Meet the team!
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Sandra Engle, Executive Director
Sandra (she/her/hers) serves as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and Institute for Asian Pacific American Leadership & Advancement (IAPALA). Sandra has deep roots within the labor movement. While working as a criminal appeals lawyer at The Legal Aid Society of New York, she was active in her local (UAW Local 2325) and elected Vice President. After taking a leave of absence, she began organizing with multiple unions across the U.S., including UAW, IAM, USW and AFGE. She eventually came home to the UAW when she was put on staff in the Organizing Department and became Assistant Director. In addition, she has served as UAW Assistant Director in the National CAP Department as well as Education Department. When she retired from the UAW in 2023, she was a Top Administrative Assistant to UAW President Ray Curry where she led the union's Public Relations and Strategic Campaigns Departments. She views her activism through the lens of an organizer and believes that the power of the labor movement is in teaching others how to advocate for themselves. In 2022, she started a dialogue within the UAW about its role in the murder of Vincent Chin. |
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Courtnay Peifer, Deputy Director
Courtnay was born in Daebudo, South Korea, and grew up in Minnesota. She most recently worked at a nonprofit in St. Paul that empowers young Asian Americans in social transformation, civic engagement, and leadership development. She is a longtime journalist, with tenures at the Oakland Tribune, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Newsday, and the Star Tribune, where she was a member of the Communications Workers of America before moving to the newsroom’s leadership team. While on the leadership team, she managed a 19-person team covering Minnesota’s place as a national leader in business and innovation; helped modernize the newsroom’s hiring practices to be more inclusive and fair; fought for pay equity; and established an all-women leadership team within the Business Department, a first in the company’s then 156-year-history. She led several projects, including a special section investigating financial accountability in rebuilding after the George Floyd riots, which resulted in the highest recorded damage from civil disorder in U.S. history. She has been an East-West Center Fellow, a Poynter Workplace Integrity Trainer, and a Hospice Volunteer. Courtnay is certified in Mental Health First Aid from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and has attended the Poynter Leadership Academy and Asian American Journalists Association’s Executive Leadership Program. She also is mom to a teenage son and a one-eyed rescue dog. |