6th Annual Banquet (2007) – Biographies

Rao S Anumolu, son of Mr. Anumolu Seshagiri Rao, hails from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.  Rao came to Chicago for higher studies in 1969.  He obtained a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering and also an MBA degree.  In addition, Mr. Anumolu attended several Advanced Management Courses at Defense Systems Management College, Harvard University and Wharton School of Business Management.

Mr. Anumolu has the unique distinction and the rare privilege of being the only Indian to have been cited by the US Congress for the contributions made by him and ASR International Corporation towards homeland security in USA.   The cost-effective technology and systems deployed by ASR to protect the nation’s airports, waterways, railroads and highways were specifically mentioned in the US Congress citation. Expressing her ‘deep appreciation for and recognition of his tireless efforts in support of our nation’s defense,’ New York Congresswoman  Carolyn McCarthy told the US  Congress that as President and CEO of ASR International Corporation, Anumolu has assisted the Department of Defense – in its fight to protect our homeland since the attack on our country – on September 11.

Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, also hosted a special reception in Mr. Anumolu’s honor at the Rayburn House Office Building which was attended by diplomats, leading US CEOs, Congressman Frank Pallone, founder of the Congressional India Caucus and several top Defense officials and leading members of the Indian community.

For the past thirty five (35) years, Mr. Anumolu held senior management positions directing commercial and government programs that include major aerospace design and development projects.  Mr. Anumolu launched major technology initiatives and has managed several high-technology programs which were completed on time and within budget to the total satisfaction of the customers – a rare feat in the technology world.

Armed with this outstanding technical experience and background, Mr. Anumolu founded ASR International Corporation in 1986 in Long Island, NY. ASR is a world renowned high technology company providing Engineering, Information Technology, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain Management Support Services to global Fortune 1000 companies, Prime Defense contractors and government agencies.

ASR International has emerged a trail blazer in developing processes and technologies to provide cost-effective, high quality services. ASR’s methodology enables its customers to reduce wastage by streamlining management practices and reengineering business processes to reap the cost benefits of outsourcing. Using its patent pending business process methodology, ASR provides high quality but cost-effective services in all the 50 states of USA and in 40 countries around the world.

Mr. Anumolu is the recipient of several awards and honors which recognize his business acumen, professional achievements, contributions to the community and his support of philanthropic activities in USA and India.  He is a role model and a source of inspiration for the Indian community.

He has been honored by several organizations and professional societies such as: Business Excellence Award by US Small Business Administration (under President Clinton), US President’s council on small business, Indo-American Friendship Council WTF (World Telugu Federation), World Business Forum, ASQ (American Society of Quality),  Nassau and Suffolk legislatures etc.

Mr. Anumolu is often interviewed by the media to elicit his views on business related issues and is quoted extensively in the local, national and international media as an authority on high technology and management areas. He has made several guest appearances on CNN, News 12 and has been featured in Newsday, LI Business News etc.    He serves on the advisory board of leading academic institutions in NY – Adelphi and SUNY- Stony Brook.

He is blessed with two sons Praveen Anumolu who is a graduate of Cornell University with Masters in Engineering and Naveen Anumolu graduated in Engineering from Stony Brook University.  His wife Rajeswari’s total support in all his endeavors is the primary reason for Mr. Anumolu’s success.

 

Selma Botman is Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost at The City University of New York. She previously served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she had a wide-ranging portfolio. In addition to teaching courses on the Middle East and on international development, she crafted a model of civic engagement for the campus that involved faculty, staff and students in meaningful outreach to the community. This involved linking curricular development, outreach activities and administrative structures and restructuring the schools, departments and majors to be multidisciplinary and to include service-learning opportunities for students.

In her previous post as Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Massachusetts, she was the chief academic officer of the five-campus University System. She worked closely with faculty and administrators on academic and strategic initiatives, encouraged inter-campus collaboration, evaluated and approved new campus-based academic programs and degrees and reviewed all tenure cases. Dr. Botman also worked closely with the University’s Board of Trustees, providing policy recommendations, and assistance.

Responsible for creating an Intercampus Graduate School of Marine Sciences and Technology, a national model, Dr. Botman was also involved in linking the University with the state’s K-12 system. She initiated partnerships with the Massachusetts Department of Education and brought the University’s message to students, teachers and guidance counselors while visiting over 60 high schools across the state during a five-year period.

Dr. Botman played an active role in efforts to increase student diversity at the University of Massachusetts, and worked with the Raytheon Corporation on a project to increase the number of women and minorities in the engineering field. She brought together K-12 teachers, university faculty and retired engineers to develop new curricular modules central to engineering education, which have been introduced into specific secondary schools. She has also taught seminars in Modern Middle Eastern Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts’ Boston campus. Her most recent book is entitled Engendering Citizenship in Egypt.

Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts she spent nine years on the faculty of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Botman earned her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Brandeis University; holds a B.Phil in Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University; and a master’s in Middle Eastern Studies and doctorate in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

Kuo York Chynn, M. D. was born in Shanghai, China in l923 and graduated from the National Tung-Chi University Medical School in Shanghai in l949.  Dr. Chynn pursued his postgraduate training in United States: a rotating internship in Wilmington, North Carolina, surgical residency in New Haven, Connecticut and radiology residency in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1954 he became a diplomate in the Specialty of Radiology.

After private practice for two years in Montana, Dr. Chynn was appointed Assistant Professor in Radiology at Cornell University Medical College, and subsequently Clinical Professor in Radiology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.  He was awarded the Special Fellowship in Neuroradiology by NIH l959-1960, and pursued his studies in London,  and Stockholm.  He was former Chief of Neuroradiology at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center where he established the subspeciality of Neuroradiology at that department, and headed the Neuroradiology Division at the St. Luke’s Hospital Center from l967-1994.

Dr. Chynn has published and presented more than 30 papers nationally and internationally, and is the author of two textbooks, one on Cranial Computerized Tomography and the other on Myelography.  His invention, “Painless Chynn Myelography Needle” was patented by Becton, Dickinson and Co.

Since retirement, Dr. Chynn enjoys oil painting, piano practice, church choir practice and karaoke, exploring the Internet, visiting the Galapagos Islands and Ayers Rock with his family.

 

Matthew Goldstein was appointed Chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), effective September 1, 1999. He is the first CUNY graduate to lead the nation’s most prominent urban public university (City College, Class of 1963).

Dr. Goldstein has served in senior academic and administrative positions for more than 30 years, including as President of Baruch College, President of the Research Foundation, and Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of CUNY. Prior to being named Chancellor, he was President of Adelphi University.

Dr. Goldstein earned his doctorate from the University of Connecticut in mathematical statistics, and a bachelor’s degree in statistics and mathematics from The City College of The City University of New York.

He has held faculty positions in mathematics and statistics at Baruch College, the CUNY Graduate School and University Center, Polytechnic University of New York, Cooper Union, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Connecticut.

He is the co-author of three books: Discrete Discriminant Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1978; Intermediate Statistical Methods and Applications, published by Prentice Hall in 1983; and Multivariate Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1984. In addition, he has written many articles for leading scholarly publications in mathematics and statistics.

Currently, Dr. Goldstein is a member of the Board of Trustees of the JP Morgan Funds, the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. He is a Director of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, ex officio, the United Way of New York City, and a member of the Business Advisory Council for Columbia Management and of NASULGC’s Commission of The Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative.

Dr. Goldstein is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a 2006 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Among his honors are the 2007 Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award, the 2005 John H. Finley Award, the 2005 Medal of Honor “Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class,” the 2004 New York Foundation for Architecture President’s Award, the 2003 Max Rowe Educational Leadership Award of the American Friends of The Open University of Israel, the 2002 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2000 Townsend Harris Medal, and the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (Hon.) and the Golden Key Honor Society (Hon.).

 

George Hu is the Assistant to the Governor of New York State for Asian Community Affairs. Mr. Hu came to New York State in 1979 as a student from China. In 1982, he graduated from the Hunter College with a Bachelors degree in Political Science. In 1992, he graduated from Hunter College with a Masters degree in Urban Affairs.

In 1989, Mr. Hu joined the public service, and worked at the NYC Department of Finance as a Policy Analyst. Later, he was appointed as the Director of the Central In Rem Office (Real Estate Tax Foreclosure). Since 1991, he has become the certified New York City translator for Chinese language by the Mayor’s office.

In 2000, representing the Finance Department, Mr. Hu participated in the establishment of the city-wide 311 citizen service center.  From 2004 to 2007, he was in charge of several city-wide multi agency projects.

 

Charlton M. Lewis obtained his BA from Yale University, and MA and Ph.D degrees in Chinese history from the University of California, Berkeley.  As a graduate student he studied and conducted research for three years in Taiwan and Japan.

From 1965 to 2000 Dr. Lewis taught Chinese and Japanese history at Brooklyn College (CUNY), and was chairman of the History Department there for three years.  After his retirement in 2000, Dr. Lewis taught Chinese history for five additional years at the New School University in Manhattan.  He has traveled widely in China, and for a semester in1995 was a research scholar at the Yuelu Academy at Hunan University in Changsha.

Dr. Lewis is the author of Prologue to the Chinese Revolution (Harvard East Asian Center, 1976), a study of Hunan province in the late Qing period, and a number of articles.  He is co-author with Professor Scott Morton of China, Its History and Culture (4th ed., McGraw Hill), and is currently writing a book on China’s water crisis.

 

Blossom Kan is an attorney employed in Manhattan and a member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. She graduated from Yale University where she majored in English.

 

Scott Morton, B.A., B.D., Ph.D., is the author of “China, Its Culture and History,” and a Professor Emeritus of Chinese and Japanese History from Seton Hall University. Born in 1908 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dr. Morton received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Greek and Latin Classics from Cambridge University. After receiving a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Edinburgh University, he went to Manchuria, China, as a missionary of the Church of Scotland. Five years and a furlough later, he spent two years in Japan, studying the language.

Upon returning to Manchuria to continue his work, Dr. Morton was asked to evacuate by the British Consul to evacuate the area. Dr. Morton arrived in Los Angeles one month prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, he served as a chaplain in the British Royal Air Force, and thereafter did church work in Britain and the United States.

After the war, it was no longer possible to take up missionary work again upon the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.  Dr. Morton however continued his strong commitment and interests in China and its studies. Deciding to continue his studies, Dr. Morton received his Ph.D. in Comparative Philosophies at Edinburgh University in 1964.

After a period in Britain, he came to the United States and began his second career as a professor of Chinese and Japanese History. His lectures and readings are still used today in the classroom.

 

James Muyskens was appointed Queens College’s ninth president in July 2002. During his tenure, Dr. Muyskens has successfully launched a review and updating of the college’s undergraduate General Education curriculum. He also added a number of new programs, including business administration, neuroscience, graphic design, and bioinformatics.

Over the years at Queens College, Dr. Muyskens has guided the recruitment of hundreds of new faculty, overseen the completion of the renovation of Powdermaker Hall (the college’s primary classroom facility), and broke ground on a $30 million addition to Remsen Hall, which will house new chemistry laboratories. Recently Dr. Muyskens spearheaded the college’s most ambitious capital fundraising campaign, which exceeded its goal of $100 million.

In 2007 Queens College received a glowing reaccreditation report from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools . Dr. Muyskens is currently overseeing the college’s ambitious new strategic planning initiative, which will establish goals for the college to achieve during the next twenty years.

Dr. Muyskens’ extensive administrative experience includes serving as Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the 34-campus University System of Georgia. He also spent seven years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas.

His appointment to Queens College marked Dr. Muyskens’ return to the City University of New York. He began his career at Hunter College as an assistant professor of philosophy and moved through the ranks to full professor. He also served Hunter as chair of its Department of Philosophy and as Associate Provost and Acting Provost.

A graduate of Central College in Iowa, James Muyskens earned a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Se minary and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. His publications include two books, The Sufficiency of Hope and Moral Problems in Nursing: A Philosophical Investigation, as well as numerous articles concerning the philosophy of religion and ethics.

Dr. Muyskens serves as a member of the Commission on International Initiatives for the American Council of Education (ACE). He is also a member of the Council of State Representatives for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

 

Ellen Young was elected in 2006 to represent the 22nd Assembly District, which includes parts of Flushing lying east of the Van Wyck Expressway, from the Long Island Expressway to several blocks north of Northern Boulevard, Winning over 77 Percent of the vote, Young made legislative history by becoming the first Asian-American woman elected to a state office.

An immigrant from Taiwan who came to the U.S. with limited resources, Ellen has become a successful businesswoman and advocate for the Asian community. She co-founded the Chinese-American Women’s Association and was named as the first female Asian Auxiliary Police Officer in Queens.

A single mother, Ellen has dedicated her public service career to helping families achieve the American Dream. Over the past two decades, she has organized a Main Street blood drive, held a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims and has served as:

– President of the Chinese American Voters Association

– President of the Friends of Queens Library, Elmhurst Branch

– Vice Chair of the Flushing Asian Lunar New Year Celebration Committee

– Vice President of the New York Conservative Democratic Club

– Board Member on the Queens District Attorney’s Asian Advisory Council

– Board Member on the Queens Borough President’s Advisory Committee

– Board Member on the NYPD’s Asian Advisory Council

– District Leader, 22nd Assembly District

– District Administrator, Councilman John Liu

In the Assembly, Ellen is committed to improving the quality of life and education for her constituents by working to secure more after-school programs, decreasing classroom sizes, hiring better teachers, improving access to health care and providing more affordable housing.

 

Michelle Yu, a graduate of Manhattan College, is an on-air sports reporter for NY1 News and a member of the Asian American Journalism Association. She also served as a sports writer for College Sports Television and a reporter at Sports Illustrated for Kids Magazine.