Lian Cheun shares a deep passion for teaching young people to be socially conscious, politically active, and empowering them to make a difference in their communities – especially in Long Beach.
With a lifelong career in youth development and social justice organizations, Cheun has served as the executive director of Khmer Girls in Action for the past 15 years.
“I feel very committed to supporting young people, to empower them,” she said during an interview, “so that their voices are heard and so that they themselves feel like they have active agency in creating change in their lives, in the lives of their families, and the community that they live in.”
Khmer Girls in Action, a Long Beach nonprofit, is led by Southeast Asian women and youth aimed at supporting racial, gender and economic justice, according to its website. Through leadership programs, the nonprofit has equipped hundreds of young people with the tools to lead campaigns, influence policy, and shape the future of Long Beach.
The nonprofit’s leader was recently recognized for her leadership at Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) and her impact on strengthening democracy through youth leadership, organizing, and cultural healing.
Cheun was one of the recipients of this year’s James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards, which recognize nonprofit leaders whose innovative solutions to critical state challenges improve people’s lives, create opportunity and contribute to a better California, according to the foundation’s website.
“To get acknowledged, it felt really validating, and I also felt really humbled by it,” Cheun said. “I also feel like any leadership award, for me at least, it’s really only possible because there’s a team of amazing people working together to make things happen.”
Throughout the years, the leadership team at KGA has grown, Cheun said, with people who have a similar passion for empowering youth.
Working at the nonprofit has been a full-circle moment as well, she added, because from a young age, Cheun has been part of youth leadership organizations.
Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls in Action, stands in front of a mural showcasing youth leaders on Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026, at her office in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Khmer Girls in Action is a nonprofit in Long Beach — led by Southeast Asian women and youth — aimed at supporting racial, gender, and economic justice. (Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action)
Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls in Action, appears on Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026, at her Long Beach headquarters. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Khmer Girls in Action hosted “A Nightmare on 6th Street,” an interactive haunted house experience focused on voter education on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action)
Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls in Action, stands in front of a canvas depicting Cambodia Town on Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026, at her Long Beach headquarters. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Khmer Girls in Action is a nonprofit in Long Beach — led by Southeast Asian women and youth — aimed at supporting racial, gender, and economic justice. (Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action)
Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls in Action, stands in front of a mural showcasing youth leaders on Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026, at the headquarters of Khmer Girls in Action in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Khmer Girls in Action hosted “A Nightmare on 6th Street,” an interactive haunted house experience focused on voter education on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action)
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Lian Cheun, executive director of Khmer Girls in Action, stands in front of a mural showcasing youth leaders on Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2026, at her office in Long Beach. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
When her family escaped the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, they resettled in Oakland. She eventually became a youth organizer with the Kids First! Campaign. As a youth organizer, she learned about Khmer Girls in Action, she said, and was amazed to learn about an organization that uplifted young women from Southeast Asian communities.
Cheun continued her work and helped fund youth programs, fought for educational and health justice, volunteered and trained for numerous get-out-the-vote efforts in the Alameda County Labor Council, and fought for workers’ rights regionally and internationally, according to the KGA website. In 2007, Cheun helped the Migrant Forum in Asia organize the first regional, migrant domestic workers’ assembly. She was also the former director of the Movement Action Apprenticeship Program at the Center for Third World Organizing.
After returning from Asia, she said she moved to Long Beach to connect with the larger Cambodian community. The coastal city has become a second home for many Cambodians, as Long Beach is now home to the largest population of Cambodians outside of the Southeast Asian country itself.
She then reconnected with KGA and joined the organization in 2009, and became executive director in 2011. Under her leadership, KGA has grown from a grassroots organization into a nonprofit that plays a major role in Long Beach youth organizing and even gives youth a voice on how city funds are spent.
Long Beach’s Youth Power Participatory Budget is a citywide participatory budget process that empowers youth residents to delegate how funds are spent on community projects. The program is organized by the health department’s Office of Youth Development, in partnership with the Nonprofit Partnership, Invest in Youth Coalition – anchored by Khmer Girls in Action – and Cal State Long Beach.
Last year, Long Beach youth voters directed funding to 11 nonprofits and city projects, including summer programs, sports and housing assistance.
Young people are rarely given real decision-making power in government. Long Beach’s participatory budgeting process changes that for local youth, Cheun said.
This process also helps KGA teach young voters how to do research and learn about issues in their community, how to identify disinformation and misinformation, and how to be curious and ask questions about what they are deciding on.
“A key goal around participatory budgeting is to tap into the muscle of voting,” Cheun said, “understanding voting power, and for young people to really see how important that is to our democracy, especially right now that feels like a very fragile thing too.
KGA also integrates cultural music, dance and storytelling with political organizing and advocacy training, helping youth build a strong cultural identity while developing as community leaders.
Social justice and empowering young people to create change is a personal journey of healing for Cheun, she said, and it is also what inspires her to continue working with them. Many of whom continue to face similar challenges that she did growing up, as children of immigrants and refugees, many young people have to work through their family’s trauma.
For example, a 2005 study of Cambodian refugees in Long Beach who had survived the violence of the Khmer Rouge showed that 62% had PTSD and 51% had depression.
Many children of immigrants and refugees also serve as their family’s connectors – from translating language to navigating the U.S. social safety net, Cheun said.
“I still feel that a lot of our young people are still doing that,” she said. “It’s not that things have changed dramatically from some of the struggles I remember growing up with, and so to me it’s a really personal journey because we all went through various forms of trauma and it takes a lot to figure out how to heal from all that, and to feel empowered enough to create change.”
Khmer Girls in Action works on creating a culture of wellness and healing in individual lives and the community in order to achieve social justice, according to the nonprofit’s website. Organizers help guide youth in addressing intergenerational trauma and creating and furthering practices of thriving and sustainability.
The award also allows for leaders to share their approaches with policymakers and peers, and provides each of the organizations with a grant of $350,000 and additional resources, according to the foundation’s website.
KGA will use the grant to expand its youth decision-making power beyond Long Beach’s city budget to county, state, and school district levels, as well as investing funds to remodel the nonprofit’s headquarters to have a new media and arts studio, where youth and community can come together for cultural expression and advocacy work, Cheun said.
The nonprofit’s work will begin to ramp up as local youth begin to help educate voters on this year’s election and city budget process – helping set Long Beach’s priorities.
Cheun’s passion for working with young people continues, she said, as they are passionate, willing to learn, and share information with their friends, family and community on what can help make their city a better place to live.
“I feel like an investment in them is like an investment in the larger community as a whole,” Cheun said.