With over 15 years of operational leadership and civic engagement, Heather specializes in harnessing technology to unleash civic innovation and build resilient, responsive organizations.

Heather comes to the AI LA Community from the Center for Asian Americans United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE), a community-based organization in Little Tokyo advocating for greater API civic participation and outreach. As a life-long operator, she drives organizational effectiveness and scales high-impact organizations by hyperfocusing on culture and translating mission into executable strategies. Heather brings a unique track record of building and scaling organizations across tech, law, and policy, previously serving as founding Head of Product at United Talent Agency and COO of rheli.co, where she built teams from 1 to 100 and secured multi-million dollar investments for product development.

Heather focuses on operationalizing the empathy and resiliency required to turn high-level vision into scalable impact, ensuring the readiness to lead what’s next for the Los Angeles ecosystem.