Speakers

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  Dr. Qin Gao

  Professor of Social Policy and Social Work·Columbia University

  Qin Gao is a Professor of Social Policy and Social Work and the founding director of Columbia University’s China Center for Social Policy. She is a faculty affiliate of the Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC) and of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, a member of the Faculty Steering Committee for the Columbia Global Centers | Beijing, an Academic Board Member of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University, and a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Dr. Gao’s research examines the changing nature of the Chinese welfare system and its impact on poverty and inequality; effectiveness of Dibao, China’s primary social assistance program; social protection for rural-to-urban migrants in China and Asian American immigrants; and cross-national comparative social policies and programs.

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  Wayne Ho

  President & Chief Executive Officer·Chinese-American Planning Council

  Wayne Ho is the President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), the nation’s largest Asian American social services agency. In 2017, CPC launched Advancing Our CommUNITY, its organization-wide strategy to expand services to address persistent needs and emerging trends and to improve leadership skills among staff and community members. Previously, Wayne served as Chief Strategy and Program Officer for the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), an association of 200 community and faith-based member agencies aiming to promote upward mobility of underserved New Yorkers, and was the Executive Director of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), the nation’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization, from 2004-2013. He has been recognized by City and State in the inaugural Asian Power 100 in 2020, in the inaugural Nonprofit Power 50 cohort in 2018, and as a 40 Under 40 New York City Rising Star in 2014.

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  Dr. Neil G. Ruiz

  Head of New Research Initiatives·Pew Research Center

  Neil G. Ruiz is Pew Research Center’s Head of New Research Initiatives. In this role, he is responsible for inspiring and advancing new opportunities for organizational growth and evolution. He works closely with the Center’s president to conceptualize and drive new strategies that expand the Center’s scope and capacity to do new research and serve broader audiences. He identifies projects that amplify the Center’s mission and develops external collaborations. Neil is also the principal investigator of the Center’s comprehensive study of Asian Americans, where he is also serving as an associate director of race and ethnicity research. He has a background in applying demographic, qualitative, and survey research methods in the U.S. and around the world.

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  Robert L. Santos

  Director·U.S. Census Bureau

  Robert L. Santos is the 26th director of the U.S. Census Bureau. He was sworn in on January 5, 2022. Santos’ career spans more than 40 years in survey research, statistical design and analysis, and executive-level management. He previously served for 15 years as vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute and directed its Statistical Methods Group and was executive vice president and partner of NuStats, a social science research firm in Austin, Texas. Santos has held leadership positions in the nation’s top survey research organizations, including the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, where he served as vice president of statistics and methodology and director of survey operations.

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  Dr. Gordon H. Chang

  Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities; Professor of History, History Department·Stanford University

  Gordon H. Chang is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in Humanities and professor in the Department of History at Stanford University. With degrees from Princeton and Stanford, Chang specializes in the history of America-China relations and Asian American history. He has written and edited many books and essays on these topics. Among these are Friends and Enemies: The United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 (Stanford University Press, 1990); Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writing, 1942-1945 (SUP, 1997); Asian Americans and Politics: Perspectives, Experiences, Prospects (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2001); Chinese American Voices From the Gold Rush to the Present (University of California Press, 2006); Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (SUP, 2008); and Fateful Ties: A History of America’s Preoccupation with China (Harvard University Press, 2015).