1 Workforce Development Advancing Aapis in the Federal Government

Workforce Development Advancing AAPIs in the Federal Government Wednesday, May 13, 2020, 3 PM ET

Hear special remarks from Deputy Secretary Patrick Pizzella from the U.S. Department of Labor and Acting Director Michael J. Rigas from the Office of Personnel Management. Remarks will be followed by a panel discussion on Advancing AAPIs in the Federal Government. The panel will discuss on the progress we have seen in AAPIs moving up leadership ranks in the federal government, recruitment and building the pipeline, as well as career development. Hear from DOL, OPM, AAGEN, and FAPAC as they discuss resources and opportunities through each of their programs.

AGENDA

Welcome Remarks Tina Wei Smith, Executive Director, White House Initiative on AAPIs

Introduction of Speakers Helen Van Etten, Regent, Kansas Board of Regents

Remarks The Honorable Patrick Pizzella, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor

Remarks The Honorable Michael J. Rigas, Acting Director, Office of Personnel Management, and Acting Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget

Panel: Advancing AAPIs in the Federal Government • Moderator: Anna Hui, Director, Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations • Vivian Chen, Chair, Asian American Government Executives Network (Director, Emergency Medical Services, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture) • Kelly Sewell, Public Affairs Officer, Federal Asian Pacific American Council (Human Capital Communications Specialist, Office of Human Capital, U.S. Department of the Interior) • Naomi M. Barry-Perez, Director, Civil Rights Center, U.S. Department of Labor • Zina B. Sutch, Deputy Associate Director for Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion, Office of Personnel Management Followed by Q&A

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

The Honorable Patrick Pizzella Deputy Secretary U.S. Department of Labor

President Donald J. Trump nominated him to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Senate confirmed Pizzella’s nomination on April 12, 2018. He was sworn in as Deputy Secretary by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta on April 17, 2018. Pizzella served as Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor from July 20, 2019, until September 27, 2019.

Pizzella previously served as a Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2013. On January 23, 2017, President Trump designated Pizzella as Acting FLRA Chairman, a position he held until December 8, 2017.

Prior to joining the FLRA, Pizzella was Principal at Patrick Pizzella LLC. He served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Administration and Management at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2001 to 2009. Pizzella was designated by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation from January 18, 2004, to April 26, 2005.

Previously, he worked at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP as a Government Affairs Counselor from 1998 to 2001 and Director of Coalitions from 1996 to 1997. From 1990 to 1995, Pizzella was Director of the Office of Administration at the Federal Housing Finance Board, and from 1988 to 1989, Deputy Under Secretary for Management at the U.S. Department of Education. He has previously held positions at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the U.S. General Services Administration.

Pizzella received a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of South Carolina and he is a graduate of Iona Preparatory School. He is a native of New Rochelle, New York.

The Honorable Michael J. Rigas Acting Director, Office of Personnel Management

Michael Rigas is the Acting Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management. Rigas has over 20 years of professional experience in the private, public and non-profit sectors, with a record of improving organizational performance and streamlining operations.

Prior to his current role, he served twice as an appointee at the General Services Administration (GSA), most recently as Senior Advisor and previously as Associate Administrator where he worked to increase Federal Government contracting with woman-owned, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and improved his department's scorecard from "red" to "green."

Rigas also served as Chief of Staff at The Massachusetts Department of Veterans' Services where he worked to reduce the amount of time it took to process veterans benefits, and at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. where he advanced free-market and limited government public policy solutions.

Mr. Rigas spent more than a decade in the private sector, including Mellon Financial Corporation and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. He holds an M.A. in public administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and B.A. and M.A. in economics from Boston University.

Tina Wei Smith Executive Director White House Initiative on AAPIs

Tina Wei Smith was appointed as the eighth Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) on December 9, 2019. In this capacity, Ms. Smith is responsible for directing the efforts of the Initiative and of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), including overseeing an Interagency Working Group.

Prior to joining the Initiative, Ms. Smith spent over 5 years at Asbury University as the first director of the Global Engagement Office. In this role, Ms. Smith created new international education initiatives and curriculum to increase cross-cultural understanding and prepare students for an increasingly global economy. Ms. Smith previously worked at The Heritage Foundation in the Office of Distinguished Fellow, Elaine L. Chao. She previously served at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Office of the Secretary and the Office of Public Liaison. She also served in the U.S. House of Representatives and staffed Congressman Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (NJ-11).

Ms. Smith immigrated to the United States with her parents at a very young age, and she acquired her U.S. citizenship in high school. Despite her family’s humble beginnings and the challenges of being newcomers, she witnessed first-hand how she and her family have been blessed by the many opportunities here in America. As a result, Ms. Smith has committed herself to public service and giving back to help others access opportunities to improve their lives and their future.

Ms. Smith is a 2015 Fulbright grant recipient, where she spent time supporting international education and bridging partnerships between universities. Ms. Smith is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (Master of Public Policy and M.A. in Higher Education). Ms. Smith and her husband, Kevin, call Kentucky home and they are proud parents to three young children.

Helen Van Etten Regent Kansas Board of Regents

Dr. Helen Van Etten is a long-time healthcare professional, educator and public servant. Since 1985, Dr. Van Etten has been an audiologist and recently retired from the Topeka School District as its chief audiologist. In 1988, she was on the board of directors for the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and remained on the board until 2006. Between 2004 and 2007, she served on the advisory committee for KAN Be Healthy, a Kansas State Medicaid program for youth and young adults. In 2010, she was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series.

In 2013, Dr. Van Etten was appointed to the Kansas Board of Regents by Governor Sam Brownback (R) and was re-appointed to a second term in 2017 (2017-2021). She has served on several of the board's committees, including Chair of the Academic Affairs Standing Committee, the Midwest Higher Education Compact as a representative and commissioner, Washburn University Board of Regents, the Higher Education and K-12 Coordination Council and Governor’s Educational Council – Committee Co-chair. In 2018, she was appointed by Secretary of U S Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, to serve a five-year term as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA). Most recently, she was appointed by President Trump to serve as one of the Commissioners of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Anna Hui Director Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

Anna Hui was appointed Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations in March of 2017 and the Senate confirmed the appointment in January 2018, making her the first Asian American to serve in the governor’s cabinet in Missouri history. For over two decades, Anna has worked in numerous senior positions in both state and federal government.

Anna started her public service career working for Illinois Governor Jim Edgar as the Special Assistant to the Governor for Asian-American affairs and then for Governor George Ryan, as a senior-member of the Washington, D.C. policy management team. She went on to serve as the Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor during President George W. Bush’s Administration. In that role, Anna spearheaded efforts to encourage diversity and the inclusion of historically underserved communities in the Department’s programs and Federal government management. After leaving federal service in 2009 and until she returned to Illinois in 2015, she was Chief of Staff to former U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. From 2015 to 2017, Anna served as Assistant Director and later as Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Labor, where she implemented major reforms in process and program efficiency and effectiveness.

Anna received a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a M.S.M. and a M.B.A. from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In April 2018, she was named the recipient of UIUC’s Outstanding Asian American Alumni Award from the Asian American Cultural Center for her dedication to public service. To showcase the rich heritage and contributions of the Asian Americans to Missouri’s history, in 2018, Anna organized Missouri’s first ever statewide Lunar New Year celebration at the Missouri State Capitol and the Governor’s Mansion, as well as helped plan Missouri’s first statewide celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in 2020.

Currently, Anna serves as the President of the National Association of Government Labor Officials (NAGLO); President of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) and sits on the NASWA Information Technology Support Center (ITSC) Steering Committee. She is a board member of the International Association of Industrial Accidents Boards and Commissions (IAIABC), board member on the Family and Community Trust (FACT), Advisory Board member for the Missouri Science and Technology (MOST) Policy Fellowship program, and a graduate of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce 2018 Leadership Missouri Program.

Vivian Chen Chair, Asian American Government Executives Network Director, Emergency Medical Services, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Dr. Vivian Chen is the National Director of the Emergency Medical Services program in the Forest Service responsible for implementing an interagency national program that will enhance the federal government emergency medical response. For the Forest Service, it will formalize and standardize its ability to address emergency medical services for its employees. In her previous assignment, Dr. Chen served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Public Health Science, Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA 2010-18. From 2013-15, she was detailed to serve as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary in Departmental Management, Office of the Secretary (DM OSEC) to oversee the Department's White House Initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

She has over 35 years of experience in public health, grants management, resource and community development, evaluation and research. Her career stretches from national health policy formulation at the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) to public health, health professions quality assurance and licensing, research and evaluation, and community work. Prior to joining the USDA, Dr. Chen served as the Health Operations Director/Deputy Health Commissioner at the City of Milwaukee Health Department where she managed all aspects of the city’s health department close to billion dollar budget and programs including the establishment of a BSL3 laboratory and automation of the food safety inspections and establishment of programs to reduce teen pregnancy and infant mortality.

Dr. Chen has served as past president for both Pan Asian Women and the Women’s American Organization for Research and Training, and has worked closely with primary care networks, public health policy organizations, minority and women’s groups, and community health centers for over 25 years. Currently she is the Asian American Government Executive Network (AAGEN) Chair and past Co-chair of Leadership Development of the Senior Executive Service Development Program. Dr. Chen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received her MSW from the University of Michigan (UM), a Masters Certificate in Gerontology from the UM Institute on Gerontology, and a Doctor of Science degree in Health Policy and Administration, Epidemiology and Mental Health, from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health (now known as the Bloomberg School of Public Health). A retired Captain (0-6) with the US Public Health Service, Dr. Chen joined the Senior Executive Service in 2010. She holds top-security clearance.

Kelly Sewell Public Affairs Officer, Federal Asian Pacific American Council Human Capital Communications Specialist, Office of Human Capital, U.S. Department of the Interior

Kelly Sewell is a Human Capital Communications Specialist in the Department of the Interior’s Office of Human Capital (OHC) in Washington, DC. Kelly manages OHC digital communications, coordinates outreach campaigns to increase employee engagement, and works to brand the Department as an “Employer of Choice.”

Prior to this role, Kelly coordinated a national AmeriCorps and internship program as the Youth Program Manager with the DOI Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). She has over twelve years of experience in community engagement, managing programs, and event coordination for local government, museums, and non-profits. Kelly is passionate about increasing diversity and engaging young people in public service.

Kelly Sewell volunteers as the Public Relations Officer for the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC). In this role, she drives FAPAC’s communications strategy, maintains relationships with stakeholders, and raises awareness about FAPAC’s mission. Kelly is a lifetime FAPAC member and previously served as FAPAC’s Conference Chair and Program Chair.

Kelly received a B.A. in Public Administration from California State University Fullerton. She is a native Southern Californian and now calls Northern Virginia home.

Naomi M. Barry-Perez Director, Civil Rights Center U.S. Department of Labor

Naomi M. Barry-Pérez has served as the Director of Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) since 2012. In this position, she directs DOL's civil rights enforcement and compliance programs pursuant to Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 188 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (formerly the Workforce Investment Act), among other statutes. Ms. Barry-Pérez serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Labor and Departmental leadership on civil rights and equal employment opportunity (EEO) with regard to entities receiving federal financial assistance from the Department of Labor as well as employment with the Department of Labor.

Ms. Barry-Pérez served as a Budget Examiner in the Education Branch of the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President in 1999-2000. She also served as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Fellow in the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in 1996-1997.

Ms. Barry-Pérez holds a Bachelor's Degree in Politics (cum laude) from Mount Holyoke College and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. In addition, she held a Public Interest Law Fellowship at the Georgetown University Law Center where she received a Juris Doctor Degree.

Ms. Barry-Pérez is the recipient of numerous National awards, including a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Alumnae Achievement Award, Secretary of Labor Exceptional Service Awards, the inaugural Federal Employee Leadership Award given by the National Farmworker Conference, a National Hispanic Scholarship, a Harry S Truman Scholarship for Public Service, and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for Public Policy.

Ms. Barry-Pérez served as Chairwoman of the Board for Good Shepherd Ministries, Inc., a non-profit organization that operated four comprehensive programs for at-risk youth in Washington, D.C., and as a Board Member of Americans for the Arts. Ms. Barry-Pérez has also served on a number of committees for Mount Holyoke College, including the College's Legacy of Diversity Committee.

Zina B. Sutch Deputy Associate Director for Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion Office of Personnel Management

Dr. Sutch serves as the Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Office of Personnel Management where she leads the efforts of developing government-wide policies and guidance to assist Federal agencies in building diverse workforces and inclusive and engaged organizational cultures that leverage diversity, and provides expert advisory services to Federal agencies undergoing cultural transformation. Prior to serving in this capacity, Dr. Sutch held the position of Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of the Executive Secretariat leading the Office in the oversight of all correspondence for USDA’s Secretary Vilsack. Prior to holding this position, Dr. Sutch served as USDA’s Director of Diversity, Recruitment and Work/Life, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration. In this role, she led the Department in the development and implementation of programs and policies that help ensure a modern, diverse, and inclusive workforce. She also oversaw accountability efforts for the Secretary’s Cultural

Transformation initiative, analyzing data across categories that include diversity, hiring reform, training, and leadership, while focusing on employee engagement.

Prior to leading this Division, Dr. Sutch served as the Deputy Provost of USDA’s Virtual University and USDA’s Chief Training Officer. Her career at USDA began when she joined the Federal government as the Leadership Development Program Manager at USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service in 2006 and progressed to the Department level when she served as a Training Officer for the International Technology Services in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. She has been with the Federal government for over 10 years and has over 20 years of experience in the field of education and training in both the public and private sectors.

Prior to joining Federal government service, Dr. Sutch worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Public School System assessing and developing improvement plans for low performing schools. She was a faculty member and taught graduate and undergraduate courses at George Mason University as well as other local universities, and currently teaches for American University’s Key Executive Leadership Programs. Prior to joining George Mason University, Dr. Sutch was the Associate Director of the K-16 Partnership Development Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, providing teacher training, leadership development, and certification courses to classroom teachers and administrators. Dr. Sutch started her education career as a classroom teacher and moved into leadership positions serving as Education Director then School Principal and Director in the private and public school sectors.

Dr. Sutch possesses a Ph.D. from the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University. She has two daughters and currently lives in Falls Church Virginia.