ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH
SPECIAL ISSUE
As the May AANHPI Heritage month ends, we at AAUC acknowledge that we owe a debt of gratitude to former Congressman and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and former Congressman Dalip Singh Saund who inspired us to do more and aspired us to be part of a decision-making body that impacts our lives in this country. AAUC will be presenting two Public Service Awards named after these two congressmen in our upcoming National Civic Leadership Forum in September to commemorate them. More details on the award will be provided in our next newsletter.
We also want to celebrate inspirational and motivational AAPI figures who are blazing trails in their careers all along. We selected two exemplary trail blazers from the Hmong community among other notable AAPIs to learn about their journeys and successes.
Bo Theo-Urabe and KaYing Yang are both of Hmong heritage displaced from Laos after the Vietnam War and came to the US in the 1970s. They are the rising stars in the AAPI nonprofit & philanthropy world. They have a great deal in common. Bo Thao-Urabe was the Founder and Network Director whereas KaYing was the Director of Programs & Partnerships for the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)in Minnesota. CAAL MN harnesses the collective power of Asian American leaders from sectors, generations and ethnicities to improve the lives of the community in Minnesota. Bo and KaYing are both social entrepreneurs. Bo is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer while KaYing is a Co-Founder and President of RedGreen Rivers, a social enterprise connecting women artisans in Southeast Asia to global markets in order to preserve indigenous art forms and increase economic well-being of women and their families. They are both recipients of the 2019 Bush foundation Fellowship which invests in extraordinary leaders who are visionary, clear on how they want to grow as leaders, and thinking big about how to solve problems in their communities. While Bo served on the Advisory Commission of the White House Initiative on Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander under President Obama, KaYing is now serving the same position under President Biden.
Bo sits on many boards in the Twin Cities including the Minneapolis Foundation, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the University of Minnesota Board of Regent. Bo’s work centers on creating community-centered, asset-based solutions that ensures meaningful outcomes and lasting change. She is committed to improving community conditions, giving all people the opportunity to thrive, has led to the creation of local, national and international organizations and businesses. A few include:
For more than two decades, KaYing has been a social justice advocate who has built and led community development efforts nationally and globally. She began her career as a community organizer and executive manager providing social services and advocacy for the protection of refugees and immigrants. Nationally, she has worked with Asian American civil rights groups to address gaps in educational achievements, lack of desegregated data, economic and health disparities that is persistent in large sectors of the Southeast Asian American community. She co-founded several organizations, including the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF). From 2004-2006, she worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Thailand to resettle Hmong and Karen refugees to the US and other countries. From 2007 - 2013 she was with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group in Laos where she worked on policies to improve the investment climate for the private sector.
Bo Thao-Urabe at the White House KaYing Yang
Their inspiring journeys and invaluable insights into community building are featured in our May Podcast which will be aired on May 28 at 8 pm Eastern Time. Do tuned in and join us on our AAUC Podcast.
