By Takei Okidata
©2002 PoliticalCircus.com
May 1, 2002

For more than fifteen years, Daphne Kwok has been at the forefront of advocacy for the Asian Pacific American community. In April 2001, Ms. Kwok became the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization seeking to build a politically empowered Asian Pacific American (APA) community, to fill the political pipeline with APAs to enter and advance into elected office, and to be a resource about the APA community.

From 1990 to 2001, Ms. Kwok served as the Executive Director of the Organization of Chinese Americans, Inc. (OCA), a non-profit, civil rights organization. Her responsibilities included coordinating programs and services for 45 chapters, 37 college affiliates and representing over 10,000 members; monitoring issues pertaining to the Asian American community, e.g. Hate Crime, Campaign Finance Reform, Legal Immigration Reform, Census 2000, English-only, affirmative action.

Daphne Kwok testifies before Congress Ms. Kwok has testified before the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus on the impact of federal counter-intelligence and security investigations at the Department of Energy on Asian Pacific Americans, 1999. She has also testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the civil rights implications in the treatment of Asian Pacific Americans during the campaign finance controversy, 1997.

Since January 2000, Ms. Kwok has been appointed by Secretary Bill Richardson and Secretary Spencer Abraham to serve on the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Council.

From November 1997 until April 2001, Ms. Kwok was elected as the first Chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, the first national network of APA organizations formed to promote the welfare of APAs.

In 1996, Ms. Kwok coordinated an historic first National Asian Pacific American Voter Registration Campaign involving 19 national Asian Pacific American organizations. The Campaign registered over 70,000 voters and produced a public service announcement (PSA) with a Get-Out-The-Vote message aimed at the students. The PSA starred 22 Asian American Hollywood celebrities.

Ms. Kwok has been a founding member of several including the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, as an executive board member of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, and currently as a board member of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development and the Southeast Asian Resource Action Center. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Korean American Coalition's Washington, D.C. chapter. Currently she is the Vice Chair of the Gates at Westfalls Condominium Association. She served in a number of leadership positions for the OCA-Northern Virginia chapter including two terms as president.

From 1991-1994, Ms. Kwok was elected and became the first Asian American member of the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees. She served on the Board's Facilities, Student Affairs, Education, and Recruitment and Retention of Faculty of Color Committees. Ms. Kwok chaired the University's Asian/Asian American Study Group on Admissions and was Vice Chairwoman of the Board's Student Affairs Committee. From 1994-1997, she chaired the Wesleyan Washington, D.C. Alumni Council. In 1997, Ms. Kwok became the Class Agent for the Class of 1984. Following graduation she founded and chaired the Wesleyan Asian Alumni Council.

Her work experience includes the Organization of Chinese American Women, the National Democratic Council of Asian and Pacific Americans, and the D.C. Mayor's Office for Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs. In 1985, she chaired the Northern Virginia Asian American Democratic Committee. In 1997, Ms. Kwok served on a Northern Virginia Asian Pacific Americans for Don Beyer for Governor Task Force.

In 1984, Ms. Kwok graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and Music; she was also awarded the Mansfield Freeman Award. In August 1989, she received a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch City College of New York as part of a one-year National Urban Fellowship, which included a nine-month internship with the New Jersey State Department of Education.

Ms. Kwok's honors include The Women at the Top of the Game Award in 2001, being named one of A Magazine's One Hundred Most Influential Asian Americans of the Past Decade, World Journal's Top 100 North American Chinese, 1999 OCA San Mateo Chapter Asian American Achievement Award recipient, a member of the 1999 American Swiss Foundation's Young Leaders Conference in Vevey, Switzerland, recipient of the 1998 Asian Americans for Equality Dream of Equality Honoree, 1997 Asian Business League of San Francisco's Distinguished Community Service Award, one of 10 delegates selected for the 1997 National Women's Leadership Group to travel to Israel hosted by the American Jewish Committee, Presidential Classroom's 25th Anniversary Outstanding Alumni Awards, East Coast Chinese Family Association Outstanding Service Award, and the Wesleyan University Service Award.

Publications include: "250 Ways to Make America Better" from the editors of George Magazine, 1999; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' 40th Anniversary "The Road Ahead for Civil Rights" Journal, Fall 1997; "How's This for Gratitude", New York Times op-ed, March 21, 1997; "Asian Pacific Americans: Civil Rights Issues for the 1990's", published in the "New Opportunities: Civil Rights at a Crossroads" by the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, 1993; "Justice for the Wards Cove Workers", Harvard Asian American Policy Review; and "Asian Pacific Americans: Are We Ready to Be at the Political Table?", Harvard Asian American Policy Review, Vol. X, 2002.