Sokthea Phay
Sokthea Phay (he/him) is the Community Operations Director at the Community Development YMCA of Greater Long Beach. He is an equity and inclusion practitioner with over 14 years of international experience in program management, social inclusion and equity, and youth development. Sokthea has worked for the YMCA for 14 years, including in Cambodia and Zambia, and 9 years in his current post. At the YMCA, Sokthea leads the New American Welcome Center Program and supports all programs at this YMCA to create local frameworks on welcoming, belonging, equity, and inclusion. He is the founder of the YMCA’s Week of Equity and has worked with many receiving communities and established many local immigrant/newcomer integration efforts to serve undocumented immigrant youth and refugee communities. Sokthea immigrated to the U.S from Cambodia in 2013. In 2019, he was appointed as the U.S Representative of the World Alliance of YMCAs United Nations Advocacy Group. He holds a B.A. in Teaching English from Norton University, and in Spring 2023, will start a master's degree program, majoring in Non-profit Management.