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Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters have the potential to impact the outcomes in the 2024 election, but remain flattened and undercovered in mainstream media. AAPI-led community organizations and data equity initiatives offer powerful insights and new tools for understanding the needs of our diverse communities, including its most marginalized and under-engaged members. In this virtual forum, hosted by the Asian Media Initiative (AMI) at the Center for Community Media, community news media journalists will receive briefings from community-based organizations and AAPI-led research initiatives to inform your coverage of AAPI voters in New York and nationwide.
The forum will include two briefing sessions:
Barriers to Engaging Marginalized AAPI Voters in New York
- Engaging Indo-Caribbean and LGBTQ+ AAPI communities
- Voting access for Deaf and other disabled AAPI
- Reversing low AAPI youth voter turnout
- Voter outreach to growing AAPI communities outside of NYC
AAPI-Led Data Initiatives on AAPI Communities and Voters
- New databases and research tools on AAPI communities
- Proposed legislation to disaggregate data on diverse AAPI, and why it matters
- Ongoing national initiatives to produce high-quality data on AAPI
This event will have ASL interpretation.
Register to attend the AMI Elections Forum
About the Speakers
Barriers to Engaging Marginalized AAPI Voters in New York:
Mohamed Q. Amin (he/they) is an Indo-Caribbean Muslim immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights activist based in Richmond Hill, Queens. He is founder of the Caribbean Equality Project, a NYC-based grassroots community organization that advocates for Caribbean LGBTQ+ voices in New York City; co-founder of the annual LGBTQ+ Community Iftar; and leads the Phagwah Social Justice Collective, a Hindu-centered LGBTQ+ coalition. Amin is a filmmaker and curator, and has received numerous recognitions, including: 2019 New York State ambassador for World Pride; 2019 Impact Award from Gay City News; 2023 and 2024 New York City LGBTQ+ Power Players; and the City and State 2024 Queens Power 100 list. Amin holds a B.A. in Economics and is currently pursuing an M.A in Political Science at Queens College.
Angelreana Choi (she/her) is the Asian Student Civic Engagement Task Force (ASCET) Coordinator at APA VOICE/MinKwon Center for Community Action. She is currently a Yale-China Fellow in Xiuning, Anhui, China, where she teaches Oral English to high school students. graduated from Yale University in 2023 with a B.A. in Economics and a Certificate in Education Studies. As an intern at the MinKwon Center in 2021, she taught New Yorkers about ranked-choice voting and created voter guides in diverse Asian languages to make election information more accessible to immigrants. She’s excited to be back at MinKwon working to mobilize young Asian voters and creatively reflecting on what engaging in our democracy looks like through the ASCET Program.
Clement So (he/him), is Team Leader at the Metropolitan Asian Deaf Association. He was born Deaf and grew up with limited access to disability accommodations until entering into university. With over 15 years in serving Metropolitan Asian Deaf Association, he has witnessed the urgent and growing call in helping Deaf Asian community to fight for better access and breaking down barriers to healthcare, civic engagement, employment, language access, and education. So graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology and holds a B.S. in Business Management / Finance.
John Park (he/him), is Executive Director at the MinKwon Center for Community Action. He oversees all of MinKwon’s program areas, including Advocacy & Organizing, Civic Participation, Social Services, Development and Operations. Prior to joining the MinKwon Center, he served as the Executive Director of the Korean American Youth Foundation and the Director of Operations and Development at the YWCA of Queens. He received both his B.A. and M.A. in English at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
AAPI-Led Data Initiatives on AAPI Communities and Voters:
Alex Chew (he/him), Director, Amplify AAPI: Chew is a director with NORC at the University of Chicago, where he is championing Amplify AAPI, the largest, most representative survey panel of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders committed to illuminating the needs, opinions, and experiences of the AANHPI community. He advocates for Amplify AAPI and data equity for the AANHPI community and has over twenty years of experience leading large-scale, multinational consumer, B2B, and non-profit market research projects in the U.S, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East markets. He has led the development of transformational brand and reputation programs as an advisor to senior executives at some of the world’s largest and most influential organizations. Alex received a B.A. in political economics and history from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Linying He, PhD (she/her) is Associate Director of Research, Asian American Federation and a leading expert in research and advocacy for Asian American communities. She has overseen the production of high-impact reports on critical issues such as small businesses, voting patterns, mental health, and anti-Asian hate crimes, and her pioneering efforts led to the creation of the first online data center dedicated to capturing and analyzing demographic data for Asian Americans in New York City and State. Her extensive research includes national large-scale studies in partnership with over 20 community-based organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Lloyd Feng (he/him), is Data Policy Coordinator, co-leading the Invisible No More Campaign (INM) focused on ethnicity-based disaggregation of data on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in city, state, and federal agencies. He oversees government agency implementation of the historic 2021 NYS Asian and NHPI Data Disaggregation Law and of NYC agency implementation of the 2016 NYC Demographic Data Laws. Previously, he was a Program Associate at the Committee of 100. He is a graduate of Princeton University with a Bachelor’s degree in Art & Archaeology and a Certificate in East Asian Studies.
Moderator and Presenter:
Kavitha Rajagopalan directs the Asian Media Initiative at Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s Center for Community Media, the first and only national initiative dedicated to in-language and community-based journalism for and by AAPI. Under her leadership, AMI produced the first national AAPI Media Map & Directory and groundbreaking original report on AAPI News Media, and has launched specialized programming for AAPI media. AMI was recognized for the 2024 AAJA Community Impact Award. Rajagopalan is an author and policy expert, whose writing appears in a range of news outlets, policy magazines, academic journals, and peer-reviewed edited volumes. She was a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and the World Policy Institute, a Fulbright Scholar and John. J. McCloy Journalism Fellow. She holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. from The College of William & Mary.
About the Asian Media Initiative
The Asian Media Initiative is the first national program dedicated to building visibility and sustainability in in-language and community-based news media for and by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Launched in 2022, the AMI published the first national AAPI Media Map & Directory in December 2023. Find dedicated elections reporting resources for AAPI news media on the AMI Elections Project.