayetteville, Arkansas prior to moving to Kansas City in 2014. In his free time, James loves to spend his time outdoors hiking and biking and loves to travel to the scenic areas of the United States (Yellowstone, Pikes Peak, Grand Canyon, etc.). James is also an avid fan of all sports, especially his alma mater’s sports team, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Dr. Chi Lo currently serves as a Director of Student Success at Park University.  He has served in a leadership role in higher education for almost five years.  His past accomplishments include building professional and leadership development programs for faculty and staff.  Dr. Lo is recently completed his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Creighton University.  His research focuses on employee engagement and leadership in higher education.  He recently accepted to serve a two year term (2018-2020) for NACADA's Professional Development Committee.  Dr. Lo also serves on two committees within SHRM-KC (Society of Human Resource Management): college relations and diversity and inclusion committee.  He is excited to provide leadership to help strengthen the leaders of NAAAP-Kansas City. 

Niko joined the Board of Directors for NAAAP-KC in December of 2018 as a Director of Membership. She works at Cerner Corporation in Associate Services and is a student studying for her Business Management degree in Healthcare. She also holds a degree in Teaching as well as a degree in Surgical Technology. A Kansas City native, she has traveled throughout Asia, living there a total of 4 years. She graduated high school in the Philippines and studied there for a year in university before moving back to Kansas City. In 2015, she and her husband, Seth, another member of NAAAP-KC, moved to Asia for a new adventure, visiting the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia before moving to Taiwan to teach English for one year. Niko is bilingual, fluent in English and Tagalog (Filipino), can read and write Korean, and is learning Korean and Mandarin. She likes to volunteer with the First Hand Foundation, and is active in the Cerner Association of Minority Associates (CAMA). Niko is a very big fan of Sporting Kansas City. Go Sporting!

Srinivasan Nambi is a Digital Solutions Manager at Hallmark Digital Experience & Technology providing  consumer facing omni-channel digital solutions for the Seamless Retail of the Hallmark Gold Crown store network across North America. Previously he was in Charlotte, NC for 7 years serving as a consultant through Infosys for Bank of America on various roles in Mobile App Development & technical project management in mobility. Prior to that, he helped build & support eCommerce sites for different countries & markets of Avon Products based out of New York.

Srini has a bachelor’s degree from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (India). He started his career as a Software Engineer and has worked across several major cities in India.  Srini came to United States in 2007 for work as a tech-consultant & has made US his home for almost 12 years now. He moved to Kansas City in 2017 to work for Hallmark and is excited to be a board member of NAAAP KC chapter. He is also an active member of AARCH – Asian American Resource Group within Hallmark and an ally of HERE – resource group supporting LGBTA community within Hallmark. While at Infosys, he served as an executive member of VoY(Voice of Youth) and an advocate of Diversity@Infosys. He is passionate about leveraging technology to make a purposeful difference in the lives of people. During his free time, Srini likes reading, running, yoga and travelling with his family and friends. 

Lisa is Past President of the National Association of Asian American Professionals of Kansas City (NAAAP-KC). Since 2012, she has worked for Argus Health Systems, which is a subsidiary of DST Systems, Inc., as a Senior Project Leader. She received her undergraduate degree from Friends University and started her career in the utility industry, then managed air navigational aid programs for the FAA and airports around the world — and if you live in Kansas City, you must at least work for Sprint, which she did in their marketing departments.

Lisa grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and moved to Kansas City in 1997 with her husband and two daughters and currently enjoys her three grandchildren. She also enjoys volunteering for non-profit organizations centered on the fight against children’s cancer. She is also passionate about creating different wonton recipes and offers party platters for anyone who wants to bring something unique to an event.

Aviva is SoLVE’s co-founder, and CEO.

After almost 25 years of leading strategy creation and implementation, new product development, brand management, consumer marketing and organization re-design, there’s no marketing problem Aviva hasn’t SoLVEd.

Prior to SoLVE, Aviva was a partner with The Partnering Group and worked for Accenture. She’s consulted for blue chip companies including Nestle USA, Post Foods, Sara Lee, Kimberly Clark, LG Electronics, Bauer Hockey, 3M, Northwest Airlines and Fingerhut.

Before her consulting years, she was a Senior leader at Hallmark Cards, in many areas including Product Development, Innovation, Retail, Corporate Strategy, and Customer Strategy, and Business Transformation. She launched, grew and re-invented iconic marketplace programs partnering with many brands and retailers, like Disney, Starbucks, The Komen Foundation, Walmart and Walgreens.

Aviva’s been on both the consulting side and the client side of the relationship. This gives her a unique perspective on working with SoLVE’s clients.

“It’s about helping our clients in a way that’s relevant to them. We don’t have a cookie cutter approach. We roll up our sleeves, partner, coach, teach and work alongside our Clients. I’ve been the client and I’ve been the consultant. I know what feels good as a client and I know what feels bad. I want our clients to feel great about working with SoLVE.”

Aviva is an accredited Angel Investor and the Board Chair with the Women’s Capital Connection, Kansas City’s only female Angel Investing group. She is an active member of the Central Exchange, the Upper School Chair on the Executive Council for the Pembroke Hill School Parent’s Association and is on the Board of TomboyX in Seattle, WA. Aviva is also on the Board of the Greater Kansas City chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP).

Aviva has a BA in Economics and Policy Studies from Rice University; MBA in Marketing, Management & Strategy and Non-profit Management from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. 

Born and raised in Upstate New York, Aviva has made Kansas City her home for almost 25 years. She is married with 1 daughter, 3 “bonus” children, and three grandchildren. Aviva enjoys running, yoga, entertaining and traveling.

Anita is a Senior Engineering Project Manager with Hallmark Cards, Inc. In this role, she manages teams driving large scale supply chain and cross-divisional projects. Anita received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and master’s degree in Engineering Management, both from Kansas State University. Prior to Hallmark, Anita worked for Payless ShoeSource, Distribution, Inc. and The Limited – Logistics Services, Inc.

She was a founding member and past chair for both NAAAP-Kansas City and AARCH (Asian American Resource Community at Hallmark).  Anita is also actively involved with engineering advisory councils at K-State. In her spare time, Anita enjoys watching K-State football games, working out, and spending time with friends.

She joined NAAAP to help Asian Americans in Kansas City develop and network, both personally and professionally.

As a marketing specialist by trade, Jason has had over 8 years of experience in marketing and advertising working with many different clients in traditional and digital marketing. Jason has used his experience to also be involved in many pro-bono marketing projects for many non-profit causes. His specialties are in strategic planning, integrated marketing communications and marketing analytics.

Jason is currently a Multi-Channel Analyst at Intouch Solutions, where he pulls and analyzes campaign data to evaluate marketplace performance to creates insights and recommendations for the agency’s clients.

Jason is a graduate of the University of Central Missouri, completing his undergraduate work majoring in Marketing. Jason is currently pursuing his master’s Degree in Journalism specializing in Media Analytics and Management through Ball State University.

Raised in a small town, Knob Noster, Missouri, Jason has called Kansas City his home for the last 10 years.  He is married to Megan Carney for 7 years and they live in Lee’s Summit. During his free time, he likes to be involved with American Advertising Federation of Kansas City, read, travel, learn how to bake new things and live an active lifestyle. Jason is an avid runner who likes to run 10Ks and Half-Marathon, mountain bike and plays hockey in a recreational league.

Jason has served on the NAAAP-KC board since 2012 holding positions as the Director of Marketing (2012, 2016-2017), VP of Strategic Development (2013), President (2014), Past President (2015).