A Celebration for Resilience
featuring
Chef José Andrés
and performance artist
Kristina Wong
To the entire ASU community and our esteemed guests, we send our heartfelt thanks for making our Celebration for Resilience an unforgettable event. It was a night where the sparks of innovation and the spirit of community shone brightly at ASU Gammage.
A special round of applause goes to Chef José Andrés and Kristina Wong for stirring conversations on food security and community resilience. Their insights underscored the evening, reminding us that together, we can cultivate strong, sustainable communities.
Dr. Elizabeth Wentz, our guiding force, eloquently framed the evening, setting the tone for a night of impactful dialogue. The spotlight shone on the Resilience Fellows and Scholars, whose dedication to resilience was the star of our poster session, illustrating the transformative work happening at ASU.
We're proud to honor TigerMountain Foundation with the 2023 Resilience Prize (video below!), a testament to their remarkable work in our community.
Our sponsors, including Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project, deserve a standing ovation for their support, which enables us to reach new heights.
The energy and participation from each one of you and from our ASU partners (listed below) were the true highlights of the evening. We warmly invite you to continue celebrating with us by enjoying the event photos, posted below. Please feel free to post and share any of these moments on social media -- and please tag us @ASUResilience on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and for being an integral part of ASU's pursuit of innovation and resilience.
#Celebration2023 #ASUResilience
With Sun Devil pride,
The Knowledge Exchange for Resilience Team
View photos on Facebook | View photos on LinkedIn
Special thanks to our contributing ASU partners
ASU Library
College of Health Solutions
College of Integrative Sciences
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Decision Theatre
Future of Innovation in Society
Global Futures Laboratory
Graduate College
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
School of Complex Adaptive Systems
School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
School of Politics and Global Studies
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems
Watts College for Public Service and Community Solutions
Sponsored in part by
About Chef José Andrés
Named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” in both 2012 and 2018 and recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal, José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, author, educator, humanitarian, and chef/owner of José Andrés Group.
A pioneer of Spanish tapas in the United States, he is also known for his groundbreaking avant-garde cuisine and his award-winning group of nearly three dozen restaurants located throughout the country and beyond. José Andrés Group’s concepts include the two Michelin-starred minibar by José Andrés in Washington, DC, the acclaimed NYC food hall Mercado Little Spain, and multiple locations of the Bazaar by José Andrés. José has received the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Chef” and "Humanitarian of the Year" awards.
Andrés is a committed advocate of food and hunger issues and is known for championing the role of chefs in the national debate on food policy. In 2010, Andrés formed World Central Kitchen, a non-profit specializing in delivering food relief in the wake of natural and humanitarian disasters. Since serving nearly 4 million meals to the people of Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria, World Central Kitchen has responded to dozens of disasters worldwide and distributing tens of millions of meals in the process. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization has partnered with restaurants, small farms, and community leaders around the country to combat food insecurity. A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Spain, Andrés has been a tireless advocate for immigration reform and on July 4, 2014 was named by President Barack Obama as that year’s “Outstanding American by Choice.”
Chef Andrés is the author of several books, including his memoir "We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time."
This book chronicles his experience leading the disaster relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.
In "We Fed an Island," Chef Andrés describes how he and his nonprofit organization, World Central Kitchen, mobilized to provide hot meals to residents in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the hurricane. He details the challenges they faced, including logistical obstacles and bureaucratic red tape, and how they were able to overcome them to serve millions of meals to those in need.
The book also delves into Chef Andrés' philosophy on food as a tool for social change. He argues that access to fresh, healthy food is a basic human right and that food can be used to address a wide range of social issues, from poverty and hunger to climate change and economic inequality.
About Kristina Wong
Kristina Wong is a Doris Duke Artist Award winner, Guggenheim Fellow and a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Drama. She’s a performance artist, comedian, actor and writer who has been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa.
She’s been a guest on late night shows on NBC, Comedy Central and FX. She starred in her own pilot presentation with Lionsgate for truTV. Her commentaries have appeared on American Public Media’s Marketplace, PBS, VICE, Jezebel, Playgirl Magazine, Huffington Post and CNN. She’s been awarded artist residencies from MacDowell, San Diego Airport and Ojai Playwrights Festival.
She is concurrently the Artist-in-Residence at ASU Gammage and the Kennedy Center Social Practice Resident until 2026. Her work has been awarded with support from Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, National Performance Network, a COLA Master Artist Fellowship from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, nine Los Angeles Artist-in-Residence awards, Center Theatre Group’s Sherwood Award, the Art Matters Foundation, and the Joan D. Firestone Commissioning Fund from En Garde Arts.
Her recent “Kristina Wong for Public Office” was simultaneously a real life stint as the elected Sub-district 5 representative of Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council and rally campaign show.
That show was filmed for Center Theater Group’s Digital Stage where she’s also a Creative Collective member.
She's created and directed original theater works with residents of LA's Skid Row, the Bus Riders Union, undocumented immigrants, and most recently the formerly incarcerated Asian Pacific Islanders members of API Rise.
Kristina founded Auntie Sewing Squad, a national mutual aid network of volunteers that sewed cloth masks for vulnerable communities during the Covid pandemic.
Their book “The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care and Racial Justice is published by the University of California Press. Her role in the Auntie Sewing Squad is the subject of her currently touring “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord”— a “New York Times Critics Pick” that premiered off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop. The show won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for “Outstanding Solo Performance”.
Read more about Kristina Wong
Sponsored in part by