Upon receiving her law degree in 1984, Susan founded the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Education Foundation (USPAACC) with a group of business and civic leaders in Washington, DC and California, to bring the diverse Pan Asian American business and professional people together as one unified voice in business, commerce and trade. In 2001, she won two Federal cases for her small business clients, took sabbatical leave from her law practice, and became USPAACC National President & CEO.

Long an effective advocate for small businesses in the US Congress, the Executive Branch, corporate America and the media, Susan achieved a new level of influence when President George H.W. Bush appointed her to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States where she served from 1991 to 1996.

Susan has been a frequent guest at the Executive Branch and Congressional events that address issues affecting America’s small, minority and women business communities. Her participation in these forums plays an important role in shaping the national agenda on the economy.

She is frequently approached by the media to comment on small and Asian American businesses, US-Asia commerce and trade, and Asian American women executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals.

Susan analogizes USPAACC as the acorn that has grown into an Oak Tree since its founding 35 years ago, with strong roots and wide branches extending to thousands of small and Asian American businesses and professionals across the country. She is proud of USPAACC’s ability to connect business to business, open doors to business, educational and professional opportunities for Asian Americans which is the fastest-growing group with the highest business growth in the United States, and substantial social and economic connections to the dynamic Asia Pacific and Indian Subcontinent regions, the world’s fastest-growing economic bloc.

Once an immigrant, she knows the obstacles that one must be overcome to achieve the American Dream, and she has dedicated her life to help entrepreneurs to pursue their Dream - develop, grow and build a successful business.

Susan has served on Pfizer’s Small Business Advisory Council; Diversity Council of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, International Franchise Association and American Red Cross; Diversity Council of Time Warner, Wyndham International, Premier Automotive Group (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo and Landrover); Board of Directors of the Virginia Small Business Finance Authority; Diversity Boards of AMTRAK and the U.S. Marine Corps; Commissioner of the Minority Business Opportunity Commission of the District of Columbia; and the Board of Trustees of Excelsior College in New York.

She has also served on the President’s Council on the 21st Century Workforce Committee on the Future of the Workplace; the Small Business Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. General Services Administration; U.S. Marine Transportation System National Advisory Council; U.S. Small Business Administration National Women’s Business Council; NASA’s Minority Business Resource Advisory Committee; Women Small Business Summits National Advisory Board; Washington Board of Trade’s Washington Initiative.

She has contributed op-ed articles to USA Today, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, Asian Week, and Asian Fortune, and appeared as a commentator on C-Span, CNN, CNBC, ABC, Fox News, The News Hour, To the Contrary, This is America, and The Editor.

Susan was named Women Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal in 2013; America’s Top Diversity Advocates together with President Clinton, President Carter, and Oprah Winfrey by DiversityBusiness.com in 2007; and one of 50 Most Influential Asian Americans by A-Magazine in 1994.

Among Susan’s awards are the US Department of Commerce Minority Business Advocate of the Year (2014); Women of the Year by Boys Scout of America Washington Council (2014); Urban Wheels Lifetime Achievement Award (2010), DiversityBusiness.com Top Diversity Advocates (2007), Minority Business Hall of Fame (2005), National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers’ Diversity Advocacy Award (2006), NASA Special Recognition Award for Extraordinary Efforts in Promoting Small Business Programs Nationally and Internationally (2002), AT&T Spectrum Award for Advocacy for Minority Business Opportunity (2001), and Skirt in Power Award from the District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce (1992).

Susan speaks (Cantonese and Mandarin) and writes Chinese fluently. Married with two sons, she lives in McLean, Virginia.

Currently, Ron serves on the Pfizer Small Business Council, National Newspapers Publishers Association Foundation Board of Directors, and White House African American Leadership Council. He has also formerly served on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Council on Underserved Communities.

Brian serves on the board of directors of the Capital Pride Alliance, the advisory council of the NextGen Chamber of Commerce, and is a volunteer tax preparer with Community Tax Aid in Washington, DC. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and American studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where he served as co-chair of his reunion committee.

In addition to over 50 LGBT affiliate chambers in the United States representing America’s 1.4 million LGBT business owners, NGLCC leads economic development opportunities at over 20 international affiliates. NGLCC is responsible for major victories for the LGBT business community, among them the first-in-the-nation inclusion of LGBT suppliers in statewide contracting opportunities with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Justin regularly advises senior leaders at the White House, in Congress, and corporations throughout the world to build business opportunities through commitments to LGBT-inclusive supplier diversity programs. He is a sought-after speaker at conferences and meetings around the globe promoting the business case for LGBT inclusion and creating equity for the LGBT business community.

Justin and Team NGLCC are also responsible for the creation of the National Business Inclusion Consortium (NBIC), advocating the business interests of a diverse range of people, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, ethnic minority, disability, and women-owned business communities, representing a total of over $9 trillion in annual consumer spending power and significant contributions to the marketplace and workplace.

For his efforts in establishing the NGLCC, Justin was named to OUT Magazine’s Top 100 Greatest Gay Success Stories. Justin was also named to the 25 Leading Men of 2006 list by Instinct Magazine, SmartCEO Magazine’s 2012 Top 20 Leaders We Admire, and the 2012 Global LGBT Power 100 from the Guardian Newspaper in Great Britain. In 2010 Justin received the Outstanding Collaborative Partner Award from the U.S. Business Leadership Network for his partnership work on disability issues and is the recipient of the 2014 Vanguard Award from the Atlanta Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to launching the NGLCC, Justin was the Director of Federal Affairs and External Relations for the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Washington, DC. During his tenure, the organization was named one of the top 100 lobbying organizations in Washington, DC by Forbes Magazine. Prior to lobbying Congress and the White House, Justin spent five years as an aide in the United States Senate. He has served as a past volunteer coordinator for the Wyoming Special Olympics, a Capitol Hill Chair for the March of Dimes Walk America and on the advisory board for the First Wyoming Race for the Cure. Justin holds a BA in political science from the University of Wyoming.

Dr. Thakker possesses more than 20 years of experience in the field of cellular and wireless communications. He has helped design, deploy, and maintain cell sites, from 2G to 5G, for major cellular operators in the United States. Dr. Thakker has also served on the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee – BDAC and co-chaired the Job Skills and Training Opportunity working group.

Teaching is one of his passions; Dr. Thakker is an adjunct faculty for the Masters in Telecommunication program at the University of Maryland and has designed courses on 5G and cellular infrastructure. He received Best Instructor of the Year Award in 2018 and 2014.

Dr. Thakker earned his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering with a concentration in Mobile Communications and Spectrum Management from George Washington University, his M.S. in Telecommunications from University of Maryland, and his B.E. in Electronics and Communications from the Gujarat University.

Long ago, Melina secured global health systems providing anti-retroviral drugs to PEPFAR countries with John Snow Inc. where she worked primarily in network security administration. Melina moved from international HIV work to domestic healthcare at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates. The position as Network Security Engineer focused on maintaining technical requirements of HIPAA Security Rule and HITECH in a dynamic virtual server and mobile device environment and assessing OCR criteria for HIPAA/HITECH compliance and Meaningful Use eligibility. It was at GWU where Melina became an instructor for master classes in Health Informatics, HIPAA Security, Business Continuity Planning and Risk Assessment. In 2012, Melina moved to National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she held several engineering security and leadership posts. Former Federal Health CISO for GDIT, she led cybersecurity engineers and analysts across 140 Federal Health and State/Local Health contracts. Melina holds a number of credentials including CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional), HISPP (Privacy and Health Data Security). Her concentration is in Federal, international and domestic data security and privacy regulations as well as general FISMA, PCI and ISO best practice.

Currently, Melina reduces cyber-risk and strengthens security controls in Hiltons Global Information Security (GIS) where innovation for customer experience drives a fast pace and data must be secured to a variety of commercial and international controls across traditional data centers and cloud environments.

Maryland resident and lifelong Orioles fan. When not securely linked into a server, Melina enjoys championing Women in Technology programs.