Greetings APAP readers!  I'm reporting from DC on the second meeting of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders.  Last September, I had the honor of being appointed to serve on this commission, which works in conjunction with the White House Initiative on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, an entity with full time staff within the Administration.  Originally created by executive order of President Clinton in 1999, the Initiative and Commission serve as a bridge between the Obama Administration and the AAPI community to help educate and connect AAPIs to government resources and programs, and to advise the Administration on how to better serve the community.  President Bush reduced the Initiative and Commission to a small entity narrowly focused on select business issues and allowed the order to expire in 2007; President Obama re-established the Commission and Initiative by executive order on October 14, 2009, fulfilling a campaign pledge.  Our Commission is focusing on five main areas:

-Civil Rights
-Economic Growth
-Educational Opportunity
-Healthy Communities
-Sustainable Communities

The 17 currently serving members of the 20 member Commission represent the diversity and talent of the AAPI community with an emphasis on including individuals with a track record of fierce advocacy and community organizing experience.  Our first meeting was in September 2010 and focused on strategic planning.  In the last six months, our hardworking staff and amazing commission members can already boast some impressive accomplishments.  These include:

- Substantial work in ensuring equal access to services for Southeast Asian seafood workers affected by the BP oil spill. ~1 out of 4 seafood industry workers in the Gulf are of Southeast Asian descent, and almost half of all commercial fishing licenses are held by Southeast Asian Americans.

- Convening a summit on data issues for AAPIs. Despite enormous diversity within the AAPI community and thus tremendously different needs, e.g., high education level and median income among Indian Americans versus poverty rates around 50% and less than half with high school diplomas among some Southeast Asian communities versus diabetes rates over 50% for Pacific Islander communities, many government entities fail to disaggregate data and lump all AAPIs together.  As a result of the summit, a permanent AAPI data consortium comprised of universities and other organizations has been created.

- The first ever AAPI Small Business & Entrepreneurship Summit, held in Silicon Valley, which welcomed over 800 AAPI CEOs and entrepreneurs (and hundreds more participated online), headlined by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.  Administration officials held workshops and roundtables to educate the AAPI business community on resources for new and small businesses, financing, accessing the government contracting process, and to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to interface with each other and share best practices.

At this meeting, we were able to announce another major milestone in our work - the presentation of 23 agency plans to President Obama on how to better serve AAPIs.  This is the first time in history that federal agencies have done this for any community, and we were able to get all 23 agencies from which we requested plans to respond.

Monday morning, we met with senior officials from 23 federal agencies who are part of the Interagency Working Group, co-chaired by Sec. Gary Locke and Arne Duncan.  We discussed their agency plans, what the commission and initiative have accomplished so far, and asked questions of the agencies on various aspects of the plans.  Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu and Sec. of Commerce Gary Locke spoke, and then we had a surprise visit from President Obama!  It was very unexpected, but it gave us an opportunity to personally present the agency plans to the President.  In the picture above, I'm the blurry guy in the green tie, third from left.

Recommendations in the report include:

--Early identification of chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations that don't know they have the virus. Hepatitis B chronically infects about 1.5 million people in the U.S., and AAPIs account for over half of all the cases.

--Strengthening of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions programs to increase college graduation rates for AAPI students. While educational attainment among East Asian and South Asian groups is high, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have lower high school graduation rates.

In the afternoon, we met with staff from specific agencies to discuss specific implementation goals for the agency plans, as well as provide additional input on the plans from the Commission.  We closed out Monday with a meeting with representatives from the many wonderful AAPI advocacy organizations that comprise the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans.  NCAPA presented their priorities for the coming year ranging from immigration to civil rights to health, and we discussed ways in which we can be helpful to each other to better serve the community.

Yesterday morning, we met with the members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to discuss their priorities, how our work can complement each other, and ways in which we can collaborate effectively for the community.  The new chair, Congresswoman Judy Chu, has hit the ground running, and we expressed appreciation for their strong stand on the recent hearings on the Muslim community.  Despite the recent change in leadership, CAPAC submitted public comments on all 23 agency plans, which was very helpful to us.  They noted that they are planning to host an AAPI Summit in DC from May 24-25, which will be a new and exciting event.  More detailed information will be available on their new website, which will be up shortly.  They also plan to host a Tri-Caucus Health Summit in conjunction with the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

In the afternoon, we assessed our progress so far, identified areas for improvement, changes to our priorities and strategic plans in light of the last six months' experience, and developed plans for the next several months.  We have a lot of great events coming up, including a terrific Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander event focusing on health and obesity, especially among youth, featuring Commissioner Hines Ward and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Troy Polamalu, in Los Angeles on April 2nd.  On April 23rd, there will be an event on education regarding the Affordable Care Act in Minneapolis, MN.  On July 8th, we're holding a Green Growth Summit in Seattle, WA, to help empower the AAPI community to fully take advantage of the emerging green economy, as entrepreneurs, consumers, and environmentally concerned citizens.  Events concerning bullying, LGBT AAPI youth, and more are also in the works.

In terms of what I have been focusing on personally, I will be continuing to assist with the Civil Rights POD's efforts on anti-Muslim and identity-based bullying and discrimination, language access, and more.  I will also be working on mental health awareness and education issues; as someone who has personally struggled with depression and anxiety throughout my life, the challenges of mental health in the AAPI community are particularly near and dear to my heart.  As part of this focus, we met today with a mental health advocacy organization to start planning our efforts.  Tomorrow, I will be participating with other commissioners in a listening session on interreligious understanding to address rising attacks on Muslims, Sikhs, and South Asians.

You can peruse the summaries of the agency plans here.  The public comment period is still open on several of the plans, so please submit any suggestions you have.  Even after the comment period is closed, however, we still need your input and ideas, so don't hesitate to contact me.  If you would like to follow what's been going on at the meeting, you can follow me on Twitter; I'm "rameyko".  I also posted updates on my Facebook, so feel free to friend me.  If you're not sure I'll recognize your name, just send a message letting me know you saw the BOR post.  You can also follow the Initiative's work in the following ways:

To subscribe/unsubscribe to the Initiative's listserv, please send an e-mail request to WhiteHouseAAPI@ed.gov.

Join us on:
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www.AAPI.gov

You can also follow a mysterious Tweeter known only as WHIAAPInsider (not me).

Cross-posted from Burnt Orange Report.