Diverse representative leadership in the United States is taking on deeper meaning in 2022 – especially for the nation’s 22.9 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who call the country home.

Anti-Asian hate and xenophobia have exploded in the last two years targeting the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the country. All of this is dredging up years of past discrimination against Asians on U.S. soil and calling greater attention to the need for greater dignity, progress, and belonging for all.

For Los Angeles-based nonprofit LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics) – a member of Independent Sector – this moment is highlighting the gravity and urgency of making greater progress in its mission of equity and inclusion to “achieve full participation and equality for Asian and Pacific Islanders…through leadership, empowerment, and policy.”

“We want to change the narrative,” says Linda Akutagawa, president and CEO of LEAP, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and calls the city’s Little Tokyo neighborhood home. “Through the years, we’ve focused on how we help our community not only understand how we can have impact and influence, but also how we can be authentic to who we are. Our leadership philosophy is: Keep your values, develop new skills.”

LEAP’s community building work is continuing in the face of a traditional style of leadership in business and at organizations and institutions – one in which being overly assertive, in command and control, and willing to engage in tense, face-to-face confrontations is seen, among many people, as the norm that needs to be emulated, respected, and rewarded.

To unlock and nurture leadership skills for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, LEAP offers workshops, programs, and internships across employment sectors and stages of a person’s career. LEAP works with professionals from nonprofits, government, corporate boardrooms, small business, and education.

Read the full article about AAPI leadership by Bradley Wong at Independent Sector.