Meet the KKC Team

Bridge Advisory

Building, Restoring, Innovating our Dedication to Generational Enrichment

KKC established KAYA in 2021 to ensure accountability from community stakeholders who help to maintain the integrity of our mission and vision.

Youth representation is essential to the development of programming and involvement in other decision-making opportunities, including but not limited to, the design of the physical cafe space and structuring of evaluation tools.

With a core group of 8 members, they are not only informing the implementation phases, they are also assisting in piloting most of the youth-centered programming. Since April 2022, they have already participated in various menu offerings, such as leadership development workshops and retreats, conducting outreach, and assisting to organize a 2-day seminar where youth can explore entrepreneurship skill building. KAYA has also served as a peer-to-peer support system for their fellow youth in activities, such as leading a narrative based workshop on decolonizing mental health through the utilization of Photovoice at a youth mental health conference.

KApwa Youth Advisory

KAYA ᜃᜌ

In alignment with a community collaboration approach, the BRIDGE Advisory group (formerly named TRIBE Advisory) was established in the summer of 2018 which is comprised of subject matter experts, Filipino Mental Health Initiative (FMHI) San Mateo County members, Filipino/a/x students and community stakeholders (e.g. local Filipino/a/x- owned businesses, educators, cultural organizations, health & wellness program providers and civic officials).

A focus on a collaborative, community-based asset approach to the Kapwa Kultural Center and Cafe allows for leveraging of influence, resources, expertise and capacity to provide services, especially in providing services that address cultural, social and linguistic needs of the community. A collaborative approach benefits from regular communication, sharing of resources and problem solving and offering ongoing presence and opportunities for community members to engage in services. 

KKC Leadership Team


  • Steph (she/her) is a 2nd-generation Pinay-American, & proud Mama—born & raised on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land (SF/Daly City) , and of Ilocano & Visayan decent. Her heartwork and hustle includes over 20 years of experience in health & human services, namely a community mental health advocacy background addressing health inequities amongst hxstorically marginalized populations. As Co-chair of the Filipino Mental Health Initiative of San Mateo County and Expressive Arts Therapist, Stephanie leans on her belief in the transformative healing power of the arts, especially as it relates to her continuous decolonial healing journey. She is the co-founder/Senior Director of Kapwa Kultural Center/Café: a social enterprise cultural center in SF/Bay Area that aims to increase access to culturally attuned mental health support and provide an intergenerationally engaging, healing & creative, gathering space for the Filipina/o/x community. 


  • Proud Filipino American, Mikey blends a decade of culinary experience from the food and beverage industry with Ethnic Studies pedagogy as the new Business Development Manager at Kapwa Kultural Center. He brings cultural storytelling to the kitchen, serving drinks and food with meaning while building community through his love for food, comics, movies, and culture.


  • Christi (she/her/hers) is a proud Pinay & neurodivergent. She is also an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, who is passionate about helping others achieve wellness which is why she pursued a career in mental health after being a journalist for almost a decade. She wants to help community members break the cycle and heal wounds of unspoken intergenerational trauma. Born on occupied Karankawa Land (Corpus Christi, Texas) in 1977, she and her family moved to the Philippines in 1991, where she graduated from high school and studied at UP Los Banos for two years. Throughout this period, she recognized the legacy of colonialism, and its impact on her mental health and her family members. She splits her time between providing therapy to youth, co-creating KKC, and advocating for equitable mental health services for the Filipinx community as a Co-chair of the Filipino Mental Health Initiative of San Mateo County. She is also a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor: training others to identify signs of mental health or substance use challenges and how to encourage folx to seek appropriate help. 

  • Angelica Macalisang (she/her) is a second generation Filipina American. Her maternal and paternal roots trace back to the Visayas region of the Philippines. She was born and raised in Salinas, California where she was surrounded by a farmworking family and community. She attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and earned a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies and a B.S. in Animal Sciences. She moved to the Bay Area to pursue an M.A. in Asian American Studies at SFSU. She also teaches with Pin@y Educational Partnerships at Denman Middle School and Balboa High School. Her experiences in Western sciences and her family’s ancestral medicine influenced her interest in bridging Western medicines and Filipino ancestral medicine. She co-authored an entry in the The SAGE Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies, titled “Decolonial Healing Practices.” She is deeply invested in remembering and sharing her own ancestral healing practices through familial and community engagement.

  • Alaina (she.her.hers) is a 2.5 generation Filipina American, who was born and raised on the island of Guahan. She moved to the bay area in 2005 and eventually settled on the ancestral, unceded land of the Ramaytush Ohlone people, where she studied Health Education and Public Health from SFSU and USF. Her background includes working in education, health and wellness, and Ethnic Studies. She mentored youth at multiple non-profit organizations, public schools, and social justice spaces that centers collective liberation. While her heart work focuses on creating culturally responsive health and wellness interventions to better serve marginalized communities, her purpose is to implement decolonial and ancestral medicine practices as primary care prevention methods in achieving health equity. She is committed to serving the youth and community by encouraging them to be transformative agents of change in all spaces they are a part of. Alaina currently works at Kapwa Kultural Center and Café, which is the first Social Business Enterprise Cafe in Daly City providing holistic, culturally responsive behavioral health services to Filipina/x/o youth through art, entrepreneurship, cultural identity, and decolonial wellness practices.

The Pinays and Community Behind Kapwa Kultural Center

Steph, Christi, and Alaina answer questions on all things KKC, including it’s birth story! Get to know the Pinays behind the special social enterprise café and they share details of this heart work. Glimpses of community gatherings, events, talks, and more are also shared in this well-made video.

Video recording, editing, and producing by: CK V., Irah T., Janine P., Jersey R.