In 2021, we gained a couple of new board members. Meet them below!

Bio: Erica got her first taste of the Taiwanese American community with a semester in TASA during her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin, but it wasn’t until grad school that she really embraced and prioritized understanding what being Taiwanese American meant to her. Being of mixed descent comes with a whole host of identity questions, but time spent with TACLfam made it easy to get in touch with Taiwaneseness. Erica recently completed her PhD at UT Austin where her research centered on sociolinguistic and identity practices of Taiwanese Texans, and she is currently a postdoc in the English department, teaching courses on sociolinguistics and Asian American literature. Erica is also the host of Verbatim, a new linguistics PBS Digital Series, which premiered on YouTube’s Storied channel in March.

What do you hope to accomplish in this new role? As a lifelong learner, my priorities are to A) learn more about our shared Taiwanese and Taiwanese American cultures and B) pass on content to y’all in an interesting and meaningful way. I want to create a repository of information from previous conventions and set us up for success in future conventions.

What’s your previous involvement with TACL? Treasurer of TAP-ATX, 2014-2019

How did you initially get involved in TACL? My college friend, Erica Liu, asked me to be a founding board member of TAP-ATX, and I couldn’t say no.

Favorite TAP/TACL memory?  It’s hard to choose, but being elected Ambassador to Taiwanese America during the most recent DC Convention (and getting endorsed by Andrew Yang) is up there!

What’s your go-to boba order? Grapefruit or passion fruit green tea, 30% sugar, less ice, add aloe vera

Bio: Hello, everyone, my name is Eric Chang, I originally grew up in Taiwan, but I also spent significant time in California, and now I’m in Seattle. I do software engineering at my job and am an amateur snowboarder.

What do you hope to accomplish in this new role? I hope to streamline the digital services that fall under TACL to see if there are places where we can reduce costs, provide technical assistance for if chapters don’t have their own tech chair, reduce the load of digital service maintenance for the rest of the board, and plan for future technology paths.

What’s your previous involvement with TACL?

1. President, TAP-SEA, 2013-2018
2. VP External, TAP-SEA, 2019-2020

How did you initially get involved in TACL? I got involved already when TAP-SEA was an independent organization that had no affiliation with TACL, and I was contacted by TACL National in their plans to expand throughout the country and that’s how our conversation started.

Favorite TAP/TACL memory?  TW OCAC trip and getting to know all the various TAP people