Asian Heritage Month: The Lived Experiences of Asian-Canadian Professionals

Join our free webinar aimed at celebrating Asian Heritage Month by featuring Asian-Canadian professionals who will be sharing their lived experiences with us. We will discuss topics including the significance of Asian Heritage Month, the impact of culture on identities and perspectives, barriers to generating success as an Asian-Canadian, and many more!

SPEAKERS:

VICKI VAN CHAU - Vicki is a filmmaker and artist based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After 12 years of working as an arts administrator and programmer at EMMEDIA Gallery & Production Society, she left in 2020 to focus on her own film practice. During her time there, she was accepted into the Herland Video Production & Mentorship Program in 2016 and has since produced and directed several award-winning short films that have screened across Canada and internationally.

As a second-generation Chinese-Vietnamese Canadian, her short films mainly focus on the Asian diaspora experience. Her family and cultural identity has been a core inspiration in her artistic practice and helps her to promote the appreciation of both Chinese and Vietnamese culture through a uniquely Canadian perspective, focusing on the intricate visuals and sounds of each aspect she explores.

STEVEN NGO - Steven Ngo is a corporate / technology lawyer and currently works as counsel at Rivian. He is the Advocacy Chair of the Vietnamese Professionals Association BC (https://vpabc.ca) and is the Vice President of the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers BC (https://faclbc.ca). Steven is leading a movement called Fix Police Reporting that is focused on removing barriers to reporting hate crimes to the police (http://fixpolicereporting.ca). He has featured widely throughout national and international media including The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, CBC and various language-specific outlets for the Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese and South Asian communities.

In 2022, Steven was the recipient of the BC Medal of Good Citizenship, one of the highest honours bestowed to British Columbians, in recognition of his advocacy work during the pandemic. Because of Steven's relentless efforts, the Vancouver Police Department has now expanded its online hate crimes reporting forms to be available in 14 different languages and translated its website into over 100 languages (https://vpd.ca/report-a-crime/). But Steven has not stopped there. He is working to help make the reporting of hate crimes more accessible in cities across all of B.C. and Canada.

CASSANDRA HUI - Cassandra Hui is the founder and CEO of Heal Mary, has a background in data science and 10+ years in marketing and community building, Cassandra was also part of the Scotiabank financial hackathon winning team in 2016. Heal Mary was started after Cassandra began looking into treatment options after her mom and 2 sisters were diagnosed with cancer