Attitudes towards Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders

Paul is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the author of Ethnic Groups, Congress, and American Foreign Policy and principal author of A Dream Deferred: Changing Demographics, New Opportunities, and Challenges for Boston. His scholarly articles on ethnic studies, Asian Americans, public policy, political behavior, foreign policy, and health disparities have appeared in major academic journals and edited volumes. He currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund; Board of Directors of the South Shore Health System; Board of Directors of North Hill Communities; Board of Trustees of the Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund; Board of Trustees of the town of Weymouth Libraries Foundation; Redistricting Data Hub’s Advisory Data Council, and the City of Boston’s COVID-19 Health Disparities Task Force. He was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and served as the first Chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. The Emperor and Government of Japan have awarded Paul the Order of the Rising Sun. Paul received his B.S. in Political Science from the University of Utah and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University.

Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Dr. Russell Jeung is an author of books and articles on race and religion. He's written Family Sacrifices: The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese Americans (2019); Mountain Movers: Student Activism and the Emergence of Asian American Studies (2019); and At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus Among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors (2016).

In March 2020, Dr. Jeung co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition that was awarded the 2021 Webby Award for "Social Movement of the Year." Dr. Jeung was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential Persons in 2021 and received the Game Changer Award from the Asia Society in 2022.

Professor Erika Lee is an award-winning historian and author, Regents Professor of History and Asian American Studies, Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, and President-Elect of the Organization of American Historians.

The granddaughter of Chinese immigrants, Lee was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and testified before Congress in its historic hearings on anti-Asian discrimination and violence.

Lee is the author of four award-winning books including The Making of Asian America and America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in America, which won the American Book Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and more. Identified as an essential book illuminating the Trump era and the 2020 elections, it will be published with a new epilogue on xenophobia and racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Making of Asian America will also soon be republished with a new postscript about the latest campaigns against Asian Americans. Lee has been featured in PBS’s film series “Asian Americans” and has been interviewed for many news shows, podcasts, and publications.

Jennifer Lee is the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University and the 2022-23 Robbert Dijkgraaf Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. An award-winning author and experienced public commentator, she has been uniquely successful in placing the study of Asian Americans centrally in the discipline. She is author or co-author of four-award winning books, including Asian American Achievement Paradox which garnered five national book awards. In it, she and her co-author dispel the cultural fallacy that Asian Americans excel in education because they value education more than other groups. Her work has also focused on immigrant entrepreneurship, ethnic conflict, intermarriage, multiracial identification, affirmative action, and the surge in anti-Asian violence since the onset of COVID-19.

Lee has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation and the Obama Presidency Oral History. Her essays and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The WashingtonPost, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Science, and The Brookings Institutions, among other venues.

Taeku Lee is Bae Family Professor of Government at Harvard University and also Professor Emeritus at UC-Berkeley, where he taught for twenty years. Lee’s teaching and research interests are in racial and ethnic politics, public opinion and voting behavior, identity and inequality, and deliberative and participatory democracy. He serves or has served on the the National Advisory Committee for the U.S. Census Bureau, the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American National Election Studies, and the General Social Survey, as well as Executive Council of the American Political Science Association. At Berkeley he was Chair of the Department of Political Science and Associate Dean at the School of Law. Lee has been a co-PI of the National Asian American Survey, Managing Director of Asian American Decisions, and Senior Fellow at the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Born in South Korea, Lee grew up in rural Malaysia, lower Manhattan, and suburban Michigan. He is a proud graduate of K-12 public schools, the University of Michigan (A.B.), Harvard University (M.P.P.), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D.).

Born and raised in Taiwan, Pei-te Lien received a BA in English from the National Taiwan University and an MA in Journalism & Mass Communication and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Florida. She is currently a professor of Political Science affiliated with Asian American Studies, Feminist Studies, and Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lien’s primary research interest is the political participation and representation of Asian and other nonwhite Americans. Most of her recent work examines the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, and nativity in political behavior, both of the elites and the mass. In addition to writing journal articles and book chapters, Lien has (co)authored and co-edited eight books, including the award-winning The Making of Asian America Through Political Participation (Temple, 2001), Contested Transformation: Race, Gender, and Political Leadership in 21st Century America (Cambridge, 2016), and Contending the Last Frontier: Race, Gender, Ethnicity, and Political Representation of Asian Americans (2022, Oxford). She is the 2023 recipient of the Don T. Nakanishi Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Service in Asian Pacific American Politics, the Western Political Science Association.

Mike Hoa Nguyen, PhD is assistant professor of education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. His research and teaching critically examines the benefits and consequences of racialized public policy instruments in expanding and/or constraining educational systems, with a specific focus on how these dynamics shape access, learning, opportunity, and success within and beyond schools for students of color. In addition to his academic work, Mike has extensive professional experience in federal government, having served as a senior staff member in the Office of US Congressman Mike Honda. He was also a program associate at De Anza College, where he mentored students, developed new curriculum, and lectured. Mike is deeply committed to applying his research to inform and advance public policy. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) and Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE). Prior to NYU, he was an assistant professor at the University of Denver and was appointed by the Governor of Colorado to the History, Culture, Social Contributions, and Civil Government in Education Commission and by the Mayor of Denver to the Denver Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission.

Karen Umemoto, Ph.D. is the Helen and Morgan Chu Endowed Chair and Director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. She received her Master's degree in Asian American Studies from UCLA and her Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked as a professor at the University of Hawaii for 22 years before returning to her alma mater with a joint position in Asian American Studies and Urban Planning at UCLA. Her research centers on issues of democracy and race relations in multicultural societies with a focus on youth and community planning and development. She has authored 2 scholarly books on youth violence and juvenile justice and policing policies (The Truce: Lessons from an LA Gang War, Cornell University Press; Jacked Up and Unjust: Pacific Islander Teens Confront Violent Legacies, University of California Press) and over 50 refereed articles, book chapters, and reports on issues of community development, race relations, violence prevention, participatory planning, and deliberative planning theory and practice. She is founder and co-editor of Foundations and Futures: Multimedia Textbook on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, an innovative and interactive e-textbook on AA/PI histories and experiences for high school and college students to be released in 2025.