KVRU is collaborating with BIPOC leaders, medical educators, and caretakers of Southeast Seattle to facilitate critical conversations around COVID-19 vaccines and community health during the ongoing pandemic. The featured speakers of the KVRU COVID-19 Virtual Forum will discuss how our lives have been collectively altered through the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as sharing essential information about the changing public health guidelines.
As a hyperlocal radio station in one of the most diverse neighborhoods of Seattle, we want to provide resources about the COVID-19 vaccines that are informed by and for the community. The April 2022 Forum, as well as PSAs created by our multilingual volunteers, will serve as an outlet for essential COVID-19 information to be shared in accessible and culturally relevant ways.
The Virtual Forum will broadcast live on KVRU 105.7 FM and online at kvru.org. A video livestream will also be available on Facebook and YouTube and below. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be available. The audio and video recordings will be available on SoundCloud, YouTube, and Facebook after the events.
Listen and watch here:
ASL interpretation available on Facebook, YouTube
Meet the Featured Speakers
Tien Ho
My name is Tien Ho. I am an immigrant from Vietnam who has been fighting to be with my family for over 5 years. The detention center is not a place for anyone to be detained. No immigrant should be placed in that jail for just wanting better lives for their families and their childrens’ future. Detainees come out of the detention get sick-er, traumatized, and have PTSD than jails or prisons.
Dr. Thandi Onami
Dr. Thandi Onami is a Senior Program Officer on the HIV Vaccine Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this capacity, she supports innovative programs to identify and support potential vaccine candidates to prevent HIV transmission. Prior to joining the foundation, she served as an Immunologist/Program Officer at the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In that capacity she supported glycomics and mucosal immunology programs in HIV vaccine research and clinical trials. Before NIH, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where her research lab focused on the role of glycosyltransferases in T and B cell immunity to viruses, and where she taught classes in immunology, microbiology, and global health.
Dr. Onami received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Princeton University, and her Ph.D in Biology/ Cellular and Molecular Immunology, from the University of California, San Diego. She completed postdoctoral studies in viral immunology at the Emory Vaccine Center and served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at Fogarty International Center. She is a member of the American Association of Immunologists.
Mariel Torres Mehdipour
Mariel Torres Mehdipour’s experience in public health has spanned over 20 years and has focused on improving health and equity through community-led efforts. As part of Public Health – Seattle and King County’s (PHSKC), Office of Equity and Community Partnership, Mariel serves as the department’s Deputy Equity Officer.
Originally from Los Angeles, California; Mariel is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and is the first in her family to attend college, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Italian from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master’s in Public Health in Health Promotion and Education from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Before joining PHSKC in 2016, Mariel worked at the UCLA School of Public Health and the Kern County Public Health Services Department.
Meet the Hosts
Brian Tanner
Brian Tanner is the Development Director for Potlatch Fund, which is an Indigenous-led nonprofit that provides grantmaking, capacity building, and advocacy for Tribal and Native communities in the Pacific Northwest. Brian grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, where he is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, he is also affiliated Rocky Boy Cree. Prior to working in nonprofits, Brian worked for 13 years in federal contracting (DoD, NASA, DHHS) doing business development. Brian has a B.S. in Psychology/Communication from Washington State University and a MPA from the University of San Francisco. He currently lives in Seattle, WA in the occupied territories of the Duwamish People.
Luzviminda Uzuri “Lu” Carpenter, station manager
Luzviminda Uzuri “Lu” Carpenter (aka Ms. Lulu or LuluNation) (she/her) is a media justice advocate, educator, and organizer. In addition to KVRU, she is a Performance & Media Arts Teacher at Seattle Girls’ School, a social justice and STEAM middle school; Founder of Alphabet Alliance of Color (AAoC), a grassroots organizing alliance for Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; Teacher Advisory Board Member at MoPop Museum; Community Advisory Board Member at Seattle Theatre Group (STG); and member of the Washington State Advisory Board to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. She has advised, worked, and performed for over 15 years in Seattle with community organizations including: Washington Hall, Ladies First Project of Communities Against Rape and Abuse, VoicesRising, Asian Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center (now APIChaya), Pinay sa Seattle (now GABRIELA-Seattle), OnTheBoards, the Service Board, YouthSpeaks, Roots Young Adult Shelter, YouthSource, and YouthCare. She was previously Co-Chair of the City of Seattle LGBTQ Commission.
Lynn Doan, producer
Lynn Doan is a queer Vietnamese American community organizer, artist, and multimedia producer. They have been involved in social movement work for over 8 years, co-creating events and leading liberation-oriented projects related to: behavioral health, QTBIPOC community building, healing media justice, and anti-racism work.
