This Asian Heritage Month is needed more than ever. Anti-Asian violence has been increasing since the start of the pandemic. The Stop AAPI Hate National Report shared that businesses are the primary site of discrimination at 35.4%.  In order to not just combat hate but support our neighbors and celebrate Asian heritage this month, see these incredible and accomplished Asian women and resources to support them at work. 

#1. Hana Dinh 

Hana Dinh is the Senior Product Manager at Cornerstone OnDemand. As a senior product manager in the Business Systems team, Hana is responsible for operationalizing Cornerstone’s solutions, so we make sure that workflows such as Implementation, Integrations and Support have the tools needed to work with our product. Within the Business Systems department, Hana’s team is responsible for all tools that are built into the product such as the Feature Enablement Dashboard, Single Sign-On, Copy Down Scheduler and Partner Access Administration. What makes Hana truly awesome is that in addition to her day-to-day responsibilities, Hana goes the extra mile leading the D&I Allies group. At Cornerstone, we are proud to support our employees with employee resource groups from the Black Employee Alliance to Disability Visibility and Unidos for our Latinx employees. Specifically, Hana is one of the leaders for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging focus in the Technology organization. She is now passionate about raising awareness about DEI and believes Technology can lead the way. With Hana’s leadership, we have seen true improvements in innovation, teamwork, and morale through her dedicated focus on DEI&B. Hana has been instrumental in leading all DEI training for our global 1000+ person Tech department Investment in training is widely recognized as a necessary component in any DEI work. In 2019, she developed and deployed our first unconscious bias curriculum to our entire Tech department. In 2020, she built on these efforts to develop an Inclusive Leadership training that was given to all new tech managers, which received the highest NPS score of all new manager trainings. Studies show that managers have the most impact on inclusion and belonging, which is why she strategically developed training to target front line managers. One leader shared her admiration for Hana’s leadership. Heidi Spirgi, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer at Cornerstone said, “Hana’s entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to DEI and her ability to plan, communicate and execute strategies puts her in a unique class. Not only is she a leader in driving equity, inclusion and belonging at Cornerstone, but she is also leading the charge to build features into our products to help mitigate unconscious bias.” She has quite an intersectional background – ethnicity is Vietnamese, nationality is Australian, and she immigrated to USA. She went to an all girls school and started her career in male dominated finance industry. Every day (for the past six years at Cornerstone!), Hana brings her warm, bubbly, authentic personality to work and we’re so excited she’s decided to achieve her goals and share her passion for adventure, innovation, and inclusivity with us here at Cornerstone.

#2. Kelli McGarry 

Kelli McGarry is an Enterprise Account Executive at Fairygodboss. She’s a natural leader and is constantly looking to make others feel valued and included. She has an unrivaled positivity and a genuine authenticity that draws others to her for support, encouragement, or advice.

#3. Anisha Patel

Anisha Patel is the Senior Director of Global Talent Acquisition at AmerisourceBergen. When you’re in a career you’re passionate about, your best self comes out. I’m passionate about building, evolving, and implementing best practices to attract talent to find careers with impact. I am proud to work for a trusted global brand that is united in moving health forward. One that puts people first and creates healthier futures for our patients, customers, clients and our associates. Be at part of this amazing company where you can learn and grow your career and make a difference! She’s also a member of the Forbes Human Resources Council. 

#4. Kathleen Pai

Kathleen Pai is the Chief People Officer at SolarWinds. She’s an experienced Human Resources executive with a proven track record of successfully working across many industries including technology, defense, travel, and more. She’s highly skilled in HR Business Strategy, Total Rewards, Talent Development, Organizational Effectiveness, and Employee Relations. In addition, she’s passionate about helping others reach their fullest potential. She’s on the Board of Directors for March of Dimes Fort Lauderdale. 

#5. Elena Valentine

Elena is the founder and CEO of Skill Scout and the co-founder and Board President of Mezcla Media Collective. With a background in anthropology and design thinking, Elena has dedicated the last 7 years to helping companies create more human workplaces through video. 

As someone who works to humanize the workplace for others, she knew going into the foundation of Skill Scout that she wanted to be a people-focused leader whose single greatest priority was to build a lasting business that people felt great working at. She stayed true to her values and goals even after losing almost half her clientele last year due to the pandemic. 

Still, Valentine and her co-founder reassured her team that they would do everything they possibly could to keep jobs and keep salaries. And, she and her team made it work and still help companies create incredible talent videos to date.  

#6. Hannah Yang

Hannah Yang is the Chief Growth Officer at The New York Times. She recently spoke at our Inspiration Summit in a Q&A about on  Navigating Your Career With Achievement and Balance. As the Chief Growth Officer, Yang is responsible for leading global subscription growth strategy and execution.

Ms. Yang has held a variety of positions at The Times, including in business development, advertising sales development, and strategic planning, since joining the Company in 2010. Prior to joining The Times, she was a corporate attorney at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners LLC (now a part of Strategy &).

Ms. Yang is on the Board of the Art & Writing Awards, Scholastic’s nonprofit that has been supporting creative teens since 1923, and was until 2017 a New York Advisory Committee Member for The News Literacy Project, a leading nonprofit that “teaches students how to know what to believe in the digital age.” 

She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies and has a Doctor of Law degree from Harvard Law School. She is also a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College Division, where she studied classical piano. Ms. Yang’s most rewarding and memorable experience has been to campaign for her father in Taejon, Korea, where he ran for South Korea’s national legislature. She immigrated to the United States from Korea at the age of nine and honed her English by reading The Times. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

#7. Georgene Huang

Georgene Huang is the CEO and Co-founder, Fairygodboss. She is obsessed with improving the workplace for women. She’s the CEO and Co-founder of Fairygodboss, the largest career community for women, providing millions of women with career connections, jobs, career advice and hard-to-find intel about how companies treat women. Previously she ran the enterprise business at Dow Jones and was a Managing Director at Bloomberg Ventures. She is a graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities.

Resources to Support Asian American and Pacific Islander Colleagues at Work 

• 5 Powerful Ways to Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at Work 

• The Model Minority Myth: What It Is, Why It’s Harmful and What to Do About It

• What Asian American and Pacific Islander women inspire you? 

• Georgene Huang, FGB’s CEO, shares a message about ending discrimination and anti-Asian violence 

• 3 Comments Asian Women Are Sick of Hearing at Work