Gym was born in Seattle, Washington and raised in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio. Her parents were born in Korea and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. Her father was a computer engineer who worked for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. Her mother worked in the food services department at the Ohio State University. Gym has a younger sister. When Gym was growing up, the family attended the Protestant Korean Church. In 1993, Gym graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in history. After leaving college, she returned to Ohio and worked for the Mansfield News Journal as a reporter. In 1994, she worked as a teacher. In 1996, Gym completed her language acquisition master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
Gym has worked as a grassroots community organizer in Philadelphia has been involved in education reform there since 2006. Around that year, she co-founded the Parents United for Public Education. She is a member of the editorial board of Rethinking Schools and one of the founders of The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a nonprofit, independent, free news service. She also co-founded a charter school in Chinatown called the Folk Art Cultural Treasures School. In 2000, Gym led a campaign called the "Stadium Out of Chinatown Coalition" against the construction of a baseball stadium north of Chinatown, due to the fear that it might result in gentrification of the area. She has also led other campaigns. In 2008, she fought against the establishment of the proposed Foxwoods Casino planned near Philadelphia's Chinatown because of the concern that unchecked development would compel longtime residents of that area to move away. She has also organized in opposition to state-sponsored, predatory gambling. In 2009, she worked on a successful federal civil rights case to help stop the bullying and harassment of Asian American students in South Philadelphia High School. The case came about partially due to a series of assaults at the school on December 3, 2009, when as many as thirty Asian immigrant students were attacked and beaten by large groups of African-American students. In her testimony, she called for the commission to require the school and district officials bear responsibility for not addressing the problem, to differentiate bias-based harassment and generalized violence, and take a different approach for each, and to develop effective anti-harassment policies and procedures. One result of the case was the 2014 creation of the AAPI Bullying Prevention Task Force. In 2020, Gym made a cameo on Netflix's Queer Eye to advise a young activist featured on the show.
In January 2016, Gym succeeded newly elected mayor Jim Kenney as a Democratic member of the Philadelphia City Council at-large district. She ran on a platform of housing reform and education. As councilperson, she has worked to ensure that Philadelphia's communities have an equal voice to wealthy entities and lobbyists. She proposes a fair standard of living, especially for schoolchildren, and to combat hunger, lack of housing, and poverty. Following the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Gym posted on Twitter, "All around the country, we're fighting to remove the monuments to slavery & racism. Philly, we have work to do. Take the Rizzo statue down", referring to a statue of former Philadelphia mayor, Frank Rizzo.
Personal life
In 1995, she married Bret Flaherty, a lawyer. They have three children.
Awards and honors
Eddy Award, 2007
White House's "César E. Chávez Champions of Change", 2014
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Citizen of the Year
One of Philadelphia Magazine's 75 most influential people in the city
