APAPA New York

A Message from the Chapter President

On behalf of all our volunteers, I welcome you to APAPA’s New York Chapter (APAPA-NYC)!

APAPA-NYC was established on December 2, 2012 in Flushing, Queens.  The Grand-Opening’s luncheon ceremony was witnessed by many elected city officials, prominent community and business leaders, and more than 200 guests - under great media coverage.

Also on hand to help us celebrate this historical event were APAPA’s Founder and Chairman C.C. Yin and his wife Regina, National President Lucy Oback, California Bay Area Chapter’s President Joel Wong, and Southern California Chapter’s Chair and President Nelson Huang, along with many invited guests who flew in from California.  APAPA-NYC sincerely thanks our colleagues and friends in California for their support.

Our Chapter’s Chairman, Justin Yu, is a prominent, well-respected, active community and business leader.  We are fortunate and proud to have Justin leading APAPA-NYC.  We are fresh, enthusiastic, excited, willing to learn, and ready to grow.  We intend to work with other organizations which share our mission, and seek your support along the way.

Our timing is ripe.  In recent years, New York City has witnessed significant progress and successes achieved by our shining political stars whom I have personally come to regard as the “Fantastic Five!”  These five elected city officials have become prominent public servants of the American mainstream and are rising in the political arena.

In no particular order, let’s start with John Liu.  John, formerly our City’s first Asian-American Council member, is entering his third year as the City’s first Asian-American Comptroller.

And, Grace Meng, formerly our State’s Assemblywoman, became the first Asian-American Congresswoman of New York’s 6th Congressional District in the past November election. 

Next, Margaret Chin, the City’s first Asian-American Councilwoman, represents Disctrict#1, the area of lower Manhattan which happened to be badly damaged by hurricane Sandy at the end of October.  Margaret has since been working relentlessly and tirelessly to help her District quickly recover from severe damages, and meeting many tough challenges head on.

Then, we have Peter Koo, a successful pharmacist and businessman, turned Council member for District 20 covering Flushing, our Chapter’s birthplace.

Last but not least, Ron Kim, a Korean-American, was elected to the State Assembly representing District 40, filling the seat vacated by Grace Meng.

Their future is wide open, and their momentum is building.  APAPA-NYC would like to help propel them to higher places!  In 2013, John Liu will enter the City’s mayoral race, and both Margaret Chin and Peter Koo will seek re-elections as well.  We are excited, eager, and look forward to supporting their campaigns.

APAPA-NYC salutes these five men and women for their proud achievements.  We wish them continued success.  And, we hope to work with them in developing our pipeline – a pipeline for younger leaders who will follow their footsteps to achieve even greater success in American public affairs.

Our short-term goal is exactly that – recruiting new members and identifying high-quality interns.

To that end, we aim to sign up as many members as we can, help register voters, educate the public on election and public policy, and make APAPA-NYC a larger and stronger organization.

At the same time, we will start looking for a small and highly-selected group of college students and graduates to be our first-year interns.  We will provide our interns with the opportunities to gain real-life experiences, and further develop their leadership skills, through working in public offices and under APAPA-NYC’s mentorship.

In closing, on behalf of our Chairman Justin Yu, I thank all the Board members, Honorary Advisors, and volunteers who have joined us.  We have a lot to do.  Together, we will get things done.  With results, we will grow to become a stronger force to help support our Fantastic Five and many more leaders to come!        

Chi Luu
President
APAPA New York Chapter
December 24, 2012

Photos from APAPA-NYC events:

APAPA's New York Chapter (APAPA-NYC) celebrated its Grand Opening with a Luncheon on Sunday, December 2, 2012 at the Good Kitchen Restaurant in Flushing, NY.

Additional photos from APAPA programs are in the Gallery.

Spotlight:

Join Us!

Join APAPA's New York Chapter (NYC)! See this brochure for more information.

2013 Internship Program

Scholarship Application, New York: The Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association’s New York Chapter is awarding a number of internships for Asian and Pacific Islander (API) American college students. Current college students are eligible and encouraged to apply for this internship opportunity.  This seven-week internship program aims at engaging outstanding Asian-American college students in the political, legal, and civic arenas, and developing young and promising leaders in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community. Updated deadline is April 1, 2013

Introducing our Chairman, Justin Yu

Justin Chin-Shan Yu was born in Chunking, China. He lived in Beijing until the age of four when he and his family moved to Taiwan because of civil war of China. Yu is the son of the late Cecilia Hsiu-Ya Chang, a renowned Chinese author.

Besides serving as Chairman of APAPA-NYC, Yu’s civic accomplishments include:

• Current Chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce

• Current President of Confucius Plaza Housing

• Commissioner of New York City Districting Commission

• Board member of MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care Board

• Board member of The Asian American Accountable Care -Organization

• Founder of the Healthy Living Senior Program at Confucius Plaza

• Past President of Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York

• Past President of the Chinese Language Journalist Association

• Past President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce

A fan of music and Chinese calligraphy, as well as an avid reader and traveler, Yu is also a published author and columnist for several Chinese-language publications. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in economics from National Taiwan University and a master’s degree from Pratt Institute in New York.

Chi Luu, APAPA-NYC President

Born and raised in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) of Vietnam, Chi is a Chinese American arriving in New York as a refugee.  Chi’s parents were born in China and educated in Taiwan.

Chi was a former IT executive who had worked in multinational corporations including Procter & Gamble, KPMG Consulting, Morgan Stanley, and AlliedSignal (now Honeywell International).

Chi had extensive experience working in Asia.  As an expatriate based in Hong Kong, Chi was the Chief Information Officer for AlliedSignal Asia-Pacific, leading the IT function across the Region, and spearheading the establishment of an IT shared-service center in Pudong, China.

Returning to New York, Chi served as the Chief Operating Officer of a software-development firm in Downtown Manhattan, and later ran his own retail businesses.

Previously, Chi had served as Vice President for Chinese American Voters Association of Queens.  Chi was also a Regional Finalist of the White House Fellowship.  When Chi was still a graduate student, he was appointed by the former New York City Mayor Ed Koch to serve as a Board Director for the City Volunteer Corps, a non-profit pioneer in the youth service movement.

Chi obtained his Bachelor of Engineering Degree from City College of New York, and earned his Master’s Degree of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Chi is an avid reader, and enjoys traveling, swimming, and basketball.

Justin Yu, Chair
Chi Luu, President
Ching K. Chen, Vice Chair, Internal Affairs
Cynthia Chou, Vice Chair, Media Relations
Michael Wang, Vice Chair
Howard Shiang, Vice Chair
Jennifer Lin, Vice Chair
Alice Tseng, VP, Marketing
Katie Zhu, Treasurer
Julie Wu, Secretary

Ping-Lau Chow
Kate Liu
Sue Lin
Joanne Liu
Judy Lu

Advisors:

Tim Young
Tricia Young
Hsin-Yuan Cheng