Kent Wong

Kent Wong is the Director of the University of California Los Angeles Labor Center, where he teaches Asian American Studies and Labor Studies. The UCLA Labor Center engages in research, education and public service to advance the interests of the working people of California.

Previously, he worked as staff attorney for the Service Employees International Union in Los Angeles. He was also the first staff attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, the largest Asian American civil rights organization in the country.

Wong was the founding president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the first national organization of Asian American union members and workers. He is a vice president of the California Federation of Teachers, representing 120,000 teachers and education workers, and served as the founding president of the United Association for Labor Education, the national organization representing university-based labor centers and union educators.

Wong serves on the board of the New World Foundation, and previously was a Fellow of the Kellogg National Leadership Program. He has published more than 12 books on the labor movement, immigrant rights, popular education and the Asian American community. His most recent works are Nonviolence and Social Movements: The Teachings of Rev. James L. Lawson Jr., and Dreams Deported: Immigrant Youth and Families Resist Deportation.