Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan is an award-winning author, educator, and activist. She has written more than 450 publications, including children’s books, academic articles, and more. Most of her work addresses Asian American topics. She is currently serving as the inaugural executive director for Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) Affairs and director of the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Center, both at San Diego State University. She is also the co-executive director of the Asian American Education Project. Previously, she was a teacher educator, college professor, K–8 classroom teacher, curriculum designer, and more. She is committed to ensuring that all students learn about APIDA histories and narratives. She was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. A daughter of Chinese-Cambodian refugees, she was the first person in her family to be born in the United States. As such, she was named after the state in which she was born. She currently lives in sunny San Diego with one well-trained husband and two naughty dogs. Virginia has written about Wu Zetian in two other books: Born Reading: 20 Stories of Women Reading Their Way into History (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Empress Wu Zetian (Cherry Lake Publishing, 2024).
