Lee Pao Xiong's Background
Lee Pao Xiong, St. Paul, Minnesota
Lee Pao Xiong is the Director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University, St. Paul. Prior to joining Concordia University, he served as the Director of Housing Policy and Development for the City of Minneapolis, President and CEO of The Urban Coalition, Director of Government and Community Relations for Concordia University-St. Paul, Executive Director of the State Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, Executive Director of the Hmong American Partnership, Hmong Youth Association of Minnesota, Legislative Clerk for Minnesota State Senator Joe Bertram, Jr., and Legislative Intern for US Senator Carl Levin of Michigan in Washington, DC.
From 1997 to 2003, Lee Pao represented the City of St. Paul, City of Lauderdale and City of Falcon Heights on the Metropolitan Council as an appointee of Minnesota Governor Jesses Ventura. As a Council member, Lee Pao chaired the Livable Communities Committee, which provided over $10 million a year to cities and counties for affordable housings productions and brown field clean up.
In 2000, President William Jefferson Clinton appointed Lee Pao Xiong to serve on the President?s Advisory Commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders to advise the president and federal agencies on issues relating to the 10 plus million Asian Americans in the United States, making him the first Hmong presidential appointee in the nation.
Lee Pao currently serves on the boards of University National Bank in St. Paul, Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, The Saint Paul Public Schools Foundation, Chair and founder of the Asian Development Corporation and the National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse (NAPAFSA).
Lee Pao has won numerous awards for his services to the community. He was a recipient of the 2003 Hmong Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Award, the 2003 James P. Shannon Leadership Fellowship, the 2001 State Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans? Asian-Pacific Leadership Award, the 2000 NAFEA?s Outstanding Services to the S.E. Asian Communities Award, the 1999 Lao-Hmong American Coalition?s Political and Community Leadership Award, the 1999 Bush Leadership Fellowship, recipient of the 1997 St. Paul Companies' Leadership Initiative in Neighorhood Award (LIN), a 1997 McKnight Fellow to the Salzburg Seminar in Austria, and a 1993 Fellow to the Okura Mental Health Leadership Foundation in Washington, DC. He was also inducted into the Como Park High School Hall of Fame in St. Paul, Minnesota where he graduated in 1985.
Because of his work and accomplishments, he has been profiled and quoted in numerous publications such as the Far Eastern Economic Reviews, StarTribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and many others.
Lee Pao received his Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and his Master of Arts degree in Public Administration from Hamline University. Presently he is pursuing his Doctorate.
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