we have mcdonald's and their representative did not make it and the last one on the list, ross bargo who has been with us for many years, tracy tran, tracy? [applause] tracy has not made it yet. so really, thank you very much. and for joining us and hope to see you again next year. and it's so special that our new police chief is with us. and would you like to say a few words? [applause]

>> i don't think that that was actually a question. [laughter] i'm just really pleased to be here. i wasn't prepared to say anything. but just the culture and what it does for the community, it really does leave me without much to say other than thank you for everybody does. and thanks for having me. [applause] >> thank you, chief. and thank you, claudine. i hope you were able to meet some. greeters in the lobby before the event started. and you may have noticed they were selling these little pins. you see this a.p.a. heritage month pin? it's the image of the heritage month logo designed in the form and shape of an a. and it's a beautiful piece. but what is even more important

is all the proceeds from the sale of this pin will go to the japanese cultural and community center of northern california to support the relief efforts for the victims of the earthquake in japan. so please, take a moment to take a look. and purchase one for a very, very good caution. at this time, the celebration committee would like to acknowledge the presence of the many officials and diplomatic representatives from the asian pacific countries joining us here tonight. you saw many. counsel -- many of the consul generals up here. their representatives, please stand and be acknowledged. [applause] thank you all for being here. and in addition to the presenting champion and partner sponsors, there are so many other sponsors who have generously supported tonight's event. and as a result, the celebration committee has been very successful in its campaign to raise public awareness about asian pacific american heritage month which includes ads on

muni buses, posters and wish sites. so let's being a nonl the additional following -- acknowledge the additional following sponsors. at the heritage patron level we have comcast, lenar urban, ecology s.f., southwest airlines. at the heritage friend level, coalition of asian-american government employees, japan town merchant associations of san francisco, ktsf television, sugar bowl bakery, and union bank. and media partners, abc-7, a.m. 1400, asian week.com, comcast, and choir.net, ktsf tv, s.f. gov tv, the examiner and world channel. thank you so much for your support. [applause] and if you're -- this celebration also received the support of so many individuals as well as professional small businesses and community

organizations. you'll see their names listed on the screen and in the program book. and on the website. a.p.a. -- apasf.org. those attending this celebration for the past few years, we have been treated to so many fabulous and unique ethnic, cultural performances. this year, certainly no exception. the northern california cherry blossom festival just celebrated its 44th year. during which the 2011 queen and court was selected. so tonight, the 2011 court will perform their opening number from the queens program, choreographed by mickey nowitzki and music by shina ringo entitled ringo uotota. please welcome the 2011 northern california cherry blossom court. [applause]

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[applause] >> thank you once again. the 2011 cherry blossom court. a beautiful performance. and now the special moment we've all been waiting for. the asian pacific american heritage awards honoring individuals and organizations who have made a distinct impact in their contributions to the city's a.p.a. community.

this year the awards are being presented in three categories. for individuals, awards for emerging leadership and lifetime achievement. and for organizations, we have the community impact award. more than 30 nominations were received in the top finalists in each category were submitted to a panel of three distinguished judges to make the final selection. now, the three judges are dafney quack, chair of the president's advisory commission on pacific americans and pacific islanders and those with disabilities of california, the president and c.e.o. of yanza media group and commissioner, natasha cowersaw, california commission on asian and pacific islander american affairs, and law partner with the law offices of g.c.r. l.l.p. unfortunately, all three judges were not able to join us tonight to present the awards. but we have three very capable individuals who are proud to

make the presentations on their behalf. and now for the presentation of the emerging leadership award, please join me in welcoming supervisor eric marr. [applause] >> thank you. i'm actually not speier mar. -- supervisor mar. but we went to the same high school in sacramento so i'll stand in for him. i'm pleased to announce the finalists and recipients for the emerging leadership award. in the interests of time, we have all of the criteria listed in the award booklet. but it's important for us to recognize and celebrate the next generation of leadership, passion, and commitment to serving the asian pacific community. and it's critical also that we ensure that our voices, our needs and concerns continue to

be heard and addressed. i would like to ask the finalists for the emerging leadership category to please stand up. each of them are extremely accomplished in their areas of achievement. andrew lamb. andrew, could you please stand up. [applause] lisa lee. [applause] nicky sun. [applause] and the award goes to -- feel like the oscars here -- lisa lee, the publisher of hyphen magazine. the super cool online magazine and website. lisa is a graduate of u.c.

berkeley and has degrees in math, communications, theater and performance studies and committed to using her communication skills to help hyphen reach a broader constituency. let's give a warm congratulations to lisa. [applause] >> wow. this is really big. and really heavy. going to break it down. going to put it down before i break it. how are you guys doing? ok. well, just a few people that i would like to thank. first of all, definitely the a.p.a. heritage celebration committee, thank you so much

for putting this on. i know it's a volunteer committee. so we definitely understand how that is. an all-volunteer run organization. and also, thank you to the panel of judges for this incredible honor. really, really just surprised and humbled by it. and with that said, i share this award with my fellow nominees, andrew and nikki. you guys are amazing. please continue to do everything that you're doing right now. because you guys are an inspiration to us all at hyphen. somebody very important that i would like to thank as well, melissa hung who was sitting right over there, melissa, can you wave? [applause] she's actually the founder of hyphen magazine eight years ago, if melissa did not have the vision to create our very own asian-american publication,

hyphen would not be here today. so thank you so much for that and for the opportunity to serve. and of course vincent pan from chinese affirmative action for giving us a space to do all of our work. there was a time when we were floating around. and carrying out boxes of magazines from garages to garages. our readers, donors and volunteers. just one thing that i would like to mention, i recently went to a documentary screening at the san francisco film festival. and it's here for another week so i hope some of you get to catch some of the wonderful films that are there. and i went to a documentary screening called crime after crime. i don't know how many of you guys were able to catch it. and the film maker showed up and did a q&a. and there he said that visibility doesn't equal change. and that's something that really resonated with me. and if there's one thing that i

can leave with you today it's that message. i want to thank our a.p.a. elected officials for all the work that you guys are doing. because again, just because there's a large number of us doesn't mean that things will change if we don't actively make it happen. so we applaud all of the officials that are serving as well as anybody here who is serving an asian-american nonprofit. thank you so much for all of your work. and for anybody who is thinking about getting involved, this -- this is the time to do it. this is the month to do it. if you don't have the time, if you don't have the energy, you can always put your money where your mouth is. because there are nonprofit organizations like hyphen, like many others, that really need your support in order for us to continue the important work that we're doing. and again, thank you so much for this honor and i'm

incredibly happy to be here with you all. thank you. [applause] >> lisa lee, congratulations. and now here to present the community impact award, please welcome to the podium supervisor carmen chiu. >> well, good evening, everybody. i just want to acknowledge supervisor eric mar. unfortunately he wasn't able to join us today because he is still in a land use meeting at the moment. and so i do want to recognize him because he would love to be here. today, it's my honor to be able to announce the community impact award. the primary reason why we do have this award is really to recognize the community organizations and the impact they make in our community. especially where the differences that they make in the media really have a profound and lasting impact on

how our communities are perceived and how we go forward. and so today, again, it is my honor to recognize these folks. but before we do, the people who -- or the organizations who are finalists in this category include hyphen, round of applause. [applause] kqed. [applause] and new american media. [applause] apparently, tonight is hyphen's night. so congratulations to hyphen. [applause] a quick word about the organization. it was founded in 2003. it's a volunteer run nonprofit news and culture organization that illuminates asian america through hard-hitting investigative features on the

cultural and political trends shaping the fastest growing ethnic population in the country. it engages people through our print magazine, website and events to fulfill the commission to tell the untold stories of asian americans with accuracy, nuance and complexity. to showcase emerging artists, creators and leaders of our community and to build a socially and politically aware community through media, dialogue, and cultural events. it's been honored by chinese for affirmative action, with the flames of justice award in 2008, nominated by the utney reader for -- for utney independent press award, best new title in 2007 and in 2010 for best social and cultural coverage. so again we say congratulations to you. [applause]

>> thank you all so much. as much as i wanted hyphen to win i was hoping this would mean lisa would get our speech out of the way and i wouldn't have to be up here to talk. but i do want to say thank you so much again to the same people, to the asian pacific american heritage celebration committee, to the award judges, and i also want to honor our co-nominees as well, q -- kqed and new american. our culture is so diverse and complex and naturally that means we need more than one voice to give bigger voice to our community and so we really feel like kqed and new american media are essential partners in the work that we do as hyphen. i also would like to thank our volunteer staff and our board as well as our followers, our readers, our web visitors, and

especially to our families and friends who have been so supportive as we put in the grueling hours in the evenings, weekends and all nighters to do the work that we do. we would also like to thank chinese, affirmative action for nominating us and being a community partner, both in terms of providing us space. but also providing us a lot of support and advice. and friendship as we've done our work. i also want to thank you as a larger asian pacific american community as we feel like hyphen is just a part of the community. and we feel like there's such incredible diverse scompit complexity within our community -- diversity and complerksity within our community and hope to express as much as of that as possible and hope hyphen captures the wealth of stories, wisdom, in our heritage and also struggles and hardships that have brought us to this point. and that are still part of our community that we need to be

aware of and attend to as well. we believe very much in the work we do and we're very passionate about it because we feel like hyphen is just part of this community that needs to celebrate as well as document what our community is about. both in terms of our heritage, especially during this month. but also in terms of relevance and our part today and as well as looking at our future impact. so again, with all that said, we would like to thank you so much. we feel very honored by this. and we hope to continue to do this work with your support. and with your feedback. and with your engagement. thank you. [applause] >> congratulations to irene and hyphen. and now to present the lifetime achievement award, please welcome back mayor ed lee. mayor? [applause]

>> well, it's my personal pleasure tonight to present to you two people whose lives, professional careers, contributions to the community have been so wonderful. and i must say that i am very honored to actually present these two finalists to you. and i know you have their stories in your booklet tonight. but i just want to say if you look -- if you understand what they've done over the years, and certainly for myself, i understand it because i've been here in the bay area for just about that long. almost 40 years. watching as all of us have done, television grow in front of us, watching whether or not asian americans would succeed in anchor positions and in journalism positions in front

of our very eyes. and you have two individuals tonight who are recognizing as our finalists in the lifetime achievement awards that if you -- if you looked at everything they've accomplished over the last 35 to 40 years, you'll know that they serve up as the best examples of our asian-american community. not only in what they've done in journal. but what they've done with their professional lives, how many doors they've opened for other people. and you take a look at david louie who's been at abc news for over 40 years covering all different kinds of beats. and just last week as i, along with mayor kwan and mayor chuck reed were being interviewed at the silicon valley leadership c.e.o. forum about technology, and about what our cities are doing in the region, there was david louie covering that information, that news, trying to highlight for the peninsula and the east bay and other

communities in the bay area what our three mayors were doing. what we were doing with business, how technology was part of that. he's been the first minority elected chairman of the board of national academy of television arts and sciences in 1984. he's an emmy award winner of course. but more importantly, i think, is that he's used his position all these years and also as a member. asian-american journalists to promote others. that's really to me the key to success. when you get to a position of dignified contribution, you then open the doors for others. that's what i continue to aspire to in this position. so i want to thank the judges for putting forth david louie as a finalist. for janana hero. we've grown up with jan. evening magazine from the mid 1970's to the 1990's, all.

great wonderful shows that she's sponsored, pacific fusion and others. and you know jan is all around the bay area. all around the san francisco communities. she's helped us on engagement with our public and helping us dialogue with a difficult -- with difficult topics and being moderator or immediate -- mediator and hosted so many nonprofits and being there for every important fundraiser like the ones we've had with kristi yamaguchi and always dreaming foundation and being part of the osaka sister city association, founder member of course, and asian-american journalist association, again, others following her. for david and for jan, if you look at television today, no matter what channel you turn to, there are asian americans on the journalism positions. and i believe and i know it's because of both david and jan's

work behind the scenes, in front, bringing just that whole professional care to what they do every day. and i remember a very unique story. as i was a first-year law student at berkeley, jan was covering this whole issue about affirm active action and whether or not asian americans were still going to be part of affirmative action in the law school admissions. after i had been successful in passing my first semester of my required law school, i was out with the asian law caucus and other asian lawyers and asian law students protesting the admissions criteria, the elimination of agents from the admissions criteria. and there was janana here r invitingly and other attorneys to go on her show to talk about that. i remember that very first

interview. the microphone was stuck in my face. "as a first-year law school student, what do you think of this?" and i went, "community." that was all i could say. but i remember jan, and i have watched you for so many years progress over so many different topics. both david and janana in my opinion are the media heroes i grew of with, and they continue even today to the marvelous job of continuing to inspire everybody, bring the news, the stories, the culture forward, so it is my privilege tonight, in light of their accomplishments, to announce that for the very first time, in these awards that we are announcing tonight, that we will be announcing both of

them as our winners for the lifetime achievement award finalists. [applause] congratulations. and please come on up here. [applause] [applause]

>> i think that ed lee certainly knows what to do with a microphone these days. we taught him well back in the days. i do remember the asian law caucus, by the way. 39 years, the celebration was friday. you were there. is truly an honor, and thank you for coming to celebrate this month. all of you and your presence means so much to those of us on stage and those of us especially being recognized with an award. it takes a community after all to move our voices forward, to move our issues forward, and you are all part of that community. whether you are the part of the community at the forefront making laws, whether you are the part of the community in the corporate forefront, and thank you to target and everyone in