From L to R: Nelson Louis, Ong Family Foundation, Cris Mercado, GrantAnswers, Clara Yoon, API Project, Emma Yang, Timeless, Chris Kui, Asian Americans for Equality, Alexandra Ruiz, Immigrant Advancement Matters, Gloria S. Chan, CoachDiversity Institute, Wendy Takahisa, AAFE Board President, Richard Lui, MSNBC.
More than 300 people joined AAFE on Oct. 19, 2016 for our 9th annual Asian American Community Development Conference. The event took place at New York University’s Kimmel Center, and is the only annual symposium in New York exploring issues of critical importance to Asian American communities.
There were two plenaries and a wide variety of workshops. Topics included: The Equitable Neighborhood, Scaling Worker-Owner Innovations, Growing the Pie of Affordable Housing, Challenging Mainstream (Media) Narratives, Training Grounds for Building Power, Bridging the Generational Divide, Organizing Our Wealth Through Philanthropy and Financing and Building Affordable Housing.
Opening remarks were delivered by New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim and Jason Bram of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The keynote address in the morning was delivered by Shekar Narasimhan of the President’s Advisory Commission for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The opening plenary was focused on community wealth Building through neighborhood transformation. The afternoon keynote remarks featured Nelson Louis of the Ong Family Foundation, Gloria Chan of the CoachDiversity Institute and Roy Swan of Morgan Stanley.
In 2015, Equality Fund launched its inaugural “EqualiTalks,” which brought together five featured speakers to share their personal stories and vision for equality in our city. Now in its second year, EqualiTalks this year included four thoughtful and inspiring speakers, who outlined their visions for equality through social movements, social enterprise, sustainability, community empowerment, and leadership in communities of color. Our speakers were: Cris Mercado of Key Jargon, Alexandra Ruiz of Immigrant Advancement Matters, Emma Yang of Timeless and Clara Yoon of API Project.
Pioneer Spirit Awards were presented to Harvey Epstein of the Urban Justice Center and Diane Mao of the Nomi Network.
Please visit the conference website to learn more about the event, view the day’s agenda, and to download the full program. You can find full speaker bios, program descriptions, and presentation slides on our Sched site. Plenaries and panels are viewable via livestream, and be sure to check out photos from the event on Facebook.
