Rising Tides: Voices of Asian America

Sumbul Siddiqui is a member of the Cambridge City Council, having previously served as Mayor of Cambridge from 2020-2024. As Mayor, she helped lead Cambridge through the COVID-19 pandemic. A lifelong resident of Cambridge, she continues to fight for her community by increasing housing equity, advancing racial justice, supporting local businesses, and improving Cambridge Public Schools.

Ai-jen Poo is a next-generation labor leader, award-winning organizer, author, and a leading voice in the women’s movement. She is the President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Director of Caring Across Generations, and Co-Founder of SuperMajority. She has led the effort to pass Domestic Worker Bills of Rights in 10 states and 4 cities and has brought over 2 million home care workers under minimum wage protections.

William Lee is a leading trial and appellate lawyer and intellectual property litigator. From 2004-2011, he served as co-managing partner of WilmerHale, becoming the first Asian American to lead a major American law firm. Between 1987-1989, he served as associate counsel to Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh in the Iran-Contra investigation. He was also in 2014 elected the Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, the governing board of Harvard University.

Madalene Mielke is a nationally recognized civil rights leader. She currently serves as President & CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, which was founded by Secretary Norman Mineta and Delegate Robert Underwood and is dedicated to promoting APIA participation and representation at all levels of the political process.

When she was six months old, Stephanie Murphy and her family fled the communist regime in Vietnam. Following the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, she ran for Congress and won against a 12-term incumbent, becoming the first Vietnamese-American woman to serve. Despite being from a district divided amongst Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, she voted twice to impeach Donald Trump and served on the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

Christine Chen is a co-Founder and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote). APIAVote’s mission is to work with local and state community based organizations to mobilize APIA communities in electoral and civic engagement. She is a member of the Election Assistance and Policy Standing Committee at the American Political Science Association.

Julia Chang Bloch is the first Asian American to hold the rank of Ambassador in U.S. history. She has had an extensive career in international affairs, beginning in 1964 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia and culminating as U.S. Ambassador to Nepal in 1989. In 1998, she founded, and today continues to lead, the U.S.-China Education Trust, a program devoted to promoting American Studies in China.

Ariana Chaivaranon is a Thai-born artist, scholar, and museum professional. Ariana works to build meaningful connections between the public and world-renowned art collections, including the U.S. National Gallery of Art, the Beijing Palace Museum, UCCA, the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and The Frick Collection.

Judy Chu was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009, becoming the first Chinese American woman to serve in Congress. Representative Chu has chaired the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and also helps lead the Tri-Caucus, a joint effort with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Gary Locke began his career in public service upon his election to the Washington State House of Representatives serving from 1983-1994.  He was then elected as King County Executive, serving from 1994-1997. Since then, he has served as Governor of Washington State (as the first Chinese American to be elected governor in U.S. history and the first Asian American governor on the mainland), U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and most recently as America's envoy to China.