About

Kathy Yep is a Professor of Asian American Studies at Pitzer College (of the Claremont Colleges).  She is fascinated by how people with limited resources create empowerment and change. With a focus on feminist pedagogies, community-based learning, and public health, her writing has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and she has received funding to teach participatory action research with immigrant and refugee elders. She is the author of Outside the Paint: When Basketball Ruled at the Chinese Playground (Temple University Press) and co-author of Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island with Dr. Laurence Yep (Harper Collins). A mindfulness facilitator trained by the UCLA Semel Institute and a practitioner of Dayan Qi Gong since the 1990s, Dr. Yep examines intercultural approaches to palliative care for immigrants and refugees. A member of an advisory group for the “Your Path to Our Health” grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she has spoken at institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,  the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare and AARP. As the inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty in Academic Affairs addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness, Dr. Yep integrated contemplative practices and transformative justice frameworks to launch a pilot Bias Education Support Team. Dr. Yep received the Claremont Colleges 2020 Diversity Mentor Award, which “honors faculty members who provide consistent and meaningful support and encouragement to historically underrepresented students, staff or colleagues.” Raised in Northern California, Professor Yep received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a University of California President’s Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is living beyond thyroid cancer (27 years). She loves dancing, playing tennis with her husband/partner, and sharing a household with a very large cat who thinks he is a dog.