Hi, my name is Luis Chen. I am honored to be the President of APAHA for 2025. At Asian Pacific American Heritage Association, we promote Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures through education, creative expression, and celebration.
I have been with APAHA since the end of 2019. I was recruited by Nelvin Adriatico when he was running for city council in district J. Once I became a board member in 2020, President Dwight Sung appointed me to handle social media and membership.
COVID halted all in-person activities, but that didn’t stop us from promoting AAPI heritage. We hosted the scholarship ceremony on Zoom and teamed up with various AAPI artists to promote their artworks through our Artist Features Program into 2021.
Coming out of the pandemic, APAHA and Levy Park Houston presented a collaborative show Arts and Healing with APAHA at Levy Park in November 2021. The featured artists were Christy Panis Poisot, Rea Sampilo, and Donnie Vendivel from Filipinx Artists of Houston and Li Fu Simone Olivier from Four Dragons Institute, presented by Alief Art House.
APAHA’s famous gala, Dancing with the APAHA Stars, resumed in May 2022. With the help of the community members, we started the Membership Committee in late 2022.
With the support from the board of directors, we hosted the first membership meeting in September 2023. We heard concerns and suggestions from the members that gave us opportunities to improve our membership program.
During 2024, APAHA hosted 3 membership meetings at different Asian-owned restaurants. We introduced member perks for discounted tickets to the Filipino Street Festival and lowered the lifetime membership level by $500.
Our goal for 2025 is to expand it to celebrate AAPI Heritage throughout the year, not just in the month of May. We want to showcase Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asian cultures.
As a president of APAHA, my goal is to create more opportunities to elevate you in the AAPI communities. Whether you’re Asian or an ally, we can support each other and continue to promote Asian Pacific American Heritage in Houston.
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