2025's Top AAPI Politicos Recognized By National Professional Association

Sacramento, CA - The National Association of Asian Pacifics in Politics and Public Affairs (NAAPPPA) is proud to present the 2025 list of the top 40 AAPI political operatives and public affairs professionals under 40.

This year’s 40 Under 40 List is presented by Health Net.

“NAAPPPA established this bipartisan list to highlight emerging AAPIs in the professional unelected side of politics in 2016.  These honorees are trailblazing AAPI campaign strategists, lobbyists, legislative staff, and corporate public affairs professionals that work behind the scenes in the halls of power.  They’re breaking the model minority stereotype by excelling in the rough and tumble, rule-bending, bare knuckle world of American politics,” stated Bill Wong, veteran campaign strategist and co-founder of NAAPPPA.

NAAPPPA is a non-partisan non-profit national organization dedicated to promote and develop Asian American and Pacific Islander career advancement and excellence in political consulting, public affairs, and legislative advocacy through networking, innovative training, and professional development. 

NAAPPPA’s members include legislative staff and professionals specializing in political campaigns, direct mail, polling, communications, opposition research, political compliance, fundraising, public and government affairs, media relations, and legislative advocacy.

NAAPPPA’s 2025 40 Under 40 List (list with bios at this link) in alphabetical order:

Hannah Cho | Principal, Athena Strategy Group

Sam Cho | Director of Strategic Initiatives, City of Seattle

Francis Choe | Strategic Advisor to Port of Seattle Commission President

Nurges Gheyszada | Chief of Staff, California State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab

Kyle Griffith | Senior Account Supervisor and Coalitions Director, BCFS Public Affairs

Zahra Hajee | Senior Communications Deputy, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath

Sebastian Hamirani | Paid Media Account Director, Message Lab @ Orchestra

Toshiko Hasegawa | Port of Seattle Commission President

George Hatamiya | Senior Advisor & Communications Director, Congresswoman Doris Matsui

Kayla Hausmann | Political Director, Rick Caruso

Jinwook Hwang | Deputy Communications Director, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee

Sungkwan Jang | Consultant, DR & AJU

Jason Johnson | Director, Purple Strategies

Evette Kim | Chief of Staff, Irvine Councilmember Melinda Liu

Nikita Koraddi | Principal Consultant, California State Assembly Appropriations Committee

Uma Krishnan | President, San Mateo County AAPI Alliance

Alyssa Lee | Researcher, UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute

Joseph Lee | Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro

Rebecca Lee | Founder and Principal, Dot Movement

Shine Lee | Legislative Director, Congresswoman Young Kim

Callie Lichti | Assembly Fellow, California State Assemblymember Phillip Chen

Kinza Malik | Senior Government Relations Manager, Turo

Anjanette Manandic | Digital Director, House Veterans' Affairs Committee Majority

Jaclyn Marmol | Outreach Representative, U.S. Senator Mark

Jaliya Nagahawatte | Policy Advisor, Congresswoman Young KimSabina Nussipov | Government Relations Manager, Intuit

Katie Petersen | Communications Director, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth

Faraz Rizvi | Policy and Campaign Manager, Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Maui Robinson | Global Public Policy Director at Epic Games

Victor Shi | New Media Deputy, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

Jason Tengco | Former White House Liaison and Senior Advisor, U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Jason Tso | Legislative Assistant, California State Assemblyman Phillip Chen

Denise Tugade | Legislative Staff Analyst, LA County Dept. of Public Health Substance Abuse Prevention & Control Bureau

Lenh Voong | Legislative Director, Office of California State Assemblymember Gregg Hart

Diana Vu | Legislative Advocate, Association of California School Administrators

Sakshi Walia | Former Chief of Staff, California State Senator Steven M. Glazer

Alex Won | Partnerships Manager, End Citizens United

Lina Yabuta | Account Executive, Focuscom Inc.

Justin Yamamura | Legislative Assistant, Congresswoman Young Kim

Stephanie Yuan | Senior Manager, Reservoir Communications Group

In addition to the 2025 40 Under 40, NAAPPPA recognized the following:

NAAPPPA's Annual Johnnie D. Giles Forward Award: Jadine Chin Nielsen for her work mentoring and promoting young AAPI professionals in the political and public affairs arena.

Jadine began her career with U.S. Senator Alan Cranston where she served as his California State Director. She continued her public service as Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles in charge of community outreach and legislative and executive services and was the first Asian American to serve as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles. She later joined the Clinton Administration where she served in the White House as Presidential Transition Search Manager at the Office of Presidential Personnel. She also served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Small Business Administration and was later appointed as Deputy to the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She served as White House Liaison at both agencies, and was a member of the first Interagency Working Group for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She was also appointed to serve in President Obama’s Administration. In California, she was campaign manager for Mayor Richard Riordan in Los Angeles, Northern California Campaign Manager for the Clinton for President Primary Campaign, California Director of Scheduling and Advance for the Clinton-Gore Campaign, and political consultant to Kathleen Connell and Jane Harman in their campaigns for State Controller and the U.S. House of Representatives, respectively. In Hawaii, she served as Senior Advisor to Mazie Hirono’s gubernatorial and Congressional campaigns. Jadine previously chaired both the Asian American Small Business Political Action Committee in California and the Patsy T. Mink Political Action Committee in Hawaii. She has mentored and championed several generations of notable AAPI leaders in elected and staff roles during her long career in politics and public service.

NAAPPPA's Annual Torch Award: Benny Luo and NextShark for exemplary representation of AAPIs in media and journalism.

Benny Luo is the founder of NextShark.com, a leading media destination for Asian Americans covering news, business, politics, entertainment, and culture that reaches up to 15 million people per week on social media. NextShark has been cited by The New York Times, Business Insider, The Washington Post, Forbes, BBC, CNN, and Fox. NextShark has diligently led coverage of anti-Asian violence since the beginning of 2020. Previously, he was the founder of NewMediaRockstars.com, a leading media company covering digital entertainment that was acquired in 2013. In 2018, Luo was inducted into the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Media. NextShark strives to provide quality, up-to-date coverage for AAPI communities with reporters stationed all over the world and provides a platform to amplify and uplift Asian voices. Founded in 2016, NextShark has continued to serve the Asian community featuring coverage of all types of members of the community and relevant incidents within the community, ranging from crimes and microaggressions to community organizing and grassroots campaigns. NextShark has received the honor of being part of the Facebook Sustainability Accelerator Class of 2020 from the Meta Journalism Project and being the 2021 PR Campaign of the Year from the Asian American Advertising Federation, and founder Benny Luo was awarded Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018. With over 80 million social impressions per month, NextShark hopes to build solidarity and celebrate Asian joy and heritage.

NAAPPPA’s 2025 Community Impact Champions: California Apartment Association, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, and Turo.

The California Apartment Association is the nation’s largest statewide trade group representing owners, investors, developers, managers and suppliers of rental homes and apartment communities. Based in Sacramento with strategic hubs throughout California, CAA includes experts in rental housing law, legal analysts, state and local lobbyists, member-service representatives and media-outreach specialists. For more than 80 years, CAA has served rental home and apartment owners and managers through tireless work in public affairs, education and customer service. CAA represents the ethical members of the rental housing industry in all aspects of government affairs within the state of California, and provides information, products and services which contribute to the success of their businesses. Two members of past and current CAA government affairs teams have been recognized by NAAPPPA’s annual 40 Under 40 List.

The State Building and Construction Trades Council of California was founded in 1901 with the mission to “improve the health, jobs, safety and economic conditions of the members of its affiliates, and all working men, women, and minors in the construction industry”. As the California affiliate of North America’s Building Trades Unions, the California Building Trades has 157 affiliated unions from 14 different construction craft unions, 22 local building trades councils, and about 125 affiliated Joint Apprenticeship Training Committees that are responsible for training apprentices and providing journeyman upgrade training throughout the state. Working with affiliates and local councils, SBCTCC works to build a better quality of life for Building Trades workers and their families—at the ballot box, in the Legislature, city halls, the courts, and wherever else there is a fight for their rights, voice, jobs, wages and benefits, and safe working conditions. Two members of past and current SBCTCC government affairs teams have been recognized by NAAPPPA’s annual 40 Under 40 List.

Turo is the world’s largest car sharing marketplace, where consumers can conveniently and affordably book a vehicle from a robust community of trusted hosts across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and France. Turo provides entrepreneurs the opportunity to build a successful car sharing businesses on its platform and scale their businesses to meet their goals. With an unwavering mission of putting the world’s 1.5 billion cars to better use, innovating mobility, and reducing environmental impact. The Turo community of hosts and guests represents many different ethnic backgrounds and communities. Turo enables entrepreneurial activity and can offset costs such as car loans, vehicle maintenance and cleaning, and credit card and student loan debt, which tend to impact working class and non-White individuals at above-average rates. While rental car prices increased by 75% from 2019 to 2021, peer-to-peer car sharing provided an affordable alternative to traditional rental platforms. Turo also saw changes reflected among their host community as well. While the proportion of surveyed non-White hosts was at 50% in 2019, the number of surveyed non-White hosts grew to 59% in 2022. Two members of the Turo’s current government affairs team have been recognized by NAAPPPA’s annual 40 Under 40 List.