Continuing our Board Member Spotlight Series, we are pleased to introduce three new members of the CCACC Board of Directors: Crystal Ku Downs, Xiaoping Shao, and Dr. Yan Gu. With extensive experience spanning design and innovation, healthcare, scientific research, and regulatory affairs, they bring diverse professional perspectives as well as a shared commitment to community service. Their expertise and dedication will bring new ideas and energy to CCACC’s continued growth.
Crystal Ku Downs: Connecting Creativity and Community Through Design
Crystal Ku Downs is a product and graphic designer with more than 20 years of experience. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has worked across a variety of fields, including web startups, exhibit design, advertising, and digital product design.
In 2007, Crystal joined WeddingWire, where she played an important role in the growth of the company’s design team. Over nearly a decade of team leadership, she gained extensive experience in developing design processes, cultivating talent, and fostering cross-functional collaboration. She later chose to return to hands-on design work, reflecting her passion for creating thoughtful solutions. Today, she runs her own independent design studio, working with clients on product strategy, user experience, and visual design.
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Beyond her professional work, Crystal has been actively involved in community service. Over the years, she has volunteered through her children’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), supporting library programs, fundraising activities, student groups, and programs that provide weekend meals for families in need. This year, she will serve as Treasurer of the Marshall Road Elementary PTA. She is also an active volunteer with Food for Others, supporting local families experiencing food insecurity.
As a Chinese American, Crystal grew up with strong ties to the Chinese Culture Center in Atlanta. Her experiences there gave her a deep appreciation for the role community organizations play in preserving culture, fostering a sense of belonging, and connecting families across generations. As a new CCACC Board member, she looks forward to bringing her design thinking, collaborative experience, and passion for community service to support CCACC’s continued growth.
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Xiaoping Shao: Advancing Mental Health and Community Well-Being
Xiaoping Shao is a licensed psychiatrist with more than 20 years of clinical experience. Throughout her career, she has been committed to providing compassionate, evidence-based, and culturally responsive mental health care to adults and older adults. She currently serves as the lead inpatient psychiatrist at the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Virginia, where she provides clinical leadership, oversees complex inpatient psychiatric care, and works with multidisciplinary teams to serve veterans with diverse mental health needs.
Dr. Shao graduated from Shanghai Second Medical University, now Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, where she later participated in medical education and clinical training. After coming to the United States, she received research training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focusing on central nervous system development, before completing her psychiatry residency training.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Shao has long been dedicated to community mental health. In 2015, she joined physicians, social workers, educators, and community volunteers in founding the Mental Health 360 Project. With strong support from CCACC, the project has spent more than a decade raising mental health awareness, reducing stigma surrounding mental illness, and promoting communication and understanding within Asian immigrant families. In recent years, the project’s work has also been presented at professional conferences, including meetings of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
Dr. Shao has also served for many years as a volunteer physician with CCACC’s Pan Asian Volunteer Health Clinic, providing psychiatric services to underserved members of the Asian American community. As a new member of the CCACC Board, she hopes to draw on her clinical, research, and community service experience to advance mental and physical health education, improve access to care, and strengthen connections between CCACC and the community.
Dr. Yan Gu: Connecting Science, Regulation, and Community
Dr. Yan Gu brings extensive experience across medicine, life sciences, food safety regulation, and regulatory consulting. He studied medicine at Baotou Medical College, later earning a Master of Science degree from East Stroudsburg University and a doctoral degree from The Ohio State University.
Dr. Gu began his career in general surgery at Peking University People’s Hospital. He later conducted research in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine, focusing on gene regulation and physiological changes in the endometrium during pregnancy. He subsequently joined the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR).
Dr. Gu later worked at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), where his responsibilities included safety evaluations, regulatory review, and risk management related to food additives and color additives. He subsequently expanded his scientific and regulatory experience into regulatory consulting at Keller and Heckman LLP, advising clients on risk assessment and management as well as regulatory compliance for product development and marketing in the United States, European Union, and China.
Beyond his professional career, Dr. Gu has remained engaged in Chinese American community and educational initiatives, including service with Hope Chinese School and the Association of Chinese-American Scientists and Engineers (ACSE). As a new CCACC Board member, he brings extensive experience in medicine, scientific research, food safety, regulatory affairs, and risk management, adding valuable professional perspectives to CCACC and its community.
From design and innovation to healthcare, scientific research, food safety, and regulatory affairs, these three new Board members further broaden the range of expertise represented on the CCACC Board of Directors. Despite their different professional paths, they share a strong commitment to giving back and serving the community.
CCACC looks forward to their contributions as they bring their professional expertise and community experience to the Board, working alongside fellow Board members and staff to advance cultural heritage, community service, and the organization’s continued growth.
Stay tuned for Part III of our “CCACC Welcomes New Board Members” spotlight series.
