Joseph is the founding executive director of API Tennessee and is the Director of Grants & Operations at the Maddox Fund. He is originally from Southern California and moved to Nashville in 2014.  Before running API Tennessee, joseph spent time as an English teacher and worked for different education-focused nonprofit organizations.
Biography
Joseph is the son of Filipino immigrants that came to the United States in the 1980's.  He grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California.  After graduating from UCLA, he wanted to get out and see the world so he ended up in South Korea teaching English as a Second Language.  He lived there for five years where he eventually me his wife, whom he followed to Nashville in 2014.  In 2017, he graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017 with an M.Ed in Community Development & Action with his studies focused on organizational development, program evaluation, and the community school model.
Joseph's professional life has been focused on education and community-centered nonprofit work. Since 2017, he has been working at the Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund, currently serving as the Director of Grants and Operations. His responsibilities include managing the organization's general operations, coordinating the grant review process, and leading the environmental grants programs.
Joseph is also the founding executive director of API Tennessee, which officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2019.  The organization is Asian and Pacific Islander-serving nonprofit organization whose mission is to work towards racial justice by building API communities, lifting API voices, and celebrating API identities across the Volunteer State.
When not working, you can usually find Joseph around Nashville riding his bike, taking photos, or hanging out with his wife and their dog, Donut.
see my resume
Community Leadership
↑Back to Top