14th Annual Banquet (2015) – Biographies

Nydia M. Velázquez is currently serving her twelfth term as Congresswoman, representing parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which is the only tri-borough district in the New York City congressional delegation. In the 114th Congress, Congresswoman Velázquez is the Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial Services Committee.

Congresswoman Velázquez has made history several times during her tenure in Congress. In 1992, she was the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In February 1998, she was named Ranking Democratic Member of the House Small Business Committee, making her the first Hispanic woman to serve as Ranking Member of a full House committee. Most recently, in 2006, she was named Chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, making her the first Latina to chair a full Congressional committee.

Born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico – a small town of sugar-cane fields, Congresswoman Velázquez was one of nine children, and became the first person in her family to receive a college diploma. At the age of 16, she entered the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in political science. After earning a master’s degree on scholarship from New York University, she taught Puerto Rican studies at CUNY’s Hunter College.

In 1983, Congresswoman Velázquez was appointed Special Assistant to Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn). One year later, she became the first Latina appointed to serve on the New York City Council. In 1986, Congresswoman Velázquez served as the Director of the Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the United States. During that time, she initiated one of the most successful Latino empowerment programs in the nation’s history – “Atrevete” (Dare to Go for It!).

As a fighter for equal rights of the underrepresented and a proponent of economic opportunity for the working class and poor, Congresswoman Velázquez combines sensibility and compassion, as she works to encourage economic development, protect community health and the environment, combat crime and worker abuses, and secure access to affordable housing, quality education and health care for all New York City families. As the top Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, which oversees federal programs and contracts totaling $200 billion annually, she has been a vocal advocate of American small business and entrepreneurship.

Congresswoman Velázquez was named as the inaugural “Woman of the Year” by Hispanic Business Magazine in recognition of her national influence in both the political and business sectors and for her longtime support of minority enterprise.

 

Deborah Chan is an attorney at the Law Office of Deborah Chan, P.C. Since 1995, her firm has specialized in the area of trusts and estate planning, using advanced estate planning techniques and strategies, to assist individuals and families in wealth preservation and business succession planning.  She also has been a speaker in many trusts and estate planning seminars and radio broadcastings in Manhattan and Queens of New York City. She is a member of the Trusts & Estates & Elder Law Sections of the New York State Bar Association.

A true protégé of CUNY, the City University has provided Ms. Chan with many opportunities to enable her to turn dreams into a reality. She received her undergraduate degree from LaGuardia Community College and Baruch College, and graduated from CUNY Law School at Queens College in 1990. Upon completion of law school, Ms. Chan was the Counsel to the Office of Legal Affairs at the Human Resources Administration of the City of New York. After working for five years, she decided to venture into her own private practice, now in its 20th year.

In 2008, Ms. Chan received the Mission for Integrity Award from St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center for her outstanding leadership and fundraising roles. She also served as a former chairperson of the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation, which played a key role in the successful formation of the Chinatown Business Improvement District in 2012.

Ms. Chan currently serves on the Board of Directors of several organizations: LaGuardia Community College Foundation of the City University of New York, which provides scholarships and funds internships to many students in need; the New York Asian Women Center, which services victims of domestic violence and related issues; and CMP, Inc., a community-based organization working with new immigrants in employment training and development.

Ms. Chan currently resides in the Chinatown community with her husband, Nelson Louis. Both are very proud to be the grandparents of two lovely granddaughters, Kyra and Vivien.

 

Nelson Louis is Executive Officer of The Ong Family Foundation, a private family foundation that awards grants to not-for-profit agencies located in the northeast region of the United States. Established in 1997, The Ong Family Foundation has a broad range of philanthropic interests and principally seeks to fund programs that are comprehensive, community-based and preventive in nature, with special interest in agencies that service the Asian community. The scope of program areas funded include Social Services, Education, Medicine & Health Care and Arts & Culture. To date, the Ong Family Foundation has provided over $4.2 million in donations to over one hundred local and regional non-profit organizations, and works closely with grantees to build their organizational structure and grow their financial and human capital.

Prior to working for the Ong Family Foundation, Mr. Louis was employed with the YMCA for 37 years since his graduation with a B.A. degree in Education from Queens College/CUNY in 1977. His most recent position was President & CEO of the YMCA of Greater Bergen County, and prior to that, served 26 years with the YMCA of Greater New York, beginning as a Youth Coordinator and eventually served as Executive Director at two branches. Mr. Louis was active in the YMCA movement, serving as founding member of  the YUSA Asian Leadership Network and then as a delegate to the YUSA National Assembly in 2007 in the Mid Atlantic Region. He has twice been the recipient of the YMCA National AYP Award for Excellence.

Mr. Louis served on the National Advisory Committee of the Rebuilding Chinatown Initiative created after 9/11 to assist with rebuilding Manhattan’s Chinatown community. He has also serves as Trustee for the YMCA of USA Fred Y. Hoshiyama Asian Leadership Scholarship Fund; Founding Member of YMCA of  USA Asian Leadership Network Steering Committee; Trainer for the YMCA of USA Fiscal Stewardship for Organizational Leaders; and Coach for the YMCA of USA Multi-Cultural Executive Development Institute.

Mr. Louis resides in New York City with his wife, Deborah Chan. Both are very active in building capacity and organizational sustainability for Asian Pacific Islander American community organizations.

 

Lauren Chai is an undergraduate student at Baruch College/CUNY, majoring in Marketing and minoring in Communications. Ms. Chai comes from a small Asian household and in her free time she likes to travel and explore new places and meet new people. On campus, she is active in many clubs such as Delta Sigma Pi, Ascend, and Marketers of Baruch. While interning at IW Group, Inc., a full-service advertising and communications firm that specializes in the Asian American consumer market, she worked on Verizon’s HopeLine program campaign and learned about the issue of domestic violence and its prevalence in the Asian Pacific American community.

 

Ernabel Demillo is a veteran television journalist and educator. She currently works for CUNY-TV hosting and reporting for  “Asian American Life” http://www.cuny.tv/show/asianamericanlife, a magazine-style show focusing on the tri-state’s Asian American community.  The show was recently nominated for an Emmy for Best Public Affairs/Community Programming.

In addition, Ernabel is a reporter for CUNY-TV’s Emmy-nominated show, “Science and U!”  In 2013, she was honored with an individual Emmy nomination for Best Environment Program for her story on a group of musicians who turn trash into musical instruments.

Ernabel is also a tenured Journalism Lecturer at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J.  She started the Journalism program in 2008 and  is the faculty advisor to the school newspaper, the Pauw Wow, which was recently named one of the Top 10 college newspapers in the country.

Ernabel was born in Manila and grew up in San Francisco, California. She received her B.A. in Journalism and International Relations from the University of Southern California and her M.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She worked as a reporter and anchor in several television markets, including the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, Calif. and FOX-5‘s popular morning show, Good Day New York, where she spent a decade as a reporter and anchor.

Ernabel is an active member of the New York Asian community. She currently serves on the board of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, the country’s only pan-Asian advocacy group and has served on the boards of the Asian American Journalist Association and APEX.

She lives on the Jersey Shore, with her husband, John Muller, an anchor with the PIX11 News and their 11- year-old daughter, Alexa.