Prisca Bae, Chief Partnerships Officer, The Asian American Foundation

For my next interview in the Tiny CEO Series, I spoke with Prisca Bae, Chief Partnerships Officer of The Asian American Foundation. I’m so excited about this conversation because Prisca inspired me to start my business…I took her “Girl President” seminar when I was 7 years old!

How were you involved in starting the American Asian Foundation and what does it do?

The Asian American Foundation (we call it “TAAF”, like “taffy”, for short) started in May 2021. This is when everybody was still at home during the pandemic. I was in New York City, and it was a time when people didn't feel safe outside for many reasons. I don’t know if you remember, but the president at that time would say things about the pandemic starting in China, and there were a lot of people in the United States who blamed Asians for the pandemic, for COVID-19. Things were happening in the streets; people were even getting hit and assaulted because they were Asian, and a lot of people didn’t feel very safe. So some very successful business leaders decided that they wanted to do something about it, the same way that you decided that you wanted to start your company. And I was asked to help. I was a part of the team that helped TAAF get off the ground to help us launch, not only to build the organization but to also announce to the world that we were here. And I've now been at TAAF since 2021.

What sort of things do you do to help the Asian community?

When I think about The Asian American Foundation, we wanted to fight this thing that everyone was calling Asian hate. Asian hate is discrimination received by Asians. When people were being mean to or bullying the Asian-American community, we wanted to change that. But how do we do it? How do you stop someone from being mean to you? What does that take? One thing is education. People have to learn more about your community, who you are, who your parents are, and who your grandparents are, for them to understand that you're just like them. So education is something we do. We're trying to get Asian-American studies taught in every public school in the country. 

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is getting to talk to people like you. I love that I get to meet Asian Americans across the country, and my job is to talk to them every single day and ask them how they're doing. Ask them what brings them to TAAF. I'm meeting people who are so passionate about helping their communities. It's wonderful to have those conversations every day.

What is the hardest part of your job?

The hardest part of my job is that there's so much that we have to do, and there's so much that we can do, that it's difficult to stop doing the work. So I work a lot! The hardest part of my job is to figure out when I can stop and when I can rest. But the problem is so big and the opportunity to make change is so big, that it's hard to stop working.

Who is your favorite female role model?

My favorite role model other than my mother and my friends is Hillary Clinton. Do you know why? For women and girls, society tells us that we should not be as ambitious as we want to be. We hear messages of, “Boys, run for president!” But we hear, “Girls, don't run for President!”, “Oh, you have to be nice,” and “You have to not want everything, you have to share.” Because Hillary ran for the biggest job in the country, she had to overcome a lot of things that she heard growing up. Other people were telling her that she couldn't do it, but she did it anyway. I think that she's so amazing for having done that. It was very brave of her. I also think that even though she didn't win, she still made monumental change. It was absolutely the right cause. Now we all know that we should do it, and we should be running for office as well.

Do you have any advice for young girls like me?

The only advice I have is just do it. Just go ahead and do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be the thing that you think you're going to do in 20 years. If it's the thing that you want to do right now, you should do it, and if it means you get to help just one person, then it will have been worth it.

Bonus Question: Have you seen the Eras Tour?

No, but I want to! I’ve seen lots of pictures and videos of it on social media. I think it would be really cool because Taylor Swift would be right there in front of you. There are so many different cool sets, especially the Folklore cabin, which I’ve seen on the internet. The special part of the Folklore album is that she made up this whole creative story with characters and everything. She usually sings about herself, but in Folklore, she branched out. I think people love her so much because she's done so many different types of music.