National Day of Service Honoring MLK and National Day of Service: The AAPI Bone Marrow Registry
 Simultaneous to the morning briefing we held on MLK Day, APIAVote also sponsored space for an AAPI bone marrow drive, in response to a four-day call to action by President Barack Obama's National Day of Service Presidential Inaugural Committee liaisons, Director of AAPI Outreach, Charmaine Manansala and PIC Constituency Deputy Director, Betsy Kim. Throughout the briefing, attendees were encouraged to offer patients newfound hope by registering to become a potential bone marrow donor. All APIAVote staff and interns registered as bone marrow donors in solidarity of the national effort.
Ideally, all Americans should have at least a 90% chance of finding a perfect bone marrow match, but great disparities still exist. AAPIs are the 2nd least likely to finding a perfect match. The likelihood is estimated to be as low as 35%, demonstrating the dire need for more AAPI bone marrow donors. Over MLK weekend, hundreds of AAPIs throughout America volunteered in service to America. Dozens of AAPI leaders and AAPI elected officials agreed to organize a bone marrow drive in their community. For more information on how you can volunteer or become a bone marrow donor please visit www.aadp.org.
We thank Elena Ong who spearheaded such efforts with AAPI organizations such as: Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APAP), Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA), Asian American Donor Program (AADP), Asian Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M) and South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters (SAMAR). Photo: Joie Chen
Celebrating AAPI Community & Politics: The Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala
.png) Over 1,500 people attended the Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala on January 19, for which APIAVote was a briefing co-sponsor. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Congressman Mike Honda (Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus), Former Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, Tina Tchen (Director of White House Public Liaison), Maya Soetero Ng and Konrad Ng, the sister and brother-in-law of President Barack Obama, Actor Kal Penn and Actress Kelly Hu were among those in attendance at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We thank Francey Lim Youngberg, Gloria T. Caoile, Irene Bueno and Christine Chen for organizing a successful Gala.
Photo: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu
President Barack Obama's Swearing In: Reflecting on a Historic Moment  A week ago from today, the world stood still as President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden were sworn into office at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. This peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next represents American democracy at its best. APIAVote Board and Staff members were among the 1.8 million attendees who witnessed the event live. The weather that day was at a staggering 26°F, but warm hearted spectators watched on attentively.
"Inauguration Week was an unforgettable experience, but we must not forget all the hard work we, as a collective AAPI community, put in to get out the vote, and the hard work ahead of keeping our communities empowered and engaged in policymaking processes," said Doua Thor, APIAVote board member. APIAVote and its partners played an instrumental role in increasing civic participation among AAPI constituents for the 2008 election.  During his campaign in May, now-President Obama addressed the AAPI community at the APIAVote Presidential Town Hall specifically on universal health care, preserving voter rights, comprehensive immigration reform, and financing higher education. "We remain optimistic about our new President's goals in pushing the AAPI agenda forward, and will work to ensure that AAPIs have viable voices at decision-making tables of this Administration and the 111th Congress," said Vida Benavides, APIAVote executive director.
Photos (top-bottom): Alvina Yeh, Vida Benavides
 During inaugural week, APIAVote and the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) co-convened a meeting of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) leaders to strategize and discuss recommendations and alternatives that can be provided to the Obama Administration in regards to the White House Initiative of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI).
Leaders from national AAPI advocacy groups heard from Tessie Guillermo (CEO of Zero Divide) who spoke of the strategies, models and history of the WHIAAPI and how it came to be. Conceived by community leaders and Clinton appointees in the mid 1990s, the WHIAAPI was originally intended as a health forum to address health problems in the AAPI community. After several years of building infrastructure , the Initiative finally came together on June 7, 1999 as Executive Order 13125 to "Increase Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs." The WHIAAPI was meant to create productive and meaningful change in AAPI  communities coordinating federal efforts to improve AAPI participation in government programs, fostering research and data collection for AAPI populations, and increasing public and private sector involvement in improving the well-being of AAPIs. Lisa Hasegawa (APIAVote Board Member and Executive Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development) spoke about the beginning of the Initiative during the Clinton administration. Afterwards Clayton Fong (Executive Director of National Asian Pacific Center on Aging) and John Duong (former Executive Director of the WHIAAPI) who were at the WHIAAPI during the Bush administration addressed the group about current state of the Initiative and gave recommendations on proceeding with the new administration. A task force was created to develop strategies on continuing the goals set forth by the initiative and apply lessons learned and recommendation from community leaders who worked on the Initiative from both administrations. Photos (top-bottom, l-r): Emilie Dearing, Lisa Hasegawa, Rajbir Singh Datta, Tina Matsuoka, Karen Narasaki, Tessie Guillermo, Vida Benavides, Lisa Hasegawa, Deanna Jang, Emilie Dearing, Daphne Kwok.
 APIAVote Participates in Community Meeting with Obama-Biden Transition Team
As part of on ongoing effort to ensure AAPIs viewpoints are fully represented in all arenas of government and politics, APIAVote participated in an meeting with Obama-Biden Transition Team members and 75 other national AAPI leaders. Board members Eunsook Lee, Lisa Hasegawa, Gloria Caoile and Executive Director Vida Benavides attended the meeting. View full video footage of the meeting here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBMy62sP-U&e Photo: Lisa Hasegawa
Children's Art for Children's Health: Healthy Children Art Exhibit in Washington, DC Unveiled  Over 100 guests attended the morning unveiling of a Healthy Children's Art Exhibit on Capitol Hill. Nearly 400 students from 24 states submitted original, hand-drawn art work to promote health care for all kids. 61 original drawings and paintings are on display.
The exhibit is meant to highlight the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP was created in 1997 to insure children in families not qualified for Medicaid and unable to afford private insurance. SCHIP, a bipartisan solution, was designed to provide states with federal support for children's health access. In 2006, approximately 36 million children were enrolled into SCHIP. In 2007,  Congress failed twice to override a Presidential veto to re-authorize the program with expanded coverage. Instead, Congress voted to extend its current funding until March 2009. On January 29, the Senate voted to support reauthorization with the five year bar on legal immigrant children and pregnant women lifted. Organized by the SCHIP Subcommittee of the Health Rights Organizing Project (HROP), a national collaboration of grassroots community organizations include subcommittee members Korean Resource Center (KRC) and National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC). Both KRC and NAKASEC (APIAVote partners) were instrumental in organizing the unveiling ceremony of the art exhibit, press conference with Senator Harry Reid, and mobilization efforts to educate. For more information about the exhibit (including viewing times): http://iwanttobehealthytoo.org/blog/15 Photos: Artists at the Art Exhibit Opening on Jan. 23, artwork by one of the children.
Danny Tsai
 Born and raised in Northern California, Danny is currently a junior at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He is spending a quarter in on the East Coast because of his admittance to the UC Washington Academic Internship Program (UCDC Program). He has declared his major in Political Science/International Relations and a minor in Asian Literature and Culture. Danny is passionately involved at the UCR campus working as a student coordinator for the Youth and Community Outreach Program (YCOP) under Asian Pacific Student Programs (APSP), a resource center for the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students. As a student coordinator for YCOP, he is responsible for establishing connections with the surrounding high schools and helping them address current issues they are facing. Danny is founder and president of the Thrill Seekers Club (TSC) at UCR, which motivates students to experience new and exciting events such as skydiving and bungee jumping. He enjoys playing the guitar and traveling. He has studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is working to become a certified Trip Leader for Outdoor Excursions at UCR.
Derek Mong
.png) Derek Mong, a seventeen year-old senior at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland, joins Asian Pacific Islander American Vote as an intern in January 2009. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to the Washington D.C. area when he was five years old. Having served as an intern for The Honorable Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland's Eighth Congressional District and organized an array of local youth-led campaign endeavors, Derek values not only participation amongst the youth population, but also the importance of civic engagement within the AAPI community. He currently runs the Asian American Youth Spectrum Magazine, a non-profit publication centered in the Washington D.C. suburbs which fosters youth leadership and community engagement within the Asian American community at-large. Derek also enjoys working with children: he works each Saturday as a teaching assistant at Hope Chinese School and has worked with elementary- and middle- school-aged students as a camp counselor over the past summer. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the piano, researching and planning trips to destinations he hasn't before visited, listening to foreign music, and watching the latest blockbuster movie. Derek will be attending Duke University in August of 2009 and hopes to study political science and public policy.
AAPIs Gaining More Presence in Politics  Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are gaining more positions in the new administration and congress. Mainstream media is beginning to understand the potential of our community. The following are some recent media coverage about the political power of AAPIs.
Speaker Pelosi's Statement Following Electoral Ballot Count (APIAVote Deputy Director, Naomi Tacuyan and Program Coordinator, Alvina Yeh were invited as guests of the Speaker during the session)
http://speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=0948 http://www.flickr.com/photos/apiavote/sets/72157612474865615/ Asian American Political Profile Rising in the US:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/18/us/AP-Asian-American-Politics.html Asian Americans: A Growing Force in City Politics
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/immigrants/20090120/11/2796/ NYT: Obama's People Photo Gallery (Features Pete Rouse, Senior Advisor; Eugene Kang, Special Assistant to the President; Eric Shinseki, Veteran's Affairs Secretary; and Steven Chu, Energy Secretary)
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2009-inauguration-gallery/index.html Photo:Speaker Pelosi with various leaders including Alvina Yeh and Naomi Tacuyan
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Election 2008, Transition & Governance, AAPI Policy Issues, AAPI Progressive Movement Discussed at "Moving the Dream Forward" .JPG)
movement and unprecedented accomplishments of APIAVote's national and local partners in the 2008 election, while Amado Uno (
prominent, top-level AAPI personnel: Tina Tchen (.png)
Council of Asian Pacific American Chair
Governor Gary Locke (
APIAVote board member Gloria T. Caoile ended the briefing and energized the audience with an appeal to the audience to not lose the momentum or the passion of 2008, and to carry it forward into the work that needs to be done for the AAPI community.
