San Marino resident Chun-Yen Chen was the recipient of the ‘Pioneer of Community Service’ award at the 14th annual Taiwanese-American Professionals of Los Angeles gala that was held on Saturday, November 23 at the Westin Pasadena.
Chen is the executive director of the Asian Pacific Community Fund, and has compiled over 18 years of combined professional working experience in non-profit executive management and operations, financial institution community development management, state government budgetary analysis and academic faculty fields. She is also an active leader in the community, and has served on the San Marino Recreation Commission for more than 10 years. She also volunteers her time to various non-profit organization boards, including the Chinese Club of San Marino, the Taiwan Center Foundation of Southern California, San Marino’s chapter of Partnership for Awareness and the Taiwanese American Scholarship Fund. She also volunteers at schools to assist new families who have immigrated to the United States.
Attendees of the gala included San Marino Mayor Dr. Steven Huang, U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu, former California Treasurer John Chiang, former San Marino Mayor Dr. Richard Sun and a multitude of mayors and councilmembers from surrounding communities.
According to Christopher Teng Balmaseda, the president of Taiwanese-American Professionals of Los Angeles, the November 23 event focused on fundraising more than $10,000 for the 2020 Census, calling all Taiwanese and Taiwanese-Americans to check “Other Asian” and write in “Taiwanese” on the 2020 Census.
Chun-Yen is the wife of Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Frank Chen. The couple has two children; Nathaniel is a junior at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and Natalina is an eighth grader at Huntington Middle School.
Taiwanese American Professionals was founded in 1991 in Los Angeles as a program of the Taiwanese Americans Citizens League with a mission to enhance and empower the Taiwanese & Taiwanese American community in Greater Los Angeles through networking and professional development, while emphasizing the preservation of Taiwanese American Identity.
