Founder & Vision Steward
Lykun Chea
Lykun grew up watching women carry three generations on their backs — while remaining invisible.
An immigrant mother of three, she knows what it feels like to be both everything and no one — to give care, hold a family together, and never be called by your name.
After 15 years building businesses across real estate, retail, and innovation, she saw the flaw:
Women like her were building the world, but were never credited with holding it up.
So she founded CHEA — not as a nonprofit, but as a correction.
Today, as a PhD candidate in Business, she leads CHEA with conviction and cultural truth.
“I created CHEA for the women who work for love and die without a title.”
Senior Advisor & Legacy Architect
Dr. Piseth Sim (Dr. CarePreneur™)
Dr. Piseth Sim has spent 25 years walking the line between medicine and memory.
A medical doctor and author of Before the Fall, he began his journey as a village translator for foreign doctors during Cambodia’s post-war years. Later, he trained over 3,000 doctors through DAUYFC and co-led free care missions to every province in the country.
Today, he holds an EB1A Green Card and runs healthcare ventures in the U.S., but he never forgot the patients who wept — not because they were in pain, but because they were forgotten.
He brings to CHEA a rare blend of clinical excellence, business acuity, and cultural compassion.
“Life is only memory. That’s why the final chapter must be beautiful.”
Cultural Preservation Fellow, Forgotten Wisdom Project
Karona
Srey Leak is not just an anthropologist — she is a keeper of fading stories.
She travels province to province in Cambodia, sitting at the feet of midwives, grandmothers, and monks — capturing the vanishing rituals of care passed down by word, not textbook.
As the lead fellow in the Forgotten Wisdom Project, she records not just what elders did, but what they felt:
the warmth in their hands, the reasons behind the herbs, the silence after goodbye.
Her fluency in both Khmer and French helps her navigate between tradition and translation, ensuring that nothing sacred is lost in the telling.
“Our grandmothers carried the code of care in their hands. We record it before it’s lost.”
Support CHEA INSTITUTE Today
Global Operations Liaison
Global Operations Liaison
Global Operations Liaison
James is the bridge.
Based in San Diego, he connects CHEA’s fieldwork in Cambodia with the systems and reporting needs of global partners and donors.
With a background in nonprofit finance and international health, he makes sure every woman trained, every elder reached, and every dollar donated is seen, tracked, and aligned.
He believes that operations, when done right, don’t just support impact — they multiply it.
CHEA Listening Council
Global Operations Liaison
Global Operations Liaison
Honorary Elders from Cambodia & the U.S.
They are not consultants. They are the memory bank.
These rotating panels of elders advise CHEA’s program design, ensuring the system being built feels like home to the people it serves.
They know what good care feels like — and what it feels like to be denied it.
Their wisdom is the compass.
“We’ve lived the story. Now we make sure it’s told right.”
Our Extended Network
Global Operations Liaison
Our Extended Network
We are stronger than the faces on this page.
CHEA is backed by a living, breathing network of:
- 3,000+ medical professionals through DAUYFC Cambodia
- Cambodian-American caregiver leaders across the U.S.
- Cultural experts, midwives, and wisdom-keepers in every province
- Diaspora technologists, educators, and media allies around the world.