(Re)Introducing GAR’s Executive Director: Roksana!
As Grassroots Asians Rising’s Coordinating Committee, we are honored and proud to welcome Roksana Mun into the role of Executive Director. Since she joined GAR in 2022, Roksana has played a significant role in helping GAR evolve. As Co-Director with Cathy Dang, Roksana built our membership infrastructure from the ground up, grew our network to include 34 strong grassroots organizations from across the country, and deepened our collective commitment to rigorous basebuilding of working-class communities.
Roksana’s clear-eyed and values-driven leadership is much-needed during this chaotic time when Asian Americans and all communities of color have faced heightened violence, scapegoating, and uncertainty.
This transition reflects the deep thought and intention of the Coordinating Committee. We are choosing Roksana as a leader who not only understands GAR’s vision, but has helped build it alongside us, our members, and our movement partners. As the Coordinating Committee we are committed to walking alongside Roksana in this transition, supporting her leadership, and continue to strengthen the power of our Asian American movement together.
In struggle and solidarity,
Grassroots Asians Rising’s Coordinating Committee
APEN, AYPAL, CPA, DRUM, PrYSM, SEAC Village
We’re proud to support Roksana in stepping into this role and invite you to read her letter, where she shares her journey, political grounding, and vision for GAR’s future.
Dear GAR Community,
I am incredibly honored and excited to step into the role of Executive Director of Grassroots Asians Rising.
Stepping into this role feels both deeply personal and unmistakably political. I’m here because of the people and movements that shaped me, because of the communities that raised me, challenges me, and taught me that real change only comes when working-class people organize and claim our power together.
I grew up working-class in NYC in the shadow of 9/11, in a time when fear, surveillance, racism, and violence against Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities were daily realities. I experienced the creation of DHS and ICE, the expansion of the global War on Terror, and the normalization of “national security” as the justification for the scapegoating, kidnapping, expulsion and destabilization of everyday life of many people in our communities in the U.S. and abroad. These events didn’t just politicize me; these events made clear that safety, dignity, and justice must be won for all of us through collective struggle and solidarity.
When I was 17 years old, I found my first political home at DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving, a Coordinating Committee member of GAR). DRUM was the first place where I saw working-class South Asians like myself, organizing on our own terms. We didn’t wait for permission, didn’t rely on the wealthy or self-appointed leaders to speak for us, and didn’t compromise our values for proximity to power. DRUM invested in me as a youth member, later as a youth organizer, and later as the Director of Strategy and Training, and in doing so, changed the trajectory of my life to be dedicated to building the grassroots power and leadership of working-class people.
That investment is at the heart of what Grassroots Asians Rising has always stood for. GAR exists because Asian American community leaders wanted to invest, resource, and support grassroots organizing of our own communities. Grassroots leadership rooted in working-class, immigrant and refugee communities is not only necessary for us to win power, but transformative for our communities. Coming from grassroots organizing, I am a product of that investment. I joined GAR first as the Co-Director in 2021, and now as Executive Director, I am committed to deepening it for the generations to come.
GAR’s vision is clear: We center our membership of grassroots organizations. We take responsibility for growing the grassroots organizing power of working-class, pan-Asian communities across regions, cultures, and histories. We invest in organizers, member leaders, and organizations that are rooted in community, accountable to their base, and willing to fight for systemic change.
We are living in a critical moment. White nationalism, authoritarianism, and economic exploitation are converging, while working-class communities are bearing the brunt of the violence. In these times, GAR will continue to project leadership by strengthening the ecosystem of grassroots organizing that makes real, durable change possible.
As I step into this role, I invite you to be part of GAR’s next chapter. Will you make a donation to support working-class pan-Asian leadership, grassroots organizers, and the long-term power of our communities? Your support is how we sustain organizing, develop new leaders, and ensure that our movements are accountable to the people most impacted. If you believe in grassroots power, in working-class leadership, and in a future where our communities don’t just survive but lead, make a contribution to Grassroots Asians Rising today.
With deep gratitude,
Roksana Mun
Executive Director
Grassroots Asians Rising