The Past Presidents of the Albuquerque Lodge were invited to represent the Chinese American Citizens Alliance at the Asian American Engineer of the Year awards banquet for 2018.

When the awards banquet has been provided in Albuquerque, the Lodge has been fortunate to been asked to attend.  Last time the venue was the Marriott Uptown.  This year the event was held at the Hotel Albuquerque (former Old Town Sheraton).

Some 25 recipients were honored and entertainment was also provided. The banquet was opened with a Lion Dance provided by a Vietnamese Lion Dance Troupe as well as a Native American Hoop Dancer and Flamenco Dancers as well.

The AAEOY is awarded every year to recognize Asian American Engineers and their contributions to their fields.  Some were very young and others still going strong in their late 50s and onward.  They were all inspirational in their unflagging commitment to excellence in their fields.  Whether they were working on specific patents or devices, or were managers of entire teams, divisions or companies, they were all testaments to the erosion of the so-called “bamboo ceiling.”

It was also really gratifying to see the stances on diversity and inclusion to which big names as General Motors and IBM and Google are committed, actually play out.

If anyone says such programs are not beneficial and bring down innovation, they are sorely mistaken.

Past Presidents & their companions pictured above: first row left to right, Ely Yao – PP, Judy Lee – Member, Linda Louie – Current Membership Chair, Cecily Yee – PP, Cynthia Ming – Member; second row left to right, Fay Yao – Current National Representative, Carolyn Chan – Past National President & PP, Li Lee Louie – PP, T. Steven Lee – PP & Current Treasurer, Fred Grambort – Member, Richard Ming – PP.  (not shown Rusty Chan – PP & Current VP who is taking the picture.)