RELEASE: AAPI Victory Alliance Announces New Board Members
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 15, 2021
PRESS CONTACT:
Abhi Rahman
Abhi.Rahman@Firesidecampaigns.com
RELEASE: AAPI Victory Alliance Announces New Board Members
WASHINGTON — The AAPI Victory Alliance has announced a slew of prominent AAPI voices that will be added to AAPI Victory Alliance’s board of advisors. These AAPI candidates are leaders in their respective positions and have demonstrated a commitment to elevating AAPI voices and causes in their fields.
They are: Jeff Yang, CNN contributor; Lala Wu, the co-founder and executive director of Sister District; Ankur Goel, partner of McDermott, Will & Emery and former AAJC Board Member; Sima Ladjevardian, former Democratic candidate for TX-02; and Katie Kalvoda, impact investor and community builder.
While each of our new board members are expert advocates in their own right, only one, Sima Ladjevardian, makes history as the first Iranian-American to sit on the board of an AAPI-focused organization. Long-overlooked and all too often excluded from the AAPI community, Sima’s intimate knowledge of what it means to be an Iranian-American in the States will play a critical role in refocusing the importance inclusion plays in furthering solidarity among the AAPI community.
With these leaders as board members, the Alliance hopes to take their policy and advocacy work to the next level.
AAPI Victory Alliance Executive Director Varun Nikore issued the following statement:
“As an organization built to serve the ever-evolving needs of our community members, I’m thrilled to usher in a cohort of new board members who are just as diverse and who are equally passionate about educating the public on progressive issues, advocating for fellow community members and building life-long alliances to help the AAPI community build political power across the country.
With tensions stretched thin by COVID-19, and given all that our community has faced over these past few years, I’m beyond excited to work with our new members to help take AAPI Victory Alliance to the next level. As our world slowly opens back up and our everyday lives regain a familiar semblance of normalcy—no doubt indelibly changed by the pandemic—so too has our organization changed.
As onboarding begins and we launch our new think tank and upcoming initiatives, we’ve turned our attention towards a brighter, more inclusive and equitable future for all Americans. Please join us in warmly welcoming in our new board members and take time to imagine what the future of AAPI Victory Alliance has in store.”
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The AAPI Victory Alliance, as a policy and advocacy organization, works in partnership with the AAPI Victory Fund along with legislators at the federal and state level to move and implement policies that benefit AAPI communities from a diverse lens, harness last year’s record voter engagement, build grassroots support of candidates who prioritize the AAPI community, and works on policy proposals to improve hate crime reporting and response.