About Us

Mission & Impact

Mission

Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promoting academic belonging, openness, freedom, and equality for all.

Values

The Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) is guided by its commitment to the following values:

  • Embracing inclusivity, diversity, belonging and equality
  • Promoting academic freedom, open science, and a healthy intellectual environment
  • Advocating justice and fairness
  • Empowering truth-seeking, communication, and mutual understanding
  • Advancing the public good to humanity

Impact at a Glance

AASF is proud to highlight several notable achievements in 2022-23:

  • Met with high-level officials within the White House and federal agencies, including with the Under Secretary of the State Department in Washington, DC, and convened dialogue between university leadership and high level officials in federal agencies. 
  • Launched the “Pioneer Project,” starting with a collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation to lift up the contributions of Asian American scholar pioneers, which reached over 18,000 views during the announcement. 
  • Was voted in as a member of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of the oldest and most influential Asian American non-profits, increasing our credibility as an organization.
  • Co-hosted over 17 webinars with over 35,000 views to educate the community on topics ranging from individual civil rights to the implications of federal policies.
  • Successfully advocated with the Biden administration for the end of the Justice Department’s “China Initiative” and prevented the inclusion of harmful provisions in must-pass legislation and administrative policies.
  • Successfully supported Professors Gang Chen, Xiaoxing Xi, and Anming Hu in their legal cases, which were of nationwide importance.
  • Earned 17 notable media hits in 2022, and 17 in just the first half of 2023—including an exclusive in the Wall Street Journal; mentions in the New York Times, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle, Nature, and the Washington Times; and publishing an article in Science and an op-ed in Teen Vogue—and 26 press releases published over the course of 2022-23.
  • Published “Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese-American Scientists” report, which was authored by our very own AASF members and published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The data showed a growing number of Chinese-descent scientists leaving the U.S. and avoiding federal grant application out of fear of being targeted.

Annual Report 2022-2023

The Asian American Scholar Forum (AASF) is pleased to announce the release of our 2022-23 Impact Report, which highlights our many accomplishments, new endeavors, and critical partnerships that have quickly established us as a widely-respected national non-profit organization and helped us secure our “seat at the table.” 

We have worked hard to build up from our beginnings, transforming the organization from a concerned group of scholars to becoming an official nonprofit organization. Today, our membership has grown to include prominent leaders from the National Academies of Engineering, Medicine, and Science, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, as well as past and current university presidents, provosts, vice provosts, deans, associate deans, department chairs, and recipients of prestigious awards and honors, such as the Nobel Prize and the Wolf Prize. We’ve also greatly expanded our efforts to educate the growing AASF community, advocates, scholars, the media, the general public, legal professionals, Congress, the White House, and other government officials on issues directly impacting our communities.

In this report, you’ll learn more about who we are, what we do, and why we do it. You’ll find AASF’s origin story and the history behind the need for the type of advocacy we engage in. You’ll be introduced to our first executive director and the progress we’ve made on AASF’s three pillars from 2022 to the first half of 2023. You’ll hear about what’s to come and ways to get involved.

We are proud of what we’ve accomplished alongside and on behalf of the scholar community, and we hope that this report fully captures our efforts in these early years to secure our seat at the table. We could not have done this without the help of our supporters. We encourage you to please share this report widely. Thank you for your part in getting us this far and joining us as we move forward together.