Session 3 – Visibility and Survival in the Age of COVID-19
Asians have become the fastest growing racial group in Minnesota. In this state alone, there are over 40 ethnic communities whose immigration and migration stories reflect the history of America. In this session, CAAL will bring together different Asian communities to discuss how our immigration stories connect and reflect current immigration policies and community activism.
The State of Asian Minnesotans Series takes a critical look at the state and progress of Asian/Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Minnesota, and consider what else we can do to tap into the assets of, and ensure inclusion of this community. We invite subject experts, researchers, community members, and thought leaders that increase audience knowledge, challenge and allow audiences to dive deeper in their understandings of this population, and provide new thinking and tools for audiences to consider as they work with Asian Minnesotan communities.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Ignatius Bau is a consultant working on health and immigration policy issues with community-based health and social service organizations, community health centers, minority physician associations, public hospitals, health systems, state health departments, and foundations. He has served as the interim executive director at the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, in various positions at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, (APIAHF), as a program officer at The California Endowment, and as an immigration attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. At APIAHF, he led community advocacy efforts to secure Executive Order 13125 creating the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 1999, and he led the drafting of reports from the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2001 and 2014.
Chao Yang is a public health and community centered professional with an intense focus on impact. She has over 10 years of experience in building connection, collaboration and ownership within health and human services-cross functional and cross domain teams in non-profit, government and corporate sectors. She is currently working at the intersection of community health, healthcare and organizational change efforts aimed at closing disparate chronic disease health outcomes as a public health educator for St. Paul Ramsey County Public Health (SPRCPH). Chao is especially passionate about maximizing cross-sector efforts that result in solutions that have a wide-ranging positive impact on society, and finds work the most meaningful when her involvement brings tangible, long-lasting impact that helps others capitalize on opportunities and succeed. She is currently pursuing her Executive Masters in Public Health at the University of Minnesota and serves as a section editor for the graduate student-run Public Health Review Journal. Chao is also the principal owner of Chao Yang Consulting and has served as a facilitator to the Minnesota Department of Education and University of Minnesota Extension. She is interested in continuing to serve as a strategic health partner, facilitator, and coach.
Dr. Ia Xiong is a licensed psychologist with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. She specializes in multicultural issues and trauma-informed care. Her work focuses on historical trauma experiences in the Hmong community and managing stress through mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques. She is a 2019 Bush Fellow and committed to advancing culturally appropriate mental health services for the Hmong. In her free time, she loves to write and travel. In addition, she is a proud mama of two.
Hedy Tripp is an elder leader and one of the founders of the St. Cloud, MN chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) (www.napawf.org). NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum) St. Cloud chapter is a progressive Pan-Asian, multigenerational, mixed-race and LBTQ inclusive group that has been active in Central Minnesota since 2005. She was the former Chair of NAPAWF’s national governing board and one of the NAPAWF delegates to the first United State of Women in Washington D.C. in June 2016. She is a retired lecturer in Asian American Studies at St. Cloud State University (SCSU) and continues her work as co-facilitator of the Anti-Racism workshops hosted by SCSU. Hedy identifies as an Asian American and ethnically Singaporean Eurasian and uses she/her/hers pronouns. She is a wife, mother and grandmother to a fiercely social justice activist Black and multicultural family.