PROGRAM

Sponsored by: 

To mark Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and to celebrate the vast contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to our country and our campus, Roosevelt House with the Asian American Studies Program and Center are proud to present a special event exploring the significance of allyship in corporate America and beyond.

Featuring Hunter College Professor of Sociology Margaret M. Chin, Partner at Deloitte & Touche Sandeep Gupta, advocate Dr. Ngan Nguyen, and Roosevelt House board member and business leader Angie Tang, this panel will build on a conversation begun last May, when trailblazing Asian American business experts convened, as part of the Hunter@Home series, to discuss Margaret M. Chin’s award winning book, Stuck: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder. Panelists on that memorable occasion uncovered many of the ways in which allyship functions as an essential element of both individual professional advancement and successful strategy for strengthening corporate diversity and inclusion.

Please join us for the follow up to that discussion, which will explore the distinct challenges that inhibit people of AAPI heritage from full success and belonging in the workplace. In addition, panelists will assess actionable practices that can help promote stronger workplace partnerships and positive societal impact. 

Margaret M. Chin is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and a Roosevelt House Faculty Associate. Specializing in immigration, race, Asian Americans, family, work, education, and children of immigrants, her books include Stuck: Why Asian Americans Don’t Reach the Top of the Corporate Ladder and Sewing Women: Immigrants and the NYC Garment Industry, a comparative ethnography on Chinese, Korean, Mexican and Ecuadorian garment workers. Co-founder and current board member of the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, her honors include an American Sociological Association’s Minority Fellows Award; an NSF Dissertation Grant; a Social Science Research Councils Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Migration; and a Woodrow Wilson Foundation / Institute for Citizens & Scholars Career Enhancement Fellowship. Previously, she served as the vice president of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Sandeep Gupta is a Partner in Deloitte’s New York office, where he specializes in services for complex, global clients operating in the financial services industry. Additionally, Sandeep plays an active role in developing and delivering Deloitte’s various programs and initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sandeep served as a national board member of Ascend US, an organization focused on Pan-Asian leadership. During his 17 years of volunteer work at Ascend, he led initiatives including the launch of ten professional chapters across North America. Sandeep currently serves as the chair of Ascend’s A-List Awards program, which was established to recognize and celebrate Asian success.

Dr. Ngan Nguyen is a champion of social justice whose experience includes service as Ascend’s National Director of Research & Thought Leadership. Previously, she worked in international development—including field assignments at the United Nations in Southeast Asia, participation in the Harvard Institute for International Development’s work to normalize US/Vietnam relations, service as a senior program officer at Oxfam America, co-leadership of a National Geographic sea-kayaking environmental expedition to Vietnam, and advising Asia Society on global initiatives. Ngan has a doctorate in International Relations and Asian Politics. She is the founder and President of Ai Vy’s, a gourmet food company that mainstreams healthy ethnic cuisines. 

Angie Tang, moderator, is a Roosevelt House board member with more than three decades of professional experience as a banking executive, government official, NGO leader, and communications strategist. Currently, she leads executive communications at East West Bank, the largest publicly listed independent bank headquartered in Southern California. She also serves as senior advisor of Asia Value Advisors, a Hong Kong-based venture philanthropy consulting firm that promotes social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Previously, she held positions including: columnist at The Diplomat, where she contributed commentary on U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific region; Executive Director of the nonprofit Committee of 100, where she spearheaded Congressional dialogues and China delegations; and Regional Executive of the U.S. Department of Labor, where she led post-September 11 economic revitalization programs. As U.S. Delegate and staffer to the biannual U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue series, she coordinated policy review and press briefings. Before that, she was head of the New York City mayoral agency overseeing immigration and immigrant issues. Her career in public policy began as a legislative assistant to the President of the New York City Council.