About Us

Serving our Community

About Us

APAC is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 that provides services and education for and about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Connecticut.

APAC is a non-partisan group of concerned citizens who are leaders in their respective Asian American and Pacific American communities volunteering their time and resources to work on behalf of Connecticut Asian Pacific Americans.

Our Mission

To engage in advocacy, education, outreach, interagency, and community collaboration to improve the well-being of the APA community in CT.

Our Overview

APAC is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 that provides services and education for and about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Connecticut.

APAC is a non-partisan group of concerned citizens who are leaders in their respective Asian American and Pacific Islander communities volunteering their time and resources to work on behalf of Connecticut Asian Pacific Americans. Our current efforts include serving in an Advisory role to the State of Connecticut Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity, and Opportunity working to advise the Governor, the Legislature, state agencies, departments, and commissions on issues relating to the social, educational, health, economic development, rights, concerns and interests of our communities. We also actively compile, connect, and make available resources relating to the aforementioned issues to organize, empower, and expand our communities.

Founding date: 2008
APAC Founders Executive Committee – Angela Rola, Saud Anwar, Bill Howe, George Jeong

About Board of Directors

APAC-CT is governed by an all-volunteer board of directors. In addition, other volunteers work on a variety of committees. Meet the current leadership and please consider becoming an APAC member as well as joining in on the important work that needs to be done.

Chair: The Chair is a two-year term: 2023-2025

Dr. Quan Tran is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese American who hails from a refugee background. She is a multi-lingual educator with research, teaching, and consulting experiences in the fields of Asian American Studies, critical refugee studies, and Vietnamese diaspora studies. Dr. Tran is deeply committed to and finds joy in collaborative work that uplifts, empowers, and connects underrepresented communities in the state of Connecticut. She is also a translator and poet.

Co-Chair: The Co-Chair is a two-year term: 2023-2025

Jenny (JHD) Heikkila Díaz was born and raised in Los Ángeles. Witnessing her family’s immigration experiences and the LA Civil Uprising of 1992 seeded JHD’s desire to coalition build within her own Korean American and Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and across communities of color. For almost twenty-five years, JHD has worked as a K-12 public school teacher, school administrator, and educator coach in MD, CA, NY, and CT, co-creating classrooms and school communities where students see their families and themselves reflected and honored and where they learn about others’ cultures and communities. She is the CT Council for the Social Studies Professional Learning Coordinator, a Program Officer at Fund for Teachers, and also facilitates statewide teacher communities of practice, including as an Activist in Residence with the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (AAASI), supporting K-12 CT teachers with integrating AAPI studies into their curriculum. She is a New Havener, a co-founder of aapiNHV, and a parent of two elementary-aged children. Her lifelong commitment is to backing youth, who envision an even more joyful and just world than she does.

Secretary: The Secretary is a three-year term: 2023-2026

Haritha Subramanian was born and raised in Connecticut, and is a second generation Indian American. She is a current freshman at the University of Connecticut majoring in political science, biological sciences, and music. She has been passionately involved with social justice work in her teen years and focuses her work in intersectional Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) activism and fighting for a more equitable world. During her time in Farmington High School, she was co-president of the Asian American Student Union and a representative on her school’s Social Justice Council. Together, with other activists, she worked to educate herself and the community about various social justice topics through events such as Social Justice Week (a week with fully student-led presentations on different issues), organizing informational panels, leading crucial dialogue, and planning cultural events. Haritha also served as a student representative on the town Ad Hoc Committee to address Farmington High School’s mascot in 2020-2021. Through her work with the committee, Haritha collaborated with representatives across town from various ages and backgrounds to discuss the cultural appropriateness of the former mascot, its effects on the Indigenous Peoples’ community & our community as a whole, and how we can be more sensitive to various identities in our educational system. She was instrumental in leading the movement of change at her school by encouraging voting, excitement, and filming news updates and podcasts.

She is particularly passionate about having equity and inclusivity in education and has done impactful work in this field. Through her senior year Capstone project she worked on incorporating social justice into music education and she currently is immersed in work of the UConn Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (AAASI). Here, she collaborates with fellow students and professors to connect with districts and advise them through the transition of incorporating Asian American studies into their curriculums. She also is helping in the creation of a robust AAPI survey in order to collect data that will help people in power recognize the community’s needs. Haritha finds joy in singing, playing her saxophone in the UConn band, playing Carnatic violin for UConn Sanskriti, and in serving her community through tutoring & student teaching at her Hindu Sunday School.

Treasurer: The Treasurer is a three-year term: 2023-2026

Angela Rola was one of the founding members of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) and served as its inaugural chair. During her leadership the APAC successfully lobbied for the creation of an Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (APAAC). She served as one of the commissioners for the APAAC and the Commission on Equity & Opportunity (now part of Commission on Women, Children Seniors, Equity & Opportunity) from 2008-2017.

Angela is the founding Director of the Asian American Cultural Center (AsACC) at the University of Connecticut, which will be celebrating its 30th year in April. She has developed a variety of programs focusing on the diverse Asian American community. In addition to directing the center, she is an Affiliate Faculty member for the UConn Asian & Asian American Studies Institute, teaching a course on Asian American mentoring and leadership. She lectures extensively in both undergraduate and graduate courses on campus and at local colleges and universities on Asian American issues and student concerns.

Founder:
Treasurer: The Treasurer is a three-year term: 2023-2026 Angela Rola was one of the founding members of the Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) and served as its inaugural chair. During her leadership the APAC successfully lobbied for the creation of an Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission (APAAC). She served as one of the commissioners for the APAAC and the Commission on Equity & Opportunity (now part of Commission on Women, Children Seniors, Equity & Opportunity) from 2008-2017.

Founder:

Dr. Bill Howe has been an educator for over 40 years from elementary to higher education.

He is a regular presenter at state and national conferences and has appeared on both radio and television on diversity issues. In addition, he has been quoted in the New York Times, Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, Hartford Courant, CampusSafety and other news publications and journals. He has conducted over 600 workshops/speaking engagements for 24,000 attendees on multicultural education, cultural competence and diversity

In 2006 he was named Multicultural Educator of the Year by the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME). He was an Honoree at the 11th Annual “Immigrant Day” at the State Capitol in 2008, a day to honor immigrants from throughout Connecticut who have made valuable contributions to their communities and/or professions.

In 2012 he was recognized with an award from the Pakistani American Association of Connecticut (PAACT) for his service to the community. On May 2, 2015 Dr. Howe received an Official Citation from the Connecticut General Assembly in recognition of a Commitment and Leadership to the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Community in Higher Education and Public Service. He was also honored with the Higher Education & Public Service Award from the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Coalition.

In 2015 he has was recognized by Teachers College/Columbia University as a Distinguished Alumni. In 2019 he received the Ebenezer D. Bassett Distinguished Humanitarian Award for Civil Rights and Equity from Central Connecticut State University and the Ebenezer D. Bassett Memorialization Committee.

Dr. Howe is the co-author of a textbook on multicultural education – “Becoming a multicultural educator: Developing awareness, gaining skills, and taking action” published by SAGE (2019). The best-selling textbook won the 2013 Philip C. Chinn Multicultural Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education. This text is now in its third edition and also published in Chinese. A 4^th edition is due in summer of 2023.

He is Past President of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME); a Founding Member of the Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT (APAC), and
Past-Chair of the Connecticut Asian Pacific American Commission.

Founder:

George Jeong served as Treasurer of the Asian Pacific American Coalition for 8 years since its creation in 2008. Prior to APAC, he was a co-founder of the Connecticut Asian American Leaders Consortium (CA2LC) aimed at uniting 25 various Asian groups and organizations to establish a strong voice and presence to address critical social, economic, health, and educational issues facing the Asian community. Elected president of the Pratt & Whitney’s Asian Pacific American Forum (APAF), he instituted the Asian Heritage Month, the first heritage celebration event by any employee network group at P&W. He also served on the corporate Diversity Council. In his retirement, George remains connected to the Asian community, spends quality time with family, and plays tennis as often as possible.

Founder:

State Senator Saud Anwar was first elected to the Senate in February 2019 to represent the residents of the 3rd State Senate District towns of East Hartford, East Windsor, Ellington and South Windsor. Saud was first elected to public office in 2011 as a member of South Windsor’s Town Council. He has served two terms as South Windsor mayor, once from 2013 to 2015 and once from 2017 to 2019.

Saud is a medical doctor with specializations in treating lung diseases and critical care medicine, occupational and environmental medicine. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Saud was trained in pulmonary and critical care medicine at, and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from, Yale University. Saud also works with humanitarian and peace initiatives on a local, national and global scale. He has organized medical missions for disaster relief, receiving citations for doing so from former Governor Jodi Rell, United States Senator Richard Blumenthal and Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz. In South Windsor, Saud is a founding member of the South Windsor Hunger Action Team, Zero Waste South Windsor and the South Windsor Alliance for Progress. He is also the founder of South Windsor Haiti School Inc., a board member of the South Windsor Community Foundation and is a former chair of the South Windsor Human Relations Commission.

In Connecticut, Saud is the former commissioner of Asian Pacific American Affairs and served on the Health Equity Leadership Council of Connecticut, CT Health Foundation, and State Emergency Response Commission.

Nationally, Saud has testified to the 109th Congress’s Committee on Homeland Security, coordinated volunteer response to September 11, served as a consultant to the FBI’s Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee and spoke at conferences for the Department of Homeland Security and the office of former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Internationally, Saud served on peace missions to Israel and the Middle East, as well as medical missions to Haiti and Pakistan after natural disasters in those countries. He has spoken at conferences for Friends of Europe – Brussels and the United States Mission to the European Union, served as a consultant for the British Department of Communities and Local Government, and was Chief Coordinator for the Conference on Understanding Radicalization and De-Radicalization Strategies, which was broadcast live throughout the world.

Saud has been recognized by the American Red Cross for his response to September 11 and received the FBI Director Robert Mueller Award for Community Leadership and Alliance Building, the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, the National Council of Community and Justice’s Human Relations Award, the Manchester Community College Leadership Award, the Department of Justice Attorney’s Office Community Service Award, the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut’s Trailblazer Award, the Eastern Connecticut Health Network member physicians’ Community Service Recognition Award and the Connecticut Bar Association’s Citizen for the Law Award.

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About Us

Serving our Community

About Us

Our Mission

Our Overview

About Board of Directors

Chair: The Chair is a two-year term: 2023-2025

Co-Chair: The Co-Chair is a two-year term: 2023-2025

Secretary: The Secretary is a three-year term: 2023-2026

Treasurer: The Treasurer is a three-year term: 2023-2026

Founder:

Founder:

Founder:

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