About Kirin
Kirin Amiling Macapugay, MSW, has worked in education, health and human services, and various not for profit organizations in San Diego since 1998, primarily in organizations serving API and other under-represented communities. In 2015, she founded Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions (APICA). She is currently a professor of Human Services and Social Work at San Diego City College. In 2016 and was awarded “Professor of the Year” by San Diego State University students, where she taught before coming on to lead the San Diego City College's Human Services Department. She helped design the PEER Program, the first college based curriculum and pipeline project for people wanting to work with communities experiencing homelessness.
Macapugay served on the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and was past Chairwoman of the Cultural Arts Commission for the City of Chula Vista. She co-founded IKAT Indigenous Knowledge, Art, and Truth, a group of Indigenous scholars and community organizers from the Philippines. She is Chair for Made in Paradise Hills, serves on the advisory for People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation, and is a mentor for San Diego Leadership Alliance fellows.
Kirin with some of her phenomenal San Diego City College students
Macapugay has been featured by Voyager San Diego Magazine, This Filipino American Life, Yellow Ranger, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Filipino Press, Asian Journal, the National Association of Social Workers. She published her first textbook on social work in 2019 has been featured in: Impower You, Oviedo; The Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader, Nievera-Lozano and Santa Ana; Representation over Visibility, Oleano; and Reclaiming our Stories, Alexander, et al. In January of 2017, Kirin was honored as a “Present Day Civil Rights Woman Leader” by RISE San Diego, the first event of its kind in the county.
She was formerly a founding board advisor for Break the Silence Against Domestic Violence, an advisor for San Diego Gas and Electric, and the Diversity and Inclusion Chair for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, San Diego.
Kirin has delivered keynote speeches, lectures, and presentations for hundreds of media outlets, colleges, organizations, companies, and community groups.
2019: Kirin speaking on a panel for10 News ABC San Diego KGTV Segment on Homelessness in San Diego. Left to right: 10 News anchor Steve Atkinson, San Diego Mayor Faulconer, Councilmember Chris Ward, Alpha Project’s Bob McElroy, SDPD Homeless Task Force Scott Wahl, Solutions for Change Chris Meggett, and yours truly.
Building community
APICA: Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions
Kirin foudned APICA: Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions,an organization serving as a hub for grassroots projects enhancing the lives of Asian Pacific Islander (API) Americans and other communities. Current projects include the Kuya Ate Mentorship Program, and the People's Collective for Justice and Liberation. APICA served as supports for efforts including Made in Paradise Hills, Viet Vote, and FilAmFest, Project Reo Collective holiday events.
Photo: 2018 Made in Paradise Hills Night Market, San Diego, CA
Information at: APICA
IKAT: Indigenous Knowledge, Art, and Truth
Kirin co-founded IKAT. IKAT stands for Indigenous, Knowledge, Art, & Truth — is the voices of Indigenous People from the Philippines, currently living in the United States, educating since 2007. The group's primary goal is to provide education on the complex sociopolitical history, identities, culture, and current day situations faced by Indigenous People from the Philippines living in the diaspora.
Photo: 2019 Photoshoot for collaboration with BRNWGRLZ and Bayani Art for handcrafted earring collection to benefit the Igorot Global Organization Scholarship Fund, supporting Igorot students in the Philippines as they attended university.
Information at: IKAT VOICES