A new Executive Board of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association (CAPASA) has been announced. In addition to the Executive Board, CAPASA has a dynamic group of staffers leading the Committees: Membership Chairs are Janelle Hu (House Administration Committee)and Namrata Mujumdar (House Budget Committee). The Social Committee Chairs are Gloria Chan (Office of Rep. Mike Honda) and Rosellen Kim (from the House Armed Services Committee). The Community Service Chairs are Van Luong (from the Office of Senator Daniel K. Inouye) and Andrea Matsuoka (from the Office of Rep. Artur Davis) and the Professional Development Chair is Lorraine Tong, CRS.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/climbers/

By Jillian Bandes
Roll Call Staff, January 28, 2008

The Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association  (CAPASA) has announced its new board for the year. Carmela Clendening will head up the organization as president. The Ellicott City, Md., native works as a director of advance and outreach adviser for Speaker Pelosi.

She is 27-years old and has a bachelor’s degree in government and politics and a certificate in Asian-American studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. She earned both of those distinctions in 2002. Clendening’s experience includes working for the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign in 2004. It was there that she met Representative Pelosi, who quickly hired her.

“It’s been an amazing opportunity and an honor to work for the first woman Speaker of the House,” Clendening said. She is a mentor with Everybody Wins at Tyler Elementary School on Capitol Hill, and she hopes to one day work in a field that allows her to combine her “passion for social justice issues and entertainment/fashion,” in something similar to the Product Red campaign to eliminate AIDS in Africa.

Victoria Tung is the vice president of CAPASA on the House side. She also serves as the executive director of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Tung, 27, is from Menlo Park, Calif. She completed a Congressional fellowship in the office of Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) through the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. After spending another year in Honda’s office working on “minority health disparities issues” through the California Endowment Scholars in Health Policy Fellowship, she was hired as the first executive director of CAPAC. Her goals include earning a master’s degree in business administration and learning how to integrate her “passion for social justice and advocacy with socially responsible corporations and foundations,” she said. She is a reading mentor at Tyler Elementary through Everybody Wins.

Winnie Chang, from Palos Verdes, Calif., is the vice president of CAPASA on the Senate side. She is a Republican staffer for the Senate Budget Committee. Chang has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Washington. Chang, 37, formerly served as a Republican appropriations analyst for the House Budget Committee. She has an ambitious future goal: to visit every presidential library.

Charles Dujon has a bachelor’s degree in history from Northwestern University and has been CAPASA treasurer for 10 years. He was elected as treasurer again this year. Dujon is from Odessa, Texas, and serves as legislative director for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.).

Dujon also has experience in the office of Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) and has worked for the American Gas Association and the American Bankers Association. His goals include “world peace and to learn to cook 30-minute brownies in 20 minutes,” he said in an e-mail. When asked about his embarrassing moments on the Hill, he said, “After more than a decade, there are too many to narrow it to just one.” That’s not the only quirky thing about this 35-year-old. “I wear bow ties on Thursdays,” Dujon said. “I started growing an appropriations beard long before they were en vogue. ... My boss joined the Appropriations Committee in 1999 and every year since then, I have stopped shaving on October 1st, the start of the federal fiscal year, and I don’t shave again until the president signs the last appropriations bill. My hirsuteness has done wonders for my dating situation.”

Henry Truong, from Los Angeles, is the secretary of CAPASA and is a legislative correspondent and legislative aide for Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.). Truong also has experience with former Del. Robert Underwood (D-Guam), where he worked in conjunction with the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkley, in 2005.

Truong, 24, hopes to go to law school and continue to work in public service and policy. He also has a personal goal of backpacking on all seven continents. Truong is an Everybody Wins volunteer, a member of the California Alumni Association, and a member of the Liberal Agenda team in the House Softball League. # # # 

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