Paul Huang, Leadership Liaison

Deputy Director, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement

Washington, DC

More about Paul
Paul is currently the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement in Washington, D.C. Mr. Huang helps oversee a staff of more than 850 federal employees and directly oversees BSEE’s National Program Offices and Divisions. As BSEE Deputy Director, Paul Huang. is responsible for promoting safety, protecting the environment, and conserving resources through the regulatory oversight and enforcement of energy industry operations on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

Lena Chang, Immediate Past President

Public Affairs Officer, Office of Communications, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Region

Boise, Idaho

Why did you join FAPAC-DOI?

FAPAC-DOI came to me at a time in my life and career when I realized that sharing our stories as Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders has tremendous value. My personal goal for diversity and inclusion is to break biases through sharing our stories, creative outreach, and education. My goal as a member of the FAPAC-DOI board is to continue to work with all of you to inspire the desire to engage members of the AANHPI community across the DOI, supporting and amplifying each other as we create ways to build awareness and community both nationally and within our home offices.

More about Lena

Lena was born and raised in southern California and identifies as Korean American with an additionally rich Japanese cultural influence from family members who were born and raised there.  Her early background is in special education and wildlife rehabilitation, specializing in birds of prey. Inspired by conservation, she went back to school to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology before being hired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist.  Lena spent nearly 13 years working with State, Federal, and private partners toward conservation of threatened and endangered species in coastal southern California with the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office in Ventura, California.  In recent years, Lena served with USFWS Headquarters working in Emergency Management, to Office of Communications for the USFWS Mountain-Prairie Region, and now in her current position in the Pacific Region.  Lena served as FAPAC-DOI President from FY19-FY22 and Executive Secretary (now Vice President of Outreach) in FY18.

Thomas Liu, Senior Advisor

 Camarillo, California 

Why did you join FAPAC-DOI?

I joined FAPAC-DOI as a founding member when the chapter was created in 2017 to share my experience as an Asian American working at Interior and learn from others. For a few years, I was fairly uninvolved as I had family commitments and being based out of California made it difficult to attend meetings and events. I became the senior liaison in 2019 after understanding how few AAPIs were in leadership positions at Interior and as video conference capabilities made collaboration from the West Coast easier. I'm interested in helping FAPAC thrive as an organization, serving as a resource to help other AANHPIs enter and advance at Interior; yet at the same time, reminding and reinforcing to members that even though we face challenges as AANHPI's (as do other minority groups), that the great thing about America is that our decisions and choices still matter more to career success than the circumstances or conditions we are born into. And I also want to continually emphasize that I believe that America's greatest strength comes from the fact that our country is unique in the world as a melting pot and that fundamentally, we are more alike to our fellow Americans than to anyone else in the world. So while FAPAC is a much needed safe space for us to share and process events, we must not use race to separate us off or wall us off from our fellow Americans.

More about Thomas:

Thomas started his DOI career in 2009 as a Presidential Management Fellow and the Chief of Concessions for Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and transitioned to BOEM in 2011 after a brief stint at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He completed the White House Office of Management & Budget SES Candidate Development Program in 2016. Prior to government, he worked in finance and held positions as an investment banking analyst, corporate strategy analyst, product manager, and a hedge fund investment analyst. Thomas holds a BS from Stanford, an MBA from Northwestern, and completed the Senior Executive Fellows program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Thomas grew up in Cary, North Carolina. Thomas is proud to be a 2nd generation Taiwanese American and to be in a leadership position where he can provide insight, transformational thinking, give back to America, and make Interior a great place to work.

Janet Cushing, Senior Advisor

Deputy Chief,  U.S. Geological Survey, National Climate Adaptation Science Center

Reston, Virginia

Why did you join FAPAC-DOI:

I joined FAPAC-DOI officially last year, after being a non-active participant for a couple years prior. The impetus was the ever increasing racial intolerance and hate crimes that I was seeing across all minorities, but in particular the sharp increase of abusive behavior towards Asian Americans made me realize that I need to be part of the solution. I am grateful to have a community in DOI that provides a safe space to discuss issues pertaining to the AANHPIs as well as meet more people across the different DOI bureaus.

Kelly Kim, Senior Advisor

Recruitment Specialist, DOI Office of Human Capital

Washington, DC

Why did you join FAPAC-DOI:

It's been an honor to be one of the founding members of FAPAC-DOI (established 2017) and a lifetime member and past committee chair with the national FAPAC organization. I know how hard it is to maintain a volunteer organization and I'm here to support the FAPAC-DOI Officers and Board in their mission. As an east coast transplant from Southern California, I longed to be around people who understood the challenges and joys of being Asian American. FAPAC and FAPAC-DOI have provided so many opportunities for me to meet people outside of my office and agency, grow professionally, and give back to the AANHPI community. It's encouraging to be among AANHPI colleagues who are equally outraged by injustice and passionate about making the Department of the Interior and the federal workforce more inclusive.