White House Initiative on AAPI's and Sikh Coalition Present:
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Maulik Pancholy is a film, television, and stage actor widely known for playing the role of Jonathan for six seasons on NBC’s award-winning series 30 Rock. He also appeared in six seasons of the Showtime series Weeds and played Neal on the first season of the NBC series Whitney. He is the voice of Sanjay, the title character in the Nickelodeon animated series Sanjay & Craig, as well as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney animated series Phineas and Ferb. He shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the cast of 30 Rock in 2009. He has also appeared in numerous films and plays. Mr. Pancholy is active with a number of non-profit and social policy organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. He worked closely with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center on its exhibition “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation,” which opened at the National Museum of Natural History in February 2014. Mr. Pancholy received a B.S. from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. from Yale University.
Gurjot joined the Sikh Coalition as a Staff Attorney in February 2012. She provides direct legal services to victims of hate crimes, employment discrimination, bias-based school bullying, and other forms of discrimination. She has litigated high impact employment discrimination cases in federal court and represented clients before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice; she has spearheaded efforts to hold the TSA accountable for unlawful profiling of religious minorities at our nation's airports; drafted testimony and prepared the first Sikh to testify in front of the U.S. Senate at a hearing on Hate Crimes and Domestic Extremism, following the Oak Creek mass shooting; and represented a Sikh student in DeKalb County, Georgia, in a case that led to the first ever Department of Justice school settlement on behalf of a Sikh victim of school bullying. Gurjot is licensed to practice law in Florida, New Jersey, and New York and is admitted to the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. She provided remarks at a new attorney induction ceremony, after she received the highest combined score on the Florida Bar examination in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, as well as one of the highest scores overall in the State of Florida. Gurjot regularly appears on panels to discuss and debate racial profiling, post-9/11 backlash and discrimination issues in the U.S. She has been published in print outlets including The Washington Post , the Huffington Post, PolicyMic, and has made various media appearances, including Huffington Post Live and PTC Punjabi. She is an active member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association. She is also a member of the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition. Gurjot earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University at Buffalo Law School, where she was a three-year recipient of the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship. She graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she received her undergraduate degree in History, Philosophy, Politics and Law. She has previously been employed by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida and Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio. She has practiced in the areas of family law, juvenile law, and civil rights, providing direct legal services to members of indigent and underprivileged communities in Florida and New York. She is the author of "A Case of Neglect? Representation for Children in the Florida Dependency System?" published in the Florida Bar Journal. In her spare time, She enjoys traveling the world and has visited parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Jason Tengco is a Senior Advisor for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI). In this capacity, Jason leads community engagement for the Initiative, which entails organizing regional convenings and community briefings, overseeing AAPI youth outreach, and soliciting input from leaders on ways to increase participation in federal programs. Prior to this, Jason served as the Initiative’s liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement from 2012-2013. Previously, Jason was an Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Fellow in the Office of Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA). His issue areas included AAPI affairs, homeland security, and immigration, and he also served as the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) taskforce staff lead on immigration and appropriations. Prior to his fellowship in Congress, Jason worked for the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), where he helped organize APALA’s largest national convention and launched APALA’s Young Leaders Council. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jason graduated from UCLA with Honors with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Public Affairs. Throughout his career, Jason has participated in numerous fellowships, including with the New Leaders Council, Center for Progressive Leadership, and Public Policy and International Affairs Program.
Alice Yao serves as the Special Office for Civil Rights Advisor to the AAPI Bullying Prevention Task Force at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. At the Initiative, Alice leads the AAPI Bullying Prevention Task Force, an interagency working group comprised of experts from across the federal government committed to addressing bullying of AAPI students. Alice is also an attorney with the Program Legal Group in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where she primarily works on policy issues related to sex discrimination. Prior to joining OCR and the Initiative, Alice was an attorney at a law firm specializing in litigation and clerked for the Honorable James B. Loken on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Alice earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied Economics and Political Science.
Bessie Chan serves as an Advisor for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. In her capacity, she supports the Initiative’s community engagement and communications efforts and works directly with the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She also serves as regional advisor for the Initiative’s Regional Interagency Working Groups in Regions III, VI, and VII. Prior to joining the Initiative, Bessie worked as a Development Associate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC (formerly the Asian American Justice Center) managing the organization’s corporate partnerships and the planning of their signature American Courage Awards celebration. Bessie graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a major in Government, a minor in Chinese and an Asian Studies certificate. She served as president of the Asian American Student Association and was the recipient of Georgetown University’s 2012 Commitment to Diversity Award for Outstanding Senior.
Naureen Singh is a junior at the University of Colorado at Boulder studying molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and minoring in political science. Singh grew up in Colorado Springs and currently resides in Boulder. On campus, she is an active member of the Cultural Events Board, the largest student-run cost center in the nation—which controls more than $500,000— and aims to fill cultural voids on campus. Singh’s father is the highest-ranking turban wearing officer in the US Army and this inspired her to become a part of the E3! Program. Singh hopes to pursue a career as a forensics scientist for the FBI. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, public speaking and debating, and learning about new cultures.