Event
This Spring 2022 semester commemorates 25 years of Asian American Studies at Penn. Join us every Wednesday evening to learn about our history through the personal experiences of our ASAM alums in our new speaker series, Wednesday Nights with ASAM Alumni. Covering a different period each week, we will kick off the chronological series in January 2022 with a close-up look back at Penn and Asian American life in 1996. The series will culminate in May 2022 with a look ahead at 2023. These informal conversations among ASAM friends will be led by the ASAM UAB and will not only be informative but will offer lively memories and shared experiences of undergraduate and graduate life firsthand. A new part of history and new alums each week!
Wednesdays at 7:00 pm EST
Rishi Sikka is an emergency medicine physician and former President, System Enterprises of Sutter Health in Sacramento, California. He was previously the senior vice-president of clinical operations at Chicago-based Advocate Health Care. Rishi serves on the board of Presbyterian Healthcare Services, a not-for profit healthcare system in New Mexico. He is co-author of the book, “Leading Healthcare Transformation: A Primer for Clinical Leaders,” and has written for the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. He was also recognized in 2021 as a Top 50 Clinical Executive by Modern Healthcare.
Eugene Chay is a 1993 graduate of the College, where he majored in Political Science. After graduation, he got his J.D. at The American University, Washington College of Law. He practices law in Washington, DC, where he previously served at the President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of DC.
George Huang is graduate of the CAS. During his time at UPenn, George was active in advocating for resources and greater equity for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. As a freshman, George contributed to the efforts of the Asian Students Task Force (comprised of undergraduate and graduate students) investigating bias in admissions. The following year, along with a group of like-minded students, George co-founded Students for Asian Affairs and served as Vice Chair. With a primary goal of establishing an Asian American Studies program, SAA leaders worked diligently for more than 1.5 years to gain student, administrator, and faculty support, as well as funding to launch the first set of ASAM classes. Another SAA objective was to enhance external relations with other AAPI organizations and leaders. Toward this end George helped win the bid for PennECASU, and later served as Co-Chair to bring the event to campus for the first time ever. In his day job, George specializes in healthcare finance, working with not-for-profit hospitals and long-term care providers.
Moderator: Ryan Sathianathan, UAB member and a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area studying Molecular and Cell Biology with minors in Asian American Studies and Bioethics. Post-Penn, Ryan hopes to pursue an MD and work as a Pediatric Oncologist. Outside of the UAB, he is an active member in Penn MERT (Medical Emergency Response Team) as well as plays the flute in the Penn Band. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, reading books, listening to musical soundtracks, and cross stitching.