2022 AAWC Annual Meeting Program Book by Jacquelyn Chow

Asian American Women’s Coalition (AAWC) 2021 Annual Meeting VIRTUAL EVENT March 5, 2022

Continuing Our Legacy Program: WHAT “SMARTIES” DO IN 2022: RECOMMIT TO RESILIENCE

Featuring

A Philadelphia Health Department update on Covid-19 & the Asian Community

THE METHODIST FOUNDATION

PROGRAM WELCOME & GREETINGS  

Elizabeth Lai Featherman, AAWC President Sophie Xu, Director of Smart Grid Services, PECO

SPECIAL RECOGNITION (presented by Elizabeth Featherman, AAWC President) Helen Luu (retired), Asian Mental Health Program, Hall Mercer COVID-19 UPDATE & THE ASIAN COMMUNITY Rhona Cooper, Public Health Preparedness Clinical Coordinator, City of Philadelphia Health Department STRENGTHENING OUR RESILIENCY Dr. Yong-Tong Li, Psychiatrist WELCOME TO THE CORPORATE WORLD Moderator: Sophie Xu, Director of Smart Grid Services, PECO Panel Participants: Pearl Lee, Financial Advisor, Janney Montgomery Scott Naoka Kumagai, Manager, Business Development, AmeriHealth Caritas Marife Domingo, Manager, Program Delivery, Comcast MAKING OUR VOICES HEARD Moderator: Anna Nguyen, 2018 AAWC Powell Family Foundation Scholar, University of Pennsylvania 2

Panel Participants: Sydney Chin, AAWC Scholar, Emerson College Sam Santos, Filipino Intercultural Society of Drexel University (FISDU), Drexel University Emily Seo, President, Alpha Sigma Rho (Epsilon Chapter), Temple University HOME COOKING WITH 

Susanna Foo

Shanxi Pork Sauce Pasta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99D3CmeNisE

AAWC ANNUAL COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT  

Gapura Alpha Sigma Rho at Temple University

LIVING WITH INFLATION Paul Markowich, Executive Vice President and Partner, Firstrust Financial Resources AAWC ANNUAL MEETING 

Reports from the AAWC President & Treasurer - Elizabeth Lai Featherman, AAWC President - Margaret Chin, AAWC Treasurer

CLOSING REMARKS  Marife Domingo, AAWC Vice President SPIN THE WHEEL RAFFLE/DOOR PRIZES

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

Helen Luu

Helen Luu was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, and migrated to the USA with her family in 1976 after the fall of Saigon in 1975. She is a pioneer in advocating for and providing mental health services for Asians in Philadelphia. For nearly 30 years, Helen served as psychiatric clinician and case manager at Hall Mercer Community Behavioral Health Center of Pennsylvania Hospital for Asians and Southeast Asian patients. Prior to this, she supported refugees in their resettlement efforts while working for the Jewish Family Services, the Jewish Employment & Vocational Services, and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC). Throughout her career, Helen conducted educational workshops and seminars for the Asian community on topics such as mental health, Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, lung cancer, HIV, AIDS, smoking cessation, and gambling addiction. She also provided information on Medicare benefits for low income families.

Helen retired from her professional career in 2016, but remains an active member of the Asian community in Philadelphia Chinatown, where she continues to share her knowledge, skills, and experience. As an active Board member and former President of the Chinese American Women’s Sisterhood Society of Philadelphia, she conducted voter registration drives; helped raise funds for families affected by 911, the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Indonesia, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy; and volunteered to escort and interpret for women during their free mammogram examinations. More recently, she delivered masks and free lunch boxes to health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and conducted annual interviews to support the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program. In addition, Helen provides interpretation services at the Crane Chinatown Vaccination Site at 10th & Vine, and serves as volunteer for the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC).

Helen completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Social Work at Temple University. She has an Associate Degree in Mental Health and Mental Retardation Technology at Hahnemann University, where she was awarded a Fellowship to provide mental health and behavioral services in the various Asian communities. 5

She received Family Therapy Training at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia. Helen is fluent in English, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka), and Vietnamese. Helen’s exemplary work and dedicated service has earned her numerous awards including the Hope Outstanding Professional Service Award from the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania in 2010, the Carl C. Gasta Memorial Award (Hall Mercer Community Mental Health Center) in 2000; and the Emil L Lynn Hubschman Award (Pennsylvania Hospital) in 2004. She also represented the Asian community in briefings at the White House on Asian women refugees with President Reagan in 1980, and on the Asian Pacific American health care providers with Vice President Al Gore in 1994. Helen was among those invited to attend the 53rd Presidential Inaugural of President Bill Clinton in 1997.

FEATURED SPEAKERS & PRESENTERS

Rhona Cooper,

MSN

Rhona Cooper is the Clinical Coordinator on the Bioterrorism-Public Health Preparedness team at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. She has a Master of Science in Nursing from La Salle University with a concentration in public health and a Master of Arts in Education from Arcadia University. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Rhona has participated in the planning and execution of every aspect of the City of Philadelphia’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, from providing public guidance to managing vaccination clinics. In addition, Rhona has collaborated with City response partners when disasters have resulted in the need to provide mass care and sheltering. Most recently, she represented the Philadelphia Department of Public Health onsite at Philadelphia International Airport, where she provided leadership during Operation Allies Welcome, when over 25,000 evacuees from the war in Afghanistan arrived at Philadelphia International Airport.

Yong-Tong Li

, MD, FAPA

Dr. Yong-Tong Li is a board certified psychiatrist and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She is committed to working with communities on mental health support, including suicide prevention for young people. She was a counseling psychiatrist at the Counseling and Psychological Services, University of Pennsylvania for more than 17 years. She served as attending psychiatrist at the Hall-Mercer Community Mental Health Center, University of Pennsylvania Health System for more than a decade. She also worked at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia during the pandemic. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Li has been doing volunteer work related to psychological peer support for front line health care providers and community mental health outreach.

Paul Markowich,

CFP

Paul Markowich is Executive Vice President and Partner at Firstrust Financial Resources. He works closely with professionals, entrepreneurs, families, and institutions to help them achieve their financial goals. As a Certified Financial Planner Professional and Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Paul provides assistance in designing and implementing effective investment portfolios, insurance strategies, and employee benefits. Paul believes in education as the foundation for financial success, and is a frequent presenter for investors at all levels. In addition, he lends his expertise with corporations in designing and implementing their benefit plans. He has created a unique niche in helping employers evaluate and improve current benefit offerings, and in communicating the benefit value proposition to employees. Paul received his certificate in Retirement Planning from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation. He has been featured on Thestreet.com, Kiplinger's, Fox 29 “Good Day Philadelphia” and the NBC10 Tracy Davidson Show. Paul was recently named top 30 benefit advising innovators by Employee Benefit Magazine 2016. Paul lives in Bryn Mawr with his wife and two children.

Susanna Foo Susanna Foo was born in Inner Mongolia, China, but spent most of her childhood and adult life in Taiwan. While studying at the National Taiwan University, she met, and later married E-Hsin Foo. She and her husband migrated to the United States, and moved to Philadelphia in 1979 to help run the Center City branch of HuNan, a neighborhood Chinese restaurant owned by her husband’s family. Susanna had never worked in a professional kitchen, but it was at Hu-Nan that she met Jacob Rosenthal, the founder of the Culinary Institute of America, who was a major influence in her culinary career. With Mr. Rosenthal’s recommendation, Susanna studied at the Culinary Institute of America where she learned the French techniques that she would later adapt to Chinese cuisine. Susanna’s cooking style has changed the paradigm of Chinese food – unhemmed by national or regional boundaries, she sought to meld authenticity and improvisation with the use of the best and freshest ingredients. In 1987, she opened Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, a restaurant that served Chinese and French fusion cuisine, which Esquire Magazine named best new restaurant of the year. In 1989, Susanna was recognized as best new chef by Food & Wine magazine. Her first book, “Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine: The Fabulous Flavors and Innovative Recipes of North America’s Finest Chinese Cook”, which she dedicated to Mr. Rosenthal, was published in 1995. It was awarded the best international cookbook by the James Bread Foundation. She received a second James Beard Foundation Award for best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region in 1997.

PANEL SPEAKERS & MODERATORS

Sophie Xu

, CFA

Sophie Xu is the Director of Smart Grid Services. In this capacity, she has oversight of strategies and processes of leveraging and optimizing PECO smart grid assets to deliver accurate, relevant, and high value data to all stakeholders to achieve PECO operational and financial goals. PECO, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, is an electric and natural gas utility founded in 1881, and serves 1.6 million electric and 474,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Sophie has worked at PECO for over 15 years. Prior to her current position, she served as director of field and meter services, and held various leadership positions within Exelon in the fields of operations management, process improvement, strategic assessment and project management. Before joining PECO/Exelon, Sophie was a manager in KPMG Consulting focusing on mergers and acquisitions, business valuation and project management. Prior to coming to the U.S., she was a relationship manager at Citibank Shanghai. Sophie was born in Shanghai, China, and came to the U.S. in 1995 for her Master in Business Administration (MBA) studies. She holds a dual bachelor degree in International Trade and Computer Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She obtained her MBA from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and a member of the Association of Investment Management and Research. Sophie is married and resides in Oreland, PA with her mother, husband, Sergey, and their son, Peter. 11

Pearl Lee Pearl Lee serves as Vice President/ Investments in the Philadelphia office of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC (“Janney”), one of the nation’s oldest and largest regional, full-service investment and investment banking firms. In this capacity, she works in partnership with Janney’s Wealth Management and Research departments to provide sound financial advice to each of her clients. Pearl believes that high-quality, personalized service is pivotal in maintaining relationships with her clients. Toward this end, she seeks to understand each client’s unique financial situation. Her main priority is to help clients achieve their financial goals by providing advice on investment options that would meet their individual risk tolerance and daily income needs. Pearl has an extensive experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Janney in 2006, she had a 19-year tenure at Morgan Stanley where she was Associate Vice President. She holds Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses, as well as life, health, variable life and variable annuities licenses. She has attended the Janney Retirement Income Planning Program, offered in conjunction with The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She sits on the Board of Penn Asian Senior Services Inc., where she is also the Board Treasurer. She is a member of the AAWC Board of Directors and serves as Chair of its Finance Committee. Pearl is an avid and curious traveler. She has visited over 20 countries, with a goal of being in a new location on New Year’s Day. Pearl enjoys spending time with friends, biking, gardening, cooking, painting, photography, and yoga. She was born in in Maryland, to a family whose origin can be traced to Southern China. She currently resides in Center City Philadelphia. 12

Naoka Kumagai Naoko Kumagai is a manager at the Business Development in the Medicare division of AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Company, where she has developed her business career over the past 11 years. She has extensive experience in analytics, research, operational improvement, and business development for both Medicare and Medicaid lines of business. She recently joined AmeriHealth Caritas, Asian American Pacific Islander Associate Resource Group (ARG) as a membership lead. ARG supports the company with associate engagement, retention, and development strategies including but not limited to building strategic initiatives, helping create a more inclusive and respectful work environment, providing career development opportunities and engagement with senior leadership. Naoko continues to thrive in her career development. She has completed two leadership training and a mentorship program in the past couple of years. She is participating in an upcoming Urban Leadership Forum in 2022. She has a general business degree from Drexel University, and a business administration degree from Manor College. She resides in Philadelphia and enjoys playing tennis.

Marife Domingo Marife Domingo serves as Vice President of AAWC, and works as Manager of Program Delivery at Comcast. She has been with Comcast for over 10 years, first as Senior Engineer at Comcast Business, then as Senior Analyst with Internet Essentials, and currently with Xfinity Operations & Deployment. Prior to joining Comcast, Marife worked at the Temple University Beasley School of Law managing databases and judicial clerkship application process for students and alumni. Marife leads AAWC membership participation in community service through the Annual Comcast Cares Day. She also manages a Rondalla string ensemble that holds annual benefit concerts for disaster victims in the Philippines. Marife recently joined Rehearsing Philadelphia’s Public Orchestra, a citywide art-based public project jointly produced and presented by Drexel University and The Curtis Institute of Music. Marife holds a degree in Information Science and Technology from Temple University. She obtained her Master's degrees in Communications from the University of the Philippines, and Human Organization Science from Villanova University. She currently lives in Philadelphia with her mother.

Anna Nguyen Anna Nguyen is a 2018 AAWC Powell Family Scholar and a 2016 Germination Project Fellow. She graduated from J.R. Masterman High School, and is currently a fourth year student at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a candidate for Bachelor of Arts in French and Francophone Studies with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry. She plans to apply for medical school after graduation in May 2022. Anna is the undergraduate coordinator of the Francophone Community Partnership, a volunteer program under the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn. During the COVID19 pandemic, she led a new initiative at the Netter Center called Nonprofit Connect that linked local nonprofit organizations in the city with Penn student volunteers. In the Fall 2021 semester, Anna was accepted to the Penn Mathematics Department’s Directed Reading Program to conduct an independent research on the relationship between topology and the chirality of organic molecules specifically in medications. In addition, Anna volunteers with the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network at Penn Medicine, which is conducting research to find the cure for a rare autoimmune disease called Castleman Disease. Since the coronavirus pandemic, they had taken on the task of identifying possible treatments for COVID-19. In 2018, she helped then-city Councilman-at-large Al Taubenberger pass a law to ban smoking at all SEPTA stations. Throughout her 4 years of high school, Anna earned a seat in the Philadelphia All City Orchestra and traveled with the orchestra to Italy in June 2015 for concert performances. She is currently a violinist with the Penn Symphony Orchestra.

Sydney Chin Sydney Rae Chin (they/she) is a non-monogamy sex educator/activist and multi-faceted creative. They/She aims to hold space for polyamorous queer people of color, especially misogyny affected individuals. They/She is a proud thirdgeneration queer Chinese-American non-binary femme; and these identities inform the type of projects they/she takes on. Sydney comes from a family of movers and risk-takers; their/her work in non-monogamy, survivorship, and liberation follows in their/her family's footsteps. At Emerson College, where Sydney completed her degree in Media Arts Production with a minor in African American and Africana Studies, they/she was part of the first cohort of students to study abroad (Hong Kong). After returning from Hong Kong, they/she sat as a student representative for the Emerson Cultural Climate and Equity Committee. Sydney collaborated with a group of graduate students in the Performing Arts program to study how Emerson could implement safer codes of conduct through intimacy coordination within their arts curriculum. Prior to this, they/she served as the Chair of Sisterhood for Flawless Brown, an all women and non-binary people of color sisterhood and arts collective. Sydney’s work at Emerson provided the catalyst for the work that they/she continues to do today. In her spare time, outside of work, Sydney loves to create art, cook, and pull oracle cards.

Sam Santos Sam Santos is a student at Drexel University, where she is a Biology major pursuing minors in Public Health, as well as Health and Social Justice. She is a member of the Filipino Intercultural Society of Drexel University (FISDU). She also volunteers with the Black Doctor’s COVID-19 Consortium. She grew up in the Philippines. When she was in her early teens, she and her family migrated to California, USA.

Emily Seo Emily Seo is a Korean American undergraduate student at Temple University. She plans to complete her bachelor's degree in Health Professions in Spring 2022. After graduation, she will continue to work as an Emergency Medical Technician while preparing for physician assistant school. Emily continuously aspires to be a well-rounded student who is involved in her community. This includes holding leadership positions in multi-cultural organizations and doing community service. As the president of the Alpha Sigma Rho Sorority, Inc. at Temple University, she works to embody their four major pillars: academic excellence, interpersonal growth, moral development, and strength in unity. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, hanging out with friends, and working out at the gym. In addition, she enjoys volunteering as a counselor at youth group camps and retreats for her Korean Catholic church. 17

Elizabeth (“Liz”) Lai Featherman Liz Featherman is an Associate General Counsel at the University of Pennsylvania, and an Associate Director for Legal Affairs at the university’s Penn Center for Innovation. Before joining Penn, she was in private law practice focusing on enforcement of intellectual property rights. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was elected to Pi Tau Sigma. She completed her master’s degree, and pursued doctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a law degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law). Liz served as a Leadership Academy Fellow at the Diversity Committee at the New Jersey State Bar Association in 2017-2018. She is the current president of Asian American Women’s Coalition.

Margaret Chin Margaret M. Chin retired from the School District of Philadelphia after 38 years of service to the children of Philadelphia. Her last assignment was as principal of Southwark School in South Philadelphia. Prior to this, she served as a cabinet member of the central administration, and was one of the few Asian Americans who held a leadership role at the School District. She was responsible for ESOL/Bilingual, World Language, Art and Music, Cultural Exchange, as well as translation and interpretation services at the District. Margaret is a well-respected and active leader in the Asian community. She served as president of the Asian American Educators and the Asian American Women’s Coalition. She is the current chair of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC), a member of the Schoolmen’s Club of Philadelphia. She is also a Trustee at the Philadelphia Award and the Christopher Ludwick Foundation.

AAWC 2021 HIGHLIGHTS OF ACTIVITIES  Annual Meeting – Continuing the Legacy Program: How Smarties Survive and Thrive in a Time of Uncertainty This event was held virtually on March 6, 2021, and recognized Im Ja Choi, Founder & CEO of Penn Asian Senior Services (PASSi), as well as several organizations and individuals who supported the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A representative from the Philadelphia Department of Health provided information (translated in several languages) on the Covid-19 pandemic specific to the Asian community. Donations were collected to support a food distribution project in partnership with Modero & Co. and Kampoeng Indonesia  Annual Scholarship Banquet AAWC held a virtual event on June 3, 2021, and presented 33 scholarships – five students were awarded 4-year scholarships and 28 received one-time merit awards. Director Wendy ChunHoon of the Women’s Bureau, US Department of Labor, was invited as featured speaker. A curated collection of Asian Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was presented by Hyunsoo Woo, Deputy Director of Collections and Exhibitions, and head of the East Asian Art Department and Hiromi Kinoshita, Associate Curator of Chinese Art. Video clips of Susanna Foo’s Favorite Fried Rice, Pork Dumplings, and Classic Hot & Sour Soup recipes were also shared with online participants. 20

 Annual Holiday Party Every year in December, AAWC hosts a holiday party for local Asian American children in partnership with Methodist Hospital. Since AAWC was not able to hold a party due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Board members, led by Virginia Lam and Nancy Francis, planned and organized the collecting, packing, and distributing of holiday gifts and toys to the children at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic School, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, St. Thomas Aquinas Indonesian community, Philadelphia Praise Center, and Unity Clinic (delivered by Jefferson/ Methodist Hospital).  Annual Potluck Picnic In August 2021, AAWC Advisory Board Member Susanna Foo, hosted the picnic at her Radnor home for AAWC members.

 Support to Cultural Events -

AAWC was among the Ambassadors for the virtual screening of Beethoven in Beijing.

AAWC supported and disseminated information on the Philadelphia Orchestra's Lunar New Year Concert to celebrate the Year of the Ox among the various Asian American communities.

The ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S COALITION (AAWC) is a multicultural organization with a mission to advance the interests of Asian American women through leadership and mutual support. AAWC was founded in 1987 by the Honorable Ida Chen, first female Asian American Judge in Pennsylvania, and Cecilia Moy Yep, founder of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. AAWC's members include women from all professions and walks of life. AAWC has initiated numerous activities for the Asian community and collaborated with other organizations to raise awareness and provide support on issues of interest to the Asian American community. One of its main program is providing scholarship support to graduating Asian American female high school seniors interested in pursuing a college degree. BOARD OFFICERS Elizabeth Lai Featherman, President Marife Domingo, Vice President Margaret Chin, Treasurer Rona Magno Navera, Co-Secretary Jenny Wong, Co-Secretary BOARD MEMBERS Nancy Francis Lily Higgins Grace Kong Virginia Lam

Pearl Lee Rachel Mak Katherine Ngee Wendy Smith

Rorng Sorn Carol Wong Sophie Xu Gloria Yu

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Vicky Faye Aquino Im Ja Choi Weena Doyle Susanna Foo Nydia Han Maria Kim Melissa Kim

Leanna Lee Whitman L. Lew Diana Lin Michelle Luu Lan Ngo Anna Vien Nguyen Carissa Pineda 23

Cindy Suy Natalia Tan Thu Tran Kim Vo Margaret Yee Stephenie Yeung Suzanne Young

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Presenting Sponsors PECO Asian Bank Methodist Hospital Foundation

Image Credits

Chenlin Cai & Xingzi Liang

Website Design Jacqueline Chow

Annual Meeting Planning Committee

Top to bottom, from left: Margaret Chin, Marife Domingo, Elizabeth Featherman, Cecilia Moy Yep, Rona Navera, Kathy Ngee, Wendy Smith, Sophie Xu, & Gloria Yu

____________________________________________________ Join us at the AAWC Annual Banquet on May 20, 2022. ____________________________________________________