On September 16, 2021, the six-month anniversary of the March 16th murder of eight people in Atlanta, including six women of Asian descent, leaders from Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association (GAPABA) and National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) officially kicked off a national fundraising effort aimed at supporting future Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) crime victims and bias prevention. According to FBI statistics, 31% of AAPIs have experienced racial slurs or harassment since the pandemic began.
The AAPI Crime Victims & Education Fund has a $1 Million goal and has raised just short of $100,000 to date. It will focus on four areas: (1) emergency funds for AAPI crime victims, (2) publication of in-language materials on bias and hate crimes, (3) bystander intervention training, and (4) educational and outreach programs to facilitate trust and create points of contact within the AAPI community, and raise awareness of AAPI stereotypes.
The in-person and virtual press launch was hosted by Alston & Bird. The event featured families of the deceased from the March 16 shootings, members of the newly-formed national advisory board, and initial corporate donors, which include Nike, Inc., Southern Company Gas, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Complete Discovery Source.
“As a member and sponsor of GAPABA, CDS is proud to support the AAPI Crime Victims & Education Fund,” said Vinnie Budhram, Chief Administrative Officer of Complete Discovery Source (CDS). “As a minority-owned business with a diverse workforce, we feel it’s our responsibility to support efforts to end Anti-Asian hate crimes and bias incidents, obtain justice for victims, and secure a better future for all.”
The AAPI Crime Victims & Education Fund advisory board includes:
- Byung J. “BJay” Pak, former member, Georgia House of Representatives, Georgia’s first Asian-American U.S. Attorney, and Partner, Alston & Bird
- Sara Hamilton, Senior Managing Associate, Thompson Hine LLP
- Christopher J. Chan, Partner, Eversheds Sutherland
- Angela Hsu, Counsel, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, and President, GAPABA
- Edward Sohn, Senior Vice President and Head of Solutions, Factor
- Timothy Wang, Associate General Counsel, Delta Air Lines
- Vijay Bondada, Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer, Duke Energy Corporation
- Yoon Ettinger, Associate General Counsel, Employee Relations, Litigation, and Regulatory Affairs, Southern Company Gas
- Rep. Ron Kim, four-term New York State Assemblyman
- David Lat, publisher of Original Jurisdiction and founder of Above the Law
- Angela G. Lim, Deputy General Counsel, Viz.ai
- Allison Padilla-Goodman, Vice President, Anti-Defamation League, Southern Division
- Nathan Park, Of Counsel, Kobre & Kim, LLP
- David Singh, Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- Alan Tse, Global Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Security, Jones Lang LaSalle
- Lani Wong, Chairwoman, National Association of Chinese Americans (NACA)
- Sandra Yamate, CEO, Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession
The recording of the event is available here. The password is vs3G@B16.
Donations to AAPI Crime Victims & Education Fund are tax-deductible. For more information, please visit the GoFundMe page, GAPABA’s website, or the fund brochure.
