WHAT

LEAP Master Class

WHEN

Monday, July 19
Individual Contributor 1 & Managerial Level 1

Tuesday, July 20
Managerial Level 2 & Individual Contributor 2

WHAT

LEAP Leadership Awards Celebration

WHEN

Thursday, July 22, 2021

11:00AM-5:30 PM PT (Virtual)

Event Schedule:

The LEAP Leadership Awards Celebration will be the culminating event that will celebrate the 2021 LEAP Honorees and the unique and nuanced ways leadership manifests itself in the Asian and Pacific Islander community. Learn about the LEAP Honorees and have the opportunity to ask them anything! The event will also include a number of interactive opportunities as well as an opportunity to network with executive level Asian and Pacific Islander leaders across sectors. The registration fee for this event will be included in sponsorship packages.

Since 2017, LEAP has been experimenting with what a fundraising event can be. This came with the dedication to celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander leadership while supporting Asian and Pacific Islander owned businesses and local neighborhoods. From 2017 to 2019, LEAP’s events have brought over $415,000 to the Little Tokyo neighborhood in Los Angeles and Asian and Pacific Islander owned businesses. In 2020, LEAP spent 93% of the event budget in these communities. As this event continues in a virtual format, LEAP intends to explore creative ways to continue supporting these businesses and leaders in the community.

Individual Award

Frances Nededog Lujan
Executive Director
Pacific Island Ethnic Arts Museum (PIEAM)

Frances Nededog Lujan is an indigenous CHamoru woman born and raised from the Pacific Island of Guahan, and the granddaughter of a master CHamoru blacksmith and member of an extended family of cultural practitioners and artists. She is inseparable from her bloodline. In her presence and practices, she honors her Pacific Islands ancestors and uplifts all indigenous peoples in roots and in routes.

Community Award

Coalition of Asian American Leaders - Minnesota
(CAAL-MN)
Minneapolis, MN

The Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) emerged out of the will of Minnesota’s Asian American community in 2013 when a small group of leaders came together to share their aspirations for creating an organization that would bring leaders from across sectors, generations, and ethnicities together. Throughout 2014, over 300 Asian Minnesotan leaders would come together, hosting multiple conversations using an asset-based approach and human-centered design processes to determine a course of action.

Leaders from across the state collectively affirmed their experiences of exclusion and invisibility, but they had a desire to demonstrate more impactful leadership to make Minnesota work better for all. These leaders created CAAL to be a network that equips and uplifts leaders, develops and takes action on shared agendas, and build across communities towards equity, justice, and prosperity.

David R. Barclay
Alumni Award

Riyaz Gayasaddin
Vice President of Program + Talent
Camelback Ventures

A native of the Midwest, Riyaz Gayasaddin cherishes his Asian-American identity and his journey to continuously better understand and live into that hyphen between Asian and American. His journey has taken him to his parents’ home country of India, classrooms in Baltimore, the chilly winters of Minnesota, and currently the snow-capped peaks of Colorado. He is passionate about developing individuals and teams, building culture, and shaking up the status quo by nurturing developing leaders who work through an equity lens to become the change agents of tomorrow. Currently, Riyaz has the privilege of working as the Vice President of Program + Talent with Camelback Ventures. Outside of work, Riyaz is a foodie. He approaches food as he does life - seeking diversity, opportunities to connect with others, and a chance to have a good time over a shared meal. Riyaz was lucky enough to attend Macalester College and Johns Hopkins University and strives to never stop learning and growing.

Margaret Ashida
Leadership Award

Vanessa Leung
Co-Executive Director
Coalition for Asian American Children & Families

Vanessa Leung joined CACF as Co-Executive Director in April 2017. She has served the education community through her career, advocating on behalf of Asian Pacific American students and English Language Learners in New York City public schools. She was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to the Panel for Educational Policy and has been Chair of the PEP since January 2014. She currently also sits on the Advisory Panel for the Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education.

Prior to returning to CACF, for three years she was the Director of Member Initiatives at FPWA (formerly, the Federation for Protestant Welfare Agencies), where she was responsible for membership recruitment and engaging 200 community based and faith based member organizations, and worked with a team to provide professional development, grants, and other resources to support and strengthen nonprofits throughout the City.

While Deputy Director for CACF, she was responsible for the development of a pan-Asian children’s advocacy agenda to improve policies, funding, and services for the Asian Pacific American community. As Education Policy and Program Coordinator of CACF, she authored Hidden in Plain View, a report detailing Asian and Pacific American students’ needs, and worked alongside other advocates on the creation of Chancellor’s Regulation A-663, mandating comprehensive interpretation and translation services, as well as the Dignity in All Schools Act which reduces bias-based harassment in schools.

Vanessa spearheaded a high school youth leadership project, the Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP) that trains a diverse group of high school students to advocate for the needs of Asian Pacific American students. In 2007, she was named a member of the City Council’s Middle School Task Force.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She also completed the Middle Management Program of the Institute for Not-for-Profit Management at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University, the CORO New York Immigrant Civic Leadership Program, the CRE Leadership Caucus, and the 2017 American Express Leadership Academy 2.0 at the Aspen Institute. Vanessa currently lives with her husband and three sons on Staten Island.

Margaret Ashida
Leadership Award

Yengyee Lor
President, Strategic Coach, Consultant
Faithful Consulting

Yengyee Lor is the Founder and President of Faithful Consulting and considers herself a social change agent who elevates people and organizations through her high energy coaching and consulting work. She specializes in life and leadership coaching, job analysis, needs analysis, selection, training development and instruction, strategic planning, non-profit board consulting, group facilitation, personality assessments to organizations, and more.