SAN JOSE — Daphne Kwok, AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) vice president of multicultural markets and engagement, will be the keynote speaker at Yu-Ai Kai’s “What’s Next?” luncheon on Friday, Aug. 1.
Kwok will be focusing her presentation on the status of Asian Pacific Islander (API) women 50+ years old and about AARP’s Life Reimagined, which is a program and a tool designed to help one consider and chart out his or her future, whether it’s a career change, starting a business, exploring other interests, hobbies, travel or volunteer service.
“This is our first luncheon to focus on API women 50+ and we are excited to have Daphne be a part of this event,” said Yu-Ai Kai Executive Director Sophie Horiuchi-Forrester. “While the topic will focus on API women and AARP’s Life Reimagined, we want folks to know anyone – men, women, non-API, folks not yet 50+ — are all encouraged to attend. The program promises to be rich with interesting and valuable information.”
“We are delighted that Yu-Ai Kai will be hosting this event in Mountain View,” says Mountain View City Councilmember Margaret Abe Koga, co-chair of the event. “Participants will enjoy Ms. Kwok’s insights from her experiences here in the Bay Area as well as in Washington D.C. We are also eager to hear about the tools available through AARP.”
Appointed by President Barack Obama in July 2010, Kwok serves as chair of President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has also served as the executive director of Asians & Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California (APIDC) for the last five years. A non-profit based in Oakland, APIDC seeks to give a voice and a face to AAPIs with disabilities. Kwok has fought to break down the stigma in the AAPI community about disabilities and to provide technical assistance to organizations that want to effectively work with AAPIs with disabilities.
Prior to her tenure at APIDC, Kwok served as executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) in San Francisco from 2005-2007. At AIISF, she worked to preserve and restore the Angel Island Immigration Station and to promote the role that it played in shaping America’s past and present.
Kwok is also a former executive director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), where she focused on increasing political participation of the APIA community and working with API elected officials from school board members to members of Congress.
Prior to her services at APAICS, Kwok served for 11 years as executive director of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), a non-profit, civil rights organization with more than 10,000 members.
Tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite: http://yuaikai-womenlunch.eventbrite.com. Seating is limited. Tickets are $25 per person, which includes lunch; early bird tickets sell for $20 each before July 10. With sponsorship from Microsoft and AARP, the lunch will be hosted at the Microsoft Corporate Offices in Mountain View.
For more information about the luncheon, how to sponsor or donate to the event, contact Debbie Saito, Yu-Ai Kai fund development manager, at (408) 294-2505 or dsaito@yuaikai.org.