Join us for a virtual "Lunch n Learn" event on Thursday, July 8 at 12:00 pm with the President and CEO of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, Pat Fong Kushida. Ms. Kushida will be offer a presentation entitled "Creating an Inclusive Economy: Our Pathway Forward". Take your lunch break with us to learn more about developments in our region with one of its most dynamic leaders. 

The Prosperity Strategy is a strategic framework and bridge to action for the six-county Sacramento Region that prioritizes our core economic initiatives and will result in a more prosperous, equitable and resilient region. Six core strategies, and related initiatives, will drive our region’s future growth and advancement. These have resulted from a two-year process that was founded on extensive research, dozens of public convenings and hundreds of interviews. As well, this work is woven with other key regional efforts that will shape our region’s future, including the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CDES) the Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS) and the City of Sacramento’s Scale Up Sacramento/Project Prosper.

The topic of our discussion will be the Prosperity Strategy for the six-county Sacramento region and how inclusive economic growth strategies is embedded in that framework.

About Pat Fong Kushida:

Pat is the President/CEO of the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce (SACC) serving in this capacity since 1998, and President/CEO of the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce formed in 2010.

This combined entity represents the largest ethnic chamber in California today. Through her efforts, relationships have been developed to link the most prominent API business organization to opportunities throughout the state and provide advocacy, education and outreach to a significant portion of this state’s demographics, the over 600,000 Asian Pacific owned businesses in California.

Pat is known as a visionary, entrepreneurial leader who has applied these skills to help build programs that strengthen California’s ethnically diverse business community and create economic development opportunities for this community to prosper. She created a technology platform to connect small, disadvantaged business enterprises to contracts in the public and private supplier diversity contract arena.

Through her work, the chamber has a three year contract establishing the chamber as the Small Business Transportation Resource Center serving California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. She created a separate Foundation to house each chamber’s economic and workforce development, leadership, and education programs. Through this effort, the chamber won a significant contract with Covered California to sign up over 50,000 API business in California.

Pat’s strength is forming collaborations with many community-based organizations on issues related to regional economic development to advance her community’s interests. She has advocated on behalf of the chamber at the local, state and federal levels, and developed successful ongoing fund development programs to ensure chamber viability. Her work has garnered recognition from her peers and earned her the Exemplary Leadership Award from the American Leadership Forum in 2009.

Pat firmly believes in giving back to her community and serves on numerous boards and commissions.

Pat is a Member, California Public Utility Commission, Member, Senior Fellow, American Leadership Forum, Member, Board of Advisors, Hacker Lab Sacramento, Advisory Member, Full Circle Project, Sacramento State University, Sacramento, Advisory and Advisory Member, Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy and Leadership (CAPITAL).

Prior to her work in the non-profit arena, Pat worked in procurement management for major retail corporations for 15 years. Pat graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 1985 with a B.S. in Business Administration, concentration, Marketing, and a minor in Communications.