2025 AAPI Power Players

Wellington Chen is a first-generation Asian American with a lifelong interest in community resuscitation. He is leading the Chinatown BID/Partnership to reposition the area for the future. Wellington is a highly respected advocate and was deeply involved in many community initiatives including downtown revitalization efforts. He co-founded an affordable housing company to rehab and to help stem the housing crisis with fellow partners. He also worked for I.M. Pei Architects and Planners in the 1980s.   

Yang Chen is the executive director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), one of the largest affinity bar associations in New York and the United States, currently with approximately 1,400 paid members. Yang has served as executive director of AABANY since 2009. Before that, he was a founding partner of Constantine Cannon, specializing in antitrust and complex commercial litigation. Yang is a lifelong New Yorker, who calls Queens home.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
I draw strength and inspiration from the many board members, committee chairs, and volunteers at AABANY that I have had the pleasure to work with over the past two decades, building the thriving community that we are privileged to share and support today.

Is there a AAPI-owned business or organization that you would like to spotlight?
AABANY is the only pan-Asian bar association in New York, and we have been an active and integral part of amplifying the voices of the AAPI legal community and the larger community that we serve. We continue to raise the visibility of AAPI legal professionals in private practice and the public sector, as we advocate for the AAPI community and fight for greater diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity for everyone.

What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
My proudest moment in my career thus far comes from creating opportunities for AABANY members to give back to the AAPI and broader community through our community-serving programs, such as our Pro Bono Clinic, Anti-Asian Violence Task Force and Legal Referral and Information Service, all of which have been awarded and recognized for the benefits they have brought to communities throughout New York.

Willing Chin-Ma is the chief operating officer at Grand St. Settlement, born in Hong Kong and raised in NYC. She is a strategic leader in the nonprofit sector supporting 18,000 New Yorkers. Willing’s spiritual faith drives her passion to help families and children in the LES and Brooklyn. Willing is an advocate for wage parity for early education teachers and human services workers. Willing’s dedicated leadership drove Grand Street’s recent Head Start expansion.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
My parents immigrated to New York City from Hong Kong. They instilled in me strong values of hard work, centering family, and supporting my community. This led me to become a social worker and influences the work I do at Grand St. Settlement. I’m thankful for the sacrifices my parents made to allow me and my children to thrive.

Is there a AAPI-owned business or organization that you would like to spotlight?
Every year Grand St. Settlement hosts Taste of the Lower East Side and one of my favorite participating restaurants is Kalye, a Filipino restaurant with amazing shumai, traditional lumpia, and pork sliders. Their support helps Grand Street raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that fund our vital programs.

What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
Grand Street recently expanded our Head Start programs in Brooklyn and The Bronx with our early childhood programs soon serving over 1,400 children throughout the City. The early intervention programs and partnerships we’ve built allow families to get support for their child’s special needs and prepare them for Kindergarten. I’m proud that my work has been able to touch the lives of so many families and build a foundation for lifelong learning.

Sammy Chu serves as  CEO of Edgewise Energy, a NY based clean energy development firm. Edgewise Energy developed and manages one of the largest community distributed generation portfolios in New York under the Community Power Long Island banner and are saving Long Islanders more than $100,000 monthly on their electric bills while providing significant climate benefits. Edgewise is currently focused on developing battery energy storage systems on Long Island and in NYC.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
My 97-year-old grandmother inspires me with her strength, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit. She began with little, she built a business through grit and determination. Her courage in the face of hardship and unwavering work ethic taught me the value of perseverance. She never received much formal education, but she is one of the smartest people I know.

Is there a AAPI-owned business or organization that you would like to spotlight?
Yes! One of my own! In addition to my role with Edgewise Energy, I am the cofounder and president of Caltech Electric. We are an MBE certified IBEW signatory electrical contracting firm. I began my career as an apprentice with Local 3 and it is gratifying to be a part of building NY!

What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
I am grateful that I had the opportunity to support and vote for congestion pricing as an MTA board member. After so many years, the effort of many finally paid off, and I was very fortunate to be a part of making it happen. It has already transformed NY in a very positive way and hopefully set an example for future initiatives across the country.

Jiyoon Chung is the executive director of Apex for Youth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Asian American youth from low-income and immigrant backgrounds. She joined the organization in 2011 and has led its growth, expanding its reach 25 times over while shaping its strategic direction and operational efficiency. She has overseen the development of impactful core programs that provide mentorship and access to critical resources for underserved youth, fostering their personal and academic growth.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
My parents continue to serve as my biggest inspiration in my life and the work that I do. They have modeled care and love for people, from family members to strangers on the street, since a very young age. Even when we didn’t have that much materially growing up, we experienced an abundance of love and joy in our home and learned to be generous with what we had to support and uplift others.

Is there an AAPI-owned business or organization that you would like to spotlight?
Apex for Youth empowers Asian American youth from low-income and immigrant backgrounds to unlock their potential today and a world of possibility tomorrow. 1-in-2 Asian American youth live in or near poverty in NYC. Our holistic approach is expertly tailored to our youth’s age, racial identity, and socioeconomic background. Our programs provide impactful mentorship and access to critical resources that would otherwise not have been available for 2,500 youth and their families.

What is the proudest moment of your career so far?
I’m incredibly proud of the support that Apex for Youth and I continued to provide to our community during the pandemic. Like other nonprofits, we faced uncertainty and many challenges. However, instead of having to close our doors, we grew. We replaced our annual gala with online fundraising, immediately transitioned our in-person programs to virtual, and surveyed our families on their growing needs, leading to our launch of vital mental health services for our youth.

Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung have been co-executive directors of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families since April 2017, where they co-lead the organization’s work in policy advocacy, leadership development, and coalition building. Since their tenure began, they have increased CACF’s organizational budget nearly 300%, led the advocacy on the passage of NYS’ data disaggregation law, and coordinated collective community advocacy for historic City and State investments in Asian American community-based organizations. Anita has worked throughout her career to prevent and address violence against women and children, and to promote healthy families, primarily in minority and immigrant communities of New York City. 

What is the proudest moment of your career so far? 
It’s been a privilege to mobilize AAPI communities across New York State to fight for the government funding and support our communities deserve. Through our work with the CACF conceived and co-led AAPI Equity Budget Coalition and the NYC-focused 18% and growing campaign, our advocacy these past 5 years has brought over $100 million dollars back into our communities and to the AAPI-led and -serving nonprofits that employ thousands and serve hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers annually.

Vanessa Leung has served the education community through her career, advocating on behalf of Asian Pacific American students and English language learners in New York City public schools. She was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to the panel for educational policy (PEP) and served as chair of the PEP for eight years from January 2014 to December 2021. She currently serves as the Planning & Evaluation Committee chair for the New York Foundation and is on the Board of the Education Council Consortium.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
The dedication of CACF’s 90+ AAPI-led and serving member organizations inspires us on a daily basis. Whether it is our partners working to ensure ALL New Yorkers have access to health care services, our member organizations that run programs for our elders that combat social isolation, or the AAPI-serving nonprofits that address gender-based violence in our communities, our member organizations are a trusted resource in the communities they serve – and must be funded accordingly.

Senator Cooney was adopted from an orphanage in Kolkata, India and raised by a single mother in the City of Rochester. He made history in 2020 as the first Asian American elected to state office from upstate New York, and the first state senator in decades to graduate from Rochester City School District (RCSD). He currently serves as the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Mr. Dandapani is a hotel industry veteran who was appointed president and CEO of the Hotel Association in January 2017. He is an active participant in the hospitality industry and has spoken on hospitality issues at many forums sponsored by organizations such as the Lodging Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, the ALIS conference, and has also written in a number of industry publications and the mainstream media on topics affecting the hotel industry.