Date: Thursday, November 30, 2017
Time: 6:30PM to 9:30PM
Program will begin promptly at 7PM
Place: Jing Fong Restaurant
20 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 10013
Individual Ticket
Non-Member: $150
Complimentary AAARI 2018 Membership
AAARI Member: $100 | Senior (65+): $85 | Student: $50
AAARI’s Annual Gala is attended by 450+ Asian and non-Asian academic, business, civic and community leaders, faculty, staff and students. At the gala we will honor distinguished alumni from The City University of New York, leaders from the community, and student scholarship recipients. Proceeds from the gala go towards our academic publications and public programs such as lectures, annual conference, and student film festival.
As of Fall 2016, the Asian American representation in CUNY is over 61,200, with more than 5,900 faculty and staff, 4,600 graduate students and 50,700 undergraduates of Asian heritage. There are tens of thousands of Asian American CUNY alumni working and living throughout New York and the country. AAARI engages the Asian American community within CUNY, New York City and beyond.
Special Gala Guest
Hon. Kevin D. Kim
Member, CUNY Board of Trustees
2017 Gala Honorees
Leadership Award
Hon. Letitia James
New York City Public Advocate
CUNY Distinguished Asian American Alumni Award
Kwai Kin (David) Ho
Vice President, 1199SEIU
United Healthcare Workers East
CUNY Thomas Tam Scholarship
Peter Lee
Undergraduate Student, Brooklyn College/CUNY
Chynn-CUNY Ethics and Morality Essay Contest
Winners & Honorable Mention
–
Gala Emcee
Ernabel Demillo
Host & Producer, Asian American Life
Benefits of Supporting the AAARI Annual Gala
- Exposure to 450+ attendees at the Gala – printed program acknowledgements distributed to attendees who represent not just themselves but many other organizations. Additional programs will also be distributed at upcoming AAARI events throughout the Spring semester.
- Table sponsors are listed on AAARI’s website which reaches thousands of faculty, staff and students within CUNY, and academic, business, civic and community leaders and organizations outside of CUNY.
- The Gala receives extensive coverage in the Asian American ethnic press.
Biographies
Kevin D. Kim was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as a Trustee of The City University of New York, serving from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2024. A corporate real estate lawyer by training, an entrepreneur, consultant, and small business owner, Mr. Kim co-founded Tactile Brain LLC, which brought to the United States an innovative Korean mental math program designed by Jeonghee Lee, one of the world’s foremost mental mathematicians. He is also the first Asian American to serve as a commissioner of the New York State Liquor Authority (2014-16).
Previously, Mr. Kim was an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and served as Deputy Director of Community Affairs for Congressman Gary L. Ackerman. In 2009, Mr. Kim became the first Korean American to win a NYC primary when he became the Democratic nominee for NYC Council (District 19). Prior to that, he was an associate at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell from 2000 to 2003 and a law clerk for then-U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin from 1999 to 2000.
Mr. Kim was awarded a 2015 Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations for his years of community service, and the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) named him its Man of the Year in 2009. As a member of the Black-Korean Mediation Project, Mr. Kim also has been a certified community mediator since 1993.
Mr. Kim received a B.A. in East Asian Studies and an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University, both in 1993, and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1999, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. He is a proud product of the NYC public school system, from kindergarten to high school, and an alumnus of the first graduating class of the “new” Townsend Harris High School at Queens College (1988).
Letitia James is the Public Advocate for the City of New York, serving as a direct link between New Yorkers and their government, acts as a watchdog over City agencies, and investigates complaints about City services. Public Advocate James is a graduate of CUNY’s Lehman College and Howard University School of Law. She previously served as an Assistant Attorney General, and a public defender.
Public Advocate James made history in 2014 by becoming the first woman of color to hold citywide office in New York City. She is a strong advocate for criminal justice reform, and led the push for police body-worn cameras in the NYPD. She has revamped the Worst Landlords Watchlist, and has introduced legislation into the City Council to protect tenants. She fought for universal free lunch for public school students and for comprehensive reform of the system to track education plans for students with disabilities. She is also an advocate for paid family leave, raising the wage, and introduced legislation to ban questions about salary history from the employment process to end gender wage discrimination.
When she served as a City Council Member, she fought for Paid Sick Leave, and passed the Safe Housing Act. She passed legislation addressing oversight of high-cost service contracts with the City of New York. As Chair to the Council’s Sanitation Committee, she pushed-through a revolutionary recycling package that improves recycling.
Kwai Kin (David) Ho is the first Chinese American elected to the position of Home Care Division Vice President, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Before becoming Vice President, David worked as an organizer for nine years at the Home Care Division. Under this Union, David leads the Chinese Home Care Workers.
At thirteen years of age David emigrated with his family from Hong Kong to the U.S. and grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated from Hunter College with a Bachelor degree in psychology. Four years later, he graduated with a Masters degree in Social Work from Hunter College. He also received his Licensed Certification in Social Work from the University of the State of New York Education Department.
David is a Trustee of the 1199 Bill Michelson Home Care Industry Education Fund, as well as the Home Care Benefit Fund and Pension Fund. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Health and Safety at the 1199 SEIU Union. He was formerly appointed by the Mayor of Plainsboro Township, NJ, to be a member of the Human Relations Council, and was elected Treasurer in 2013 and 2015, and Vice President in 2014. In 2015, he was appointed by the National Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance known as APALA President to be the New Jersey Chapter President to start a new chapter in New Jersey. In 2016, he was elected to be the SEIU API Caucus Regional Vice President for the East coast at the SEIU API Caucus.
David’s work was recognized in 2006 when he received the Outstanding Union Leader Award by the Asian American Democratic Association of Queens, Inc.
Peter Lee is an undergraduate student majoring in Anthropology at Brooklyn College/CUNY. As part of a year-long anthropological research project starting in Fall 2017, Mr. Lee will curate and complete an ethnographic photo collection that documents the practice of Chinese seniors who travel to long distances to casinos to redeem vouchers as a way of living. The project will critically examine the larger issues of poverty, aging, and the well-being within the Chinese community.
Ernabel Demillo is a veteran New York City broadcaster and journalism educator. Ernabel 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. For 10 years, she worked as a reporter and anchor on the Emmy-award winning FOX morning news show, “Good Day New York.” Before coming to New York, she was a reporter for the Orange County Newschannel and the CBS-affiliate in Sacramento.
Ernabel currently hosts and reports for CUNY-TV’s three time Emmy-nominated program “Asian American Life” http://www.cuny.tv/show/asianamericanlife, a magazine-style show focusing on the tri-state’s Asian American community. Her stories have focused on hard-hitting AAPI issues from the growing political influence of AAPIs to Asian American parents and their LGBTQ children. Her stories have also focused on diversity in theater, Hollywood and children’s/YA literature. And she has interviewed and profiled innovators, leaders and rising stars in business, technology, entertainment and the arts.
Table Sponsor
Diamond
Wen-Parker Logistics
Jade
1199SEIU (3)
1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund
Chinese-American
Planning Council
CMP
Clara Chung & Kevin D. Kim (2)
Municipal Credit Union
UPS
CUNY
Borough of Manhattan CC
Brooklyn College
College of Staten Island
NYC College of Technology
Queensborough CC
Member
Rebecca Moy Hong
Carol Huang
Betty Lee Sung
Pearl Tam
Ron Woo
Special Thanks
Economy Refrigeration
Florentine
Investors Bank
John Edler
Susan Hom
Lily Hui
Vivivan Louie
Lene Skou
Bernard Tsang
Advertisement
Baruch College
Con Edison
Fuyan Buddhist Institute
Lehman College
Levy Ratner, PC
The Ong Family Foundation
UniPro NY
Yin Shun Foundation
Sponsor/Donor
American Museum of
Natural History
American Symphony Orchestra
Antony Wong
Asia Society
Bloomingdale’s
Blueman Group
Broadway Comedy Club
Brooklyn Cyclones
Carnegie Hall
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
Corky Lee
Different Roads to Learning
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Guggenheim Museum
Hi Wildflower
Jacques Marchais Museum
of Tibetan Art
Jane Yin
Joyce Moy
Kathy’s Design Ltd
Keming Liu
Kramer Portraits
Loretta Chin
NY Giants
NY Jets
NY Red Bulls
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre
Pearl Tam
Pilo Arts Salon
Sheryl Choo
Skyscraper Museum
Staten Island Museum
Susan Kim
Tam Wines & Spirits
The New Victory Theater
The Orchestra Now
US Open
William Tam