White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Holds Inaugural Interagency Working Group Meeting
Washington, D.C. - Today the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (Initiative) announced the new membership of its Interagency Working Group (IWG) and held its inaugural meeting at the White House.
“In accordance with the Executive Order, the Interagency Working Group is key to our mission of improving the quality of life for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) through increased access to and participation in federal programs. Without the collaboration of the federal agencies and executive offices, we would not be able to reach into AAPI communities across the country and territories. Having the senior representation of the IWG here today is a big step for the federal government to continue serving this community.” said Initiative Executive Director Holly Ham.
The IWG is comprised of senior membership from 31 federal agencies and offices. The purpose of today’s meeting was to guide the participating federal agencies and offices in developing their agencies’ plans to measure performance on existing goals and to improve upon and create new measurable objectives.
The meeting began with welcoming remarks from White House Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley. An overview of the AAPI communities in the United States and its territories was presented by Director of Strategic Initiatives Akil Vohra. Executive Director Ham shared the strategic areas of focus for the Initiative here. The meeting concluded with the IWG members receiving instructions for next steps on how to best craft their agency plans which are due later this fall.
To learn more about IWG membership, click here.