Meet Mon Yuck Yu—a public health advocate and community leader working to change the narrative for immigrant families like her own by closing critical resource gaps. The daughter of immigrants and raised by a single parent, Mon Yuck draws inspiration from the strong, independent women in her life, serving her community with passion and purpose. She is the co-founder and a current Board member of the Academy of Medical & Public Health Services (AMPHS), a nonprofit founded in 2010 dedicated to dismantling healthcare barriers for underserved immigrant populations. AMPHS now serves more than 10,000 individuals annually. Mon Yuck was inspired to launch the organization after witnessing the challenges her father—an immigrant—faced accessing care while battling a terminal illness during her childhood. Since its founding, she has led strategic planning, operations, community engagement, and development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mon Yuck spearheaded emergency relief efforts, including food and cash assistance, while building a coordinated network of community stakeholders to support the local pandemic response. In Sunset Park, she has led community safety programs offering bystander intervention training, self-defense workshops, safe zone planning, and arts-based unity initiatives. Fluent in four languages, Mon Yuck brought her translation skills to our self-defense seminars—seamlessly delivering instructions in Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. She also collaborated with me to translate a reading of Where’s Tuo Tuo at the AMPHS Lunar New Year Festival.
