KQTx National Steering Committee

Lee (they/them) is a nonbinary and queer biracial Korean American writer, organizer, and art worker. They grew up in a 20-year service military family traveling between Korea and the U.S.’s east coast. They are part of the Korean diaspora nonprofit and collective GYOPO, an active core member of the Asian American grassroots art collective Stop DiscriminAsian, and a member of grassroots organizing movement Blasian March. A current graduate student and a fellow in the cultural studies program at Claremont Graduate University, they hold a BA in English with a concentration in Literature, Language, and Criticism from Hunter College (2018) and a BFA in Painting & Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University (2012). Their work has been published by Routledge, Dio Press, Women’s Studies: An interdisciplinary journal, Monument Lab, among others. In their free time, they love to cook delicious food, walk their cats, and skate.

Joy Messinger (she/they) is a physically disabled and chronically ill queer femme Korean adoptee. Born in Seoul, Korea and raised on the lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, she has made home on the lands of the Council of the Three Fires for more than a decade. They own a nonprofit consulting and coaching business, organize with their neighbors to create a world beyond policing and prisons, do divination work through their Femme of Spoons tarot and oracle reading practice, and are studying to be a death doula and licensed funeral director. A published poet and writer, Joy’s work, activism, and writing have appeared in a variety of media platforms and publications, including The Lit Review podcast, Good Day Chicago, Daily Dot, Lost Daughters, Common Intuitions: A Poetry Anthology of Women Celebrating Women (Palettes & Quills), Stereo Visions: Looking Back, Moving Forward (Evolutionary Girls Club), the now defunct Land of Gazillion Adoptees online magazine, and gallery spaces throughout Western New York, Central North Carolina, the city of Chicago, and Sweden and Poland. Joy also loves books, the WNBA, the Shonda Rhimes one-hour drama, noodles and dumplings of all kinds, and her cat Kimchi Lox. Learn more about her at www.joymessinger.com. 

Talon (she/her) is currently serving her second year on the KQTx Steering Committee, where she is the lead for the Infrastructure and Development subcommittee (aka the BS). She also facilitates the QTKAD affinity space. As co-organizer for Sam-Cha Bay Area, Talon leads the KAD pillar, bringing together the diversity of the Korean diaspora. As a transnational, transracial queer Korean adoptee (KAD), she is passionate about redefining home and family through language and food, and finds the courage to do so by challenging herself to be uncomfortable. In her previous professional life, Talon was an accountant and property manager, who owned her own business and retired it in 2021.

pauli reese, birth name Do So Li, is a Korean adoptee born in Suwon, raised in Central Pennsylvania, and currently living on land currently known as Southwest Philadelphia, ancestrally the unceded land of the Lenni Lenape people and the Black Bottom Community. Having trained as a conductor, cultural anthropologist, a theologian, and an interfaith spiritual director, their interdisciplinary work includes community organizing, counseling, experimental theatre, storytelling, and digital media. Previous artistic collaborations have included Yale University, Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, The Juilliard School, The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and many more. Most recently they founded and co-curated the company (un)common good media, where they amplify voices committed to neighborhood cohesion, justice, common humanity, and building relationships across lines of difference. They hold the Master of Divinity Degree from Yale, where they specialized in trauma-informed spiritual care, often working among people of color, queer folk, differently abled and neurodivergent folk, and otherwise spiritual but not religious seekers of the Divine. They are on a fierce odyssey in search of the perfect home-baked chocolate chip cookie. For more content, visit and subscribe to them on youtube at https://youtube.com/@uncommongoodpod 

Ouree Lee (she/they/) is a second generation Korean American living on stolen Shawnee, Cherokee, Osage, and Chickasaw lands (Lexington, Kentucky.) Working primarily in film, she is also a multi-disciplinary artist, DJ, and astrologer. Her work and performances have been shown at the deYoung Museum, Gray Area SF, San Francisco Jewish Museum, Seattle Asian American Film Festival, DisOrient Asian American Film Festival, and more. This is her second term on the KQTx Steering Committee. Ouree is passionate about anti-capitalism and collective healing, emphasizing the need to radically shift material, biopolitical, economic, and spiritual forces toward generative processes and away from extraction and exploitation. In her spare time, she is doting on her beloved cat, watching movies, and going on long walks in the woods.

Jang (he/him) is a 1.5 gen Korean (not American yet) living in the land of Adshusheer village (colonially known as Durham, NC). He currently manages an organ transplant lab at Duke University, but he also fosters and invests in queer communities in North Carolina, such as Triangle Asian and Pacific Islander Queers (TAPIQ), Out in STEM (oSTEM) and House of Coxx. In the House of Coxx, a drag house in Durham, he dabbles in drag as Lil’ Dumpling, which incorporates self-expression, creativity, self-love, genderbending and so much more! Jang has been a part of Korean Queer & Transgender National Network (KQTx) since 2021, and he aspires to continue to create open and bountiful spaces for fellow KQTs. During his leisure time, he loves to escape into the fantastic worlds of videogames, anime, manga and Korean dramas. 

Noah Arhm Choi is a first-generation Korean American who grew up in Ann Arbor, MI and currently lives outside New York City. A facilitator at the inaugural KQTCon, they are the author of CUT TO BLOOM, the winner of the 2019 Write Bloody Prize. An NYC educator since 2013, they currently work as the Director of the Progressive Teaching Institute and Assistant Director of DEI at a K-12 school. They received a MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and their work appears in Apogee, The Rumpus, Split this Rock and elsewhere. There’s a low chance you’d guess they’re an Aries Sun since their Capricorn Rising is so busy playing lead. Their FYP consists solely of dance and animal videos and they are unlikely to understand pop culture references unless it relates to Rihanna, YA books, or the impact of imperialism on Kpop. For more info, visit noaharhmchoi.com.

Siobahn Sung (she/her) is a 2nd generation queer Korean American born in Sacramento, refined by the Bay Area, and now a proud New Yorker of 11 years, living in the unceded Lenape land of Manahatta. A former opera singer, Siobahn continues to work within arts organizations to produce live events and digital content, serving as the co-founder of ffflypaper: an imagination company that seeks to create and uplift artistic and community-centered projects, focusing on BIPOC, youth, artistic and civil rights, LGBTQ+, and grassroots voices. She is currently a producer at Lincoln Center Performing Arts. Siobahn deeply loves storytelling in all forms, the word “hella,” and the Yankees.