Pat began his career at UC Berkeley in 1966 as a campus mail carrier. He later worked in budget, accounting, contracts and grants and personnel. In 1969 he began teaching freshman writing in the new Asian American Studies program. He served as head of the program from 1971-73 and appointed Ron Takaki as the program’s first tenured professor. In 1973, he left Berkeley for Sendai, Japan where he studied educational sociology at Tohoku University. He returned to Berkeley and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in public policy.
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In 1984, at the age of forty, he restarted his career as an analyst in student services and head of student conduct. In 1986, he was appointed special assistant to Chancellor Michael Heyman. In 1988, in the midst of a bitter controversy over Asian American admissions, Chancellor Heyman appointed him associate vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment. With that appointment, he became the highest ranking API administrator in the UC system. While overseeing admissions, he initiated Berkeley’s move to adopt holistic review procedures and to view applicants as more than the sum of their grades and test scores.
In 1999, Pat joined UC’s Office of the President where he served as associate president under President Richard Atkinson. He was chief architect of Atkinson’s challenge to the SAT. During that time, he also served as a trustee of the College Board, which administers the SAT program, and tried to convince the Board to sever its ties with the National Merit Scholarship Program on the grounds that it advanced a fraudulent, indefensible concept of merit that unfairly discriminated against students of color and disadvantaged students. After failing to persuade the College Board, he initiated a campaign at UC that, in 2005, led all UC campuses to drop out of the program. He remains a staunch critic of standardized college admissions tests.
After retiring in 2004, Pat took up art. At the invitation of the US State Department, last October, he travelled to Kyrgyzstan to give lectures on the Japanese American concentration camps and master classes at art colleges on how to paint with smoke, a medium he discovered by accident while nearly setting his kitchen ablaze. (You can see work at PATRICKHAYASHI.com) He has also started singing lessons and theoretically goes to CrossFit three times a week.
Christine Chen is a co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), the nation’s leading national, nonpartisan organization to engage, educate, and empower Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) to strengthen their voices and create impact. APIAVote’s mission is to work with local and state community based organizations (CBOs) to mobilize AAPI communities in electoral and civic engagement.
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Under Chen’s leadership, APIAVote strengthened and expanded APIAVote’s partners into 29 states and made two historical milestones; attracted, then candidate Joe Biden to speak directly to the AAPI electorate, a first in history for a Presidential nominee, and second, contributed to the groundwork that led to the highest AAPI voter turnout in history.
Chen has been a champion for the empowerment of AAPI communities from the start of her career. Moving to Washington, DC, from Ohio, she took on organizing and leadership roles at the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), and started a consulting firm, Strategic Alliances USA. She currently serves on the Kennedy Center Community Advisory Board and the Center for Asian American Media. She is also a member of the Election Assistance and Policy (EAP) Standing Committee at the American Political Science Association.
Over the past 15 years, ‘Alisi Tulua has been learning under the care and guidance of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) elders, leaders, and her incredible women of color mentors. She currently serves the NHPI community in her role as the inaugural Executive Director of the Southern California Pacific Islander Community Response Team (SoCal PICRT). She is proud of the journey that has gifted her extensive experience in equity-centered program development, grassroots organizing, coalition building, policy advocacy, leadership and organizational development, and research.
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‘Alisi spent time recently as California Program Director at Asian American Futures and as the Program Director for the NHPI Data Policy Lab at UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research. ‘Alisi’s career in the non-profit has been nurtured in homes like OCAPICA, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, One East Palo Alto, Tongan Community Service Center, and API Forward Movement. She currently serves as the board chair for the NHPI Alliance and as treasurer for National CAPACD’s board.
‘Alisi currently lives in Monterey, CA. She holds a Master of Science in biology and a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and cell biology from the University of California, San Diego.
Karen Ideno is group vice president of indirect procurement for Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) and environmental, social, and governance investing at Toyota Financial Services (TFS). In this role, Ideno oversees the office of procurement operations, systems and strategy, ensuring both Toyota organizations have the goods and services necessary for the companies to operate, sourcing from a diverse range of suppliers. Overseeing TFS’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing function, Ideno makes certain the company’s related initiatives enhance stakeholder value and are recognized and understood by the investment community.
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Prior to her current position, Ideno was responsible for the company’s private label financial solutions, Toyota Financial Services’ largest-ever new business initiative. She directed all Mazda Financial Services sales and marketing activities, including sales support, product development, market planning, branding, remarketing, business analytics, and voluntary protection product strategy. Additionally, she established the operations of Bass Pro Shops Financial Services to provide consumer and dealer financing for boats and all-terrain vehicles.
Earlier in her career at Toyota, Ideno served as TFS group vice president of product, pricing, incentive planning, marketing and brand, remarketing, and business analytics. She was responsible for strategic initiatives including the establishment of the TFS brand, high-profile product introductions, the launch of consumer and dealer digital retailing solutions, the creation of the company’s corporate social responsibility department, and the assembly of a robust business analytics team.
Ideno’s extensive financial services background includes large-scale P&L responsibilities, strategic planning, leadership of corporatewide change management initiatives, achieving operational efficiencies, entrepreneurial new business development, as well as quantitative- and qualitative-based analyses to drive customer, dealer, and client satisfaction. Importantly, Ideno is widely recognized as a strong proponent of diversity and inclusion, and is known for developing the next generation of Toyota leaders.
Ideno is on the Board of National Trustees of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The California State Senate recognized Ideno’s role in developing Toyota Financial Services’ charitable activities, particularly in “Making Life Easier” for the youth of the Boys & Girls Club of East Los Angeles.
Ideno is executive sponsor of the North American Advisory Council for Women Influencing & Impacting Toyota (WIIT) and has served as executive sponsor of Toyota Asian American Society in Alliance (TAASiA). She was recognized as one of the 100 Leading Women by Automotive News and honored by the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce for her leadership in advancing diversity and inclusion in the workforce. Ideno earned her Master of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing from Pepperdine University, and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles
We know that Asian Americans are underrepresented in leadership roles across all sectors due to many barriers. However, rather than digging into the challenges, the latest LEAP research study focused on understanding what helps Asian Americans advance into leadership positions. We found that Asian Americans’ careers accelerate when internal and external factors exist. We will delve into the critical factors that help Asian American professionals achieve leadership positions. .
While not always intentional, microaggressions regularly cause harm and create frustration for individuals who have to experience them. To foster healthy work environments, leaders need to understand and address microaggressions in the workplace. Participants will explore some implicit biases and microaggressions and dive into how our cultures and values influence our perspectives. In the end, we will grow our compassion, better understand the perspectives of people who are different from us, and make decisions conscious of the negative impact of everyday slights and snubs. We want the power of our words to lift each other up; not bring us down.
"This session will allow LEAP attendees to engage in dialogue with one another to explore questions and prompts aligned with the LEAP Celebration theme and the future of Asian American and Pacific Islander leadership. Through an interactive workshop, attendees will leverage their experiences and expertise to help LEAP craft a collective and informed future for API leadership to thrive."
The Ideno Family
