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May 13, 2020

Coast Survey Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to pen the opening for this month’s Coast Survey Newsletter. As you may already know, May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) to commemorate the history, culture, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. May was chosen to commemorate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to America on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad (by many Chinese laborers) on May 10, 1869. In 1992, the official designation of May as APAHM was signed into law.

As an active member of the Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN), I help facilitate several AAGEN programs that promote and expand diversity and inclusion in government and develop future executive leaders. Annually, AAGEN offers several programs from the AAGEN Senior Executive Service Development Program, the AAGEN Annual Leadership Workshop, and the AAGEN Scholarship Program. If you would like more information about AAGEN or these programs, please do not hesitate to visit the website and/or contact me.

In addition, I volunteered to be an inaugural member of the NOAA Asian American Employee Resource Group. Since December 2019, we meet bi-weekly with the Office of Civil Rights to discover areas for diversity or inclusion growth or improvements and provide recommendations to NOAA leadership for attracting, retaining, and supporting the professional advancement of underrepresented employees in NOAA.

NOAA’s 2020 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month program will be held via webcast on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT. The keynote speaker is Mr. Allen Shimada, Fleet Working Group (FWG) lead in NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), in Silver Spring, Maryland. As the FWG lead, Mr. Shimada generates the annual schedule for the NOAA fleet and works collaboratively on issues affecting line office projects during the field season. Mr. Shimada is also the son of Bell Masayuki Shimada, in whose honor, NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada (R 227) is named. See the "Did You Know" section of this newsletter to learn more about Mr. Bell M. Shimada's legacy and register for the event here!

Thanh Pham
IT Specialist
Information Technology Services Branch, Coast Survey Development Lab


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