WLP Session IV:  Stories Behind the Data will focus on how we can use data – and the importance of data disaggregation – in communicating the full breadth of AANHPI experiences.  This session will focus on inequities facing the AANHPI population in areas including education and public health, while demonstrating how storytelling can be used to explain data and gaps found within. This session will address the impacts of the model minority myth on the AANHPI community and utilize data to debunk it. Lastly, Attendees will be provided resources and strategies to better inform their networks around the significance of disaggregating data within the AANHPI community. Registration for the event will begin at 5:30pm with our program following promptly at 6:00pm. All WLP sessions are free to the public, but seating is limited. Please register online to reserve your seat. Dinner will be provided.  

Speakers

Gem Daus is an award-winning adjunct faculty member of the University of Maryland Asian American Studies Program. His classes are interdisciplinary and emphasize public policy as it intersects with community building and identity. He teaches Filipino American History and Biography, and has also taught Asian American Health and Asian American Sexualities. Gem has published several book chapters as well as numerous policy papers on Asian American and Pacific Islander health.

Gem has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and public, from direct service, to program management, to executive leadership. He has worked for the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), and the American Red Cross. He has led local-national partnerships for improving access to quality health care and increased research for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He was a community liaison to the White House Initiative of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI). He worked on the legislation that eventually led to the formation of the Asian American & Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) designation within the Department of Education. He has also facilitated strategic planning and board development for community-based organizations, including local health clinics and human service providers.

Gem was born in Baguio City, Philippines and completed grade school in Norfolk, Virginia. He completed a BA in History at the University of Virginia and an MA in Organization Development at Marymount University. In his spare time, he volunteers on several boards and dances hula with Halau Nohona Hawaii.

 

Terry Ao Minnis is the director of the census and voting programs for Advancing Justice | AAJC.

Terry co-chairs the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ Census Task Force and sat on the U.S Department of Commerce’s 2010 Census Advisory Committee from 2002 through 2011, when the committee’s charter ran out. She has published several articles, including “When the Voting Rights Act Became Un-American: The Misguided Vilification of Section 203” (Alabama Law Review). Terry has been counsel on numerous amicus briefs filed before the Supreme Court, including Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Arizona v. The InterTribal Council of Arizona, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder and Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. She was also counsel on a joint amicus brief with MALDEF in Bartlett vs. Strickland. She was one of the key leaders in campaigns on reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act in 2006 and Census 2010 and is actively engaged in addressing the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

Terry holds a law degree, cum laude, from American University’s Washington College of Law and a bachelor’s degree in economics at The University of Chicago.

 

 

Ryan Masaaki Yokota is a fourth/second generation Japanese/Okinawan American who currently works as the Legacy Center Manager at the Japanese American Service Committee, and is also teaching as an instructor at DePaul University.  He received his Ph.D. in East Asian – Japanese History at the University of Chicago, and had previously received his M.A. in Asian American Studies at UCLA. He is a co-founder of the Nikkei Chicago website, which highlights untold stories of the Japanese American community in Chicago.

His academic publications include a recent article on Okinawan Indigenousness, a chapter on Okinawan Peruvians in Los Angeles, an article on Japanese and Okinawans in Cuba, and an interview with Asian American Movement activist Pat Sumi.  His articles and op-eds have been featured in the Japan Times, the Ryukyu Shimpo, and the Rafu Shimpo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sejal Singh is the Campaigns and Communications Manager for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at American Progress, where she has worked to expand LGBTQ data collection and establish nondiscrimination protections at all levels of government.

Prior to joining American Progress, Singh worked in the New York State Senate as a legislative aide to state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D), where she focused on affordable housing, homelessness, and higher education policy. Singh is also a columnist at Feministing and a Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for Know Your IX—a national campaign to end gender-based harassment and violence in schools—where she leads state legislative advocacy campaigns. In 2015, she worked closely with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to enhance and pass Enough is Enough, the most progressive statewide legislation to date fighting gender-based violence on college campuses.

Singh graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in political science.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Support for the Stories Behind the Data session is sponsored by Teach for America

More About The Washington Leadership Program

The Washington Leadership Program (WLP) provides a space for young AANHPI students interning in Washington, D.C. to come together, build community, and explore their heritage within the context of public service. Through five sessions over the summer, WLP introduces students to AANHPI public service leaders who can inform and inspire students’ own civic engagement.

The Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) seeks to empower Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) youth by increasing access to public service opportunities and building a strong AANHPI public service pipeline. We envisions a future with equitable AANHPI representation throughout all levels of government and public service.

We encourage you to join our mailing list, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

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**Registration for this event is now closed. Please contact Camille Sanchez (camille.sanchez@capal.org) to be added to a waitlist or for further questions.**

By registering for CAPAL’s Washington Leadership Program, you give permission to be recorded or photographed during the session. Food provided at this event may contain nuts, dairy, gluten, and other allergens. Vegetarian options will be available.

Check out our other WLP sessions!