We are excited to announce that Nehanda Tankasala has joined the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) as the AAPI Data Senior Fellow. Nehanda has training in clinical research and a background in community-based public health research addressing structural inequities. They join from the South Asian Public Health Association, where they studied the impact of COVID-19, xenophobia, and hate violence. Before that, they conducted research and advocacy with community-based groups on gender-based violence, migration, labor, and food security, where they brought knowledge of mixed, participatory, and action methods to visibilize narratives of excluded groups and advance justice. In this role, they will work collaboratively with government agencies, community organizations, and research partners to improve AANHPI data equity in all aspects of government data collections. Welcome Nehanda!

AAPI Data is also excited to announce that one of our senior researchers, Jennifer Lee, has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jennifer Lee is the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University, where she has been uniquely successful in placing the study of Asian Americans centrally in the discipline. She has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, a Fulbright Scholar to Japan, and the author of four award-winning books. Congratulations Jennifer!