At this year’s Exemplary Leadership Celebration, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley will present Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI) with the 2025 Greg Ranstrom Network Leadership Award. This award is presented annually to a collaborative effort, organized network, or organization demonstrating ALF values and practices of cross-sector collaboration and impact for equity. The recognition is named in honor of the late Greg Ranstrom, ALF Fellows Program Director of 15 years.
About APALI
When Dr. Michael Chang became the first Chinese American mayor of Cupertino in 1997, he established APALI to address the acute need for Asian Americans to serve as political and civic leaders. With strong support from successful and civic-minded Chinese immigrants from the tech sector, APALI’s inaugural banquet raised over $100,000 and was attended by over 400 public officials and community leaders.
Today, APALI’s mission is to build community power through developing civic-minded leaders, closing the leadership gap, and building a community of public leaders to increase representation, equity, and social justice.
The Civic Leadership Program (CLP) trains community leaders to be leaders in every sector of society, and the Board Leadership Academy (BLA) addresses the lack of APAs on nonprofit boards of directors. The Public Official Fellows program brings civic leaders together to discuss how to move all communities forward, and the Alumni Network creates a space for APALI program graduates to commune and get strength from each other.
APALI graduates are in leadership roles in nonprofits and foundations, law enforcement, business, education, and all sectors of society.
Highlights
- The first APALI associate director from 1999, Margaret Abe-Koga, and Betty Duong, a graduate of multiple APALI programs since 2000, were both just sworn in on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
- Along with Otto Lee, an APALI Public Official Fellow, this is the first time Santa Clara County has had a majority APA Board of Supervisors.
- The 2002 Youth Leadership Academy graduate, Evan Low, just finished serving in the California State Legislature, and was succeeded by a 2013 APALI CLP graduate and ally, Patrick Ahrens.
- APALI graduates are in leadership roles in nonprofits and foundations, law enforcement, business, education, and all sectors of society.
“One of the first lessons I learned as elected official is when you are creating something, you can’t do it alone. So I reached out to communities who share and understand the struggle for equality. For example, we reached out to the Latino community to partner in leadership education. Leaders like Reuben Abrica and Mayra Cruz who have been my longtime collaborators in leadership training. We have also allied with women, LGBTQ+, Black, and Caucasian communities to train leaders who share the goal of fighting for equity.” —Michael Chang, Ph.D., Founder Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute
Learn more at apali.org.
