I participated in Asian American Disinfo Table's teach-in series which focused on various case studies from the recent report, Where Do We Go From Here? Asian Americans, Diaspora, and Disinformation. 

On June 24, 2025, Tayo presented at “Modern Day Impact of Historical Misinfo” teach in with Malaya Movement USA and NCAPA. Tayo covered the Historical Uses of Disinformation in the Philippines as Weapons of Authoritarian Rule and Empire” and how historical context plays a role in Tayo’s work.

My Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented on “Community Journalism Across Asian Diasporas” panel at the International Communication Association conference in Denver, Colorado on June 15, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Denver. The presentation, “No Automation but People Driven: Culturally Tailoring Content” unpacked Tayo’s work in the space.

The panel brought together practitioners, researchers, and journalists involved in Asian diasporic community journalism to discuss recent findings and reflect on ongoing initiatives including moderator Rachel Kuo, Sarah Nguyen of VietFactCheck and Kavitha Rajagopalan from CUNY’s Center for Community Media.

My Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented at Filipino Americans Coming Together (FACT) conference at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on December 7, 2024

We conducted a workshop on how to identify misinformation called, “This seems Suss: Sharpening Skills to Sniff Out Misinfo.”

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented at the Connecticut Advanced Computing Center at College of Engineering, University of Connecticut as part of the last all hands meeting marking the close of the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s #ConvergenceAccelerator grant supporting the CoInsights project led by Meedan.

For the last two years, FYLPRO’s Tayo has been working with all the project’s partners and collaborators including Viet Fact Check, UMass Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Department off Communication’s Global Technology for Social Justice Lab, University of Colorado Boulder, Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, Piyaoba, and DesiFacts.

Tayo cofounders Dr. Melissa Palma, Mark Calaguas and I presented on media literacy tactics at the 2024 Filipino American National Historical Society’s conference in Houston, Texas on July 18, 2024.

Our session, “Care Before You Share: Community Centered Approach to Confronting Misinfo,” was part of the South by Swap meet portion of the conference where participants were able to converse with the team directly in a shared area.

I presented on the importance of culturally tailoring information on a panel called “Fighting Misinformation Through Digital Forensics in the Classroom and Newsroom” at the International Communication Association conference in Gold Coast, Australia on June 20, 2024 at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Center.

The panel included journalism and communication academics and practitioners combating misinformation including Magdalena Saldana, Kim Fox, Kristina Vera-Phillips and moderated by Steve Bien-Aime.

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I along with Meedan CoInsights team and fellow academic and community partners from UMass, UConn, Viet Fact Check, Piyoba presented on the consortium’s work harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to support the media literacy efforts of grassroots AAPI orgs.

This was the first external talk as a collective and it was wonderful to be welcomed by such a thoughtful and engaged audience at the University of Colorado at Boulder on May 2, 2024.

I presented Tayo’s Coinsights project with FYLPRO Executive Vice President and Tayo cofounder and product counsel Mark Calaguas at the National Communication Association Conference via “Misinformation, Social Media, and Equity among Asian American and Pacific Islanders” panel as part of the NCA pre conference session, “Using intersectional approaches in equity focused applied communication research: insights from multidisciplinary teams.” The panel was organized by partner/collaborator Natasha Shrikant of University of Colorado Boulder and included Madhavi Reddi of York College of Pennsylvania and Larrisa I. Miller of University of Massachusetts amherst. We emphasized how multidisciplinary teams led to create culturally tailored content to battle misinformation.

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I attended offsite with our partners for Coinsights project Meedan, Viet Fact, DesiFacts and Piyaoba at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 2, 2023.

We presented on Tayo’s current progress in battling misinformation

I led a breakout session on combating misinformation with Tayo cofounder and product counsel Mark Calaguas at The Emancipator’s Racial Reporting Convening.

I was a panelist on “The Luce Series: Disinformation & Democracy” at the 2023 Asian American Journalists Association convention in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2023.

The panel was moderated by MSNBC’s Katie Phang and also featured Mitra Kalita and Lam Thuy Vo.

The panelists discussed how does civil society, government, and journalism as the Fourth Estate, lean in as populism grows worldwide, and AI and emerging technologies disrupt credible sources of news.

I served as a panelist on Asian American Journalists Association Los Angeles Chapter’s 2023 Health Disparities panel series on July 15, 2023 in Little Tokyo’s Terasaki Budokan.

In this second event of AAJA-LA’s health equity series, panelists explored community engagement, a practice that leads to more in-depth reporting by inviting communities being covered to help guide, shape, and participate in the reporting process.

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented at two sessions along with our partners at Meedan and the Asian American Disinformation Table:

“Cross-country collaboration and machine learning to empower diaspora and migrant communities to counter misinformation” on June 6, 2023.

“Diasporic Narratives: Addressing Transnational Disinformation in Asian and Asian American Communities”

I presented Tayo’s work at the International Communication Association (ICA) conference in Toronto, Canada on May 29, 2023.

The conference session, “Disinformation, Polarization, and Propaganda in the Digital Asia Diasporas” was part of larger series of talks.

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented Tayo’s work alongside fellow community partners VietFactCheck, Piyaoba and Desifacts for Meedan project on April 20, 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Tayo cofounder Mark Calaguas and I presented Tayo's work at a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM)’s Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science: A Public Workshop on April 19, 2023 in Washington, D.C.

The panel presentation was “Differential Impacts of Science Misinformation,” which was moderated by Nadine Barrett and included Cabral Bigman-Galimore, Roberta Braga, Jason Young.

I presented at the Independent News Sustainability Summit in Austin, Texas on October 27, 2022. I was part of the panel, "Where's my audience?: Finding the right vehicle for your work" where she presented on FYLPRO's Tayo work on combating misinformation within the Filipino community and tips to better engage with communities.

I was joined by three other publishers who have met audiences in the right spaces: Maya Chupkov on using the audio format for a podcast on stuttering, Ryan Sorrell on reaching Gen Z and Black audiences on social, and Travers Johnson on building a huge TikTok following for the LGBTQ+ audienc

I participated in #FilipinxAmericansinSTEAM's 6th Annual Conference #FASTERCON #FASTERCON22 on October 1, 2022.

I presented at Perspectives event at 2022 Online News Association conference in Los Angeles, on September 22, 2022.

This event was held at East West Players, the nation's premier Asian American Theater, where we discussed the role of community-led support.

I along with and Tayo research team member Sheena Faye Garcia presented at the 2022 Filipino American National Historical Society's conference in Seattle, Washington on August 13, 2022.

Our presentation, “Examining the feasibility of a virtual platform in understanding and addressing COVID-19 related concerns among Filipino Americans in Los Angeles” was a retrospective on how the Tayo project impacted the community.

I presented on a session called, “You’d Better Know Your Audience: Lessons from CNNMoney’s War Room.”

Using data to understand your audience is more critical than ever. CNNMoney has developed and deployed the latest technologies to fuel its growth into one of the top five financial news sites

I shared how my team relies on and exploits audience data to program, present and package multimedia editorial content across desktop, mobile and social media platforms.

I was panelist for Session 15: Filipino Americans and Cultural Values that held on June 23, 2016 at John Jay College in New York, NY.

Session 15: Filipino Americans and Cultural Values

Oscar Peñaranda, Anthony Abulencia Santa Ana, Leezel Tanglao, Louie Anne Batac

This panel will consist of three presentations:

“Filipino and Filipino American sensibilities: a comparison” by Oscar Peñaranda and Anthony Abulencia Santa Ana. Presenters will discuss differences and sameness of sensibilities in Filipinos in the Philippines and Filipinos in the US, as well as core values, especially ones misunderstood.

“Utang ng loob: Why I’m carrying the debt of two generations” by Leezel Tanglao. When the author became an accidental homeowner at age 25, she was surprised by the reaction she received when her piece was published on CNNMoney. Both Filipino and non-Filipino readers said the story was inspiring, but her decision was a no-brainer- a deep appreciation of utang ng loob (debt of reciprocity).

“The sacrificial lamb: Perspectives of Tiis, Pakisama, and Hiya” by Louie Anne Batac. The values of tiis, pakisama, and hiya have undoubtedly served a critical role in making Filipino-Americans one of the most adaptable and resilient groups in Asian America today.  To meet future challenges, it is equally critical for us to learn how we can adjust and build on these values for a better way of life in the United States and globally.