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Please remember this session is going to be recorded and place your mic's on mute if they are not already.

>> Greetings, everyone. Welcome to our celebration of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific islanders heritage month program.

We have an amazing collaborative event for you today.

it is my honor to begin our event with the Secretary of treasury. The honorable Janette Yellen.

She wanted to be here in person, however her schedule wouldn't permit.

We will now watch her video with her remarks.

>> Hello, everyone. It's great to be here today.

On behalf of all of Treasury I join you in celebrating Asian American, native Hawaiian and Pacific islander heritage month.

The experience of Asian American native Hawaiians and Pacific islanders is the embodiment of the best of the American experience.

There is no singular story, but instead a rich diversity of people and cultures that contributed to our nation in profound ways.

When I think of this year's AANHPI heritage month theme of building legacy together, our communities journey of strength and resilience, I think of generations of Asian Americans, native Hawaiians, and Pacific islanders who have paved the way for increased opportunity for all Americans.

And I think of AANHPI community leaders, faith leaders and business owners who work everyday to protect that legacy and promote opportunities despite the disturbing rise of hate and violence and discrimination that persists today.

Strength in resilience are things that AANHPI communities in this country have experienced in profound ways.

We know they have been disproportionately impacted by COVID- 19, particularly as these communities have been on the front lines of the pandemic with a number of Asian Americans employed in the healthcare, food and restaurant and medical industries Exceeding their overall share of the U.S. population.

>> This administration designed our economic recovery with AANHPI communities and other disproportionately impacted groups in mind.

That's why President Biden's American Rescue Plan established programs to keep families housed and expand support to frontline workers and other Americans and increase nutritional assistance.

Here at Treasury, we also knew that ensuring businesses had access to capital was critical to our economic recovery especially the thousands of businesses owned by the members of the AANHPI community and that provides $8.75 billion in dollars in capital directly to depository institutions Including meaningful allocations to AANHP EIR serving depository institutions and to tens of thousands of small businesses to the state's small business credit initiative with the focus on small businesses in underserved communities.

I'm proud to recognize the contributions of AANHPI Leaders, communities, and families past and present.

Thank you very much for being such excellent partners in these efforts.

>> Thank you, Secretary Yellen for the special remarks.

It is now my pleasure to introduce our first speaker for today.

The President of the Treasury Asian Pacific American Employee Resource Group Leonard Yoo.

Thank you, Today for the first time in history, we are celebrating the AANHPE together with all of our offices and bureaus. After it was established 2 years ago to respond to the AANHPI discrimination brought by COVID- 19 and brought us together to connect this umbrella with offices and bureaus.

Today we have reached an incredible milestone with our administration and has done so much to advance this equity and justice and opportunity for the AANHPI community and also enacted into law And directing federal agencies to affirmatively act against bias and xenophobia including within the Federal Government.

Treasury leadership and the office of Civil Rights have been working diligently to prepare for what's to come.

Thank you again.

>> Thank you Leonard.

My name is Kuhu, and co-President of the bureau of the fiscal service in the bureau.

During the COVID- 19 pandemic it transformed to provide a virtual meeting place for employees to learn to be better leaders and friendship and mentorship.

Which regularly collaborates with regulatory bureaus and includes members across the country will be one that last.

I will turn it over to Amy.

>> Hello. Thank you everyone for joining us today for this treasury wide collaboration with other treasury bureaus.

My name is Amy HU Johnson with aspire, President of the Internal Revenue Service.

I would like to thank Robert Choy, one of our executive champions for his continued support. The theme for today's panelist discussion is advancing leaders through collaboration.

Collaboration involves two or more individuals, groups or organizations actively working together to accomplish a task or achieve a goal.

Collaboration at its COR requires leadership and team dynamics and problem solving that increase innovation and increase communication and ultimately success.

I would say we have formed this collaborative with leaders in the nation, native Hawaiian and Pacific islanders in the nation along with other leaders in the bureaus to bring you to this event.

Now, Commissioner Rettig will begin with his remarks.

Thank you, Amy. It is a huge privilege for me to be here today and to participate. Know that my passion and my engagement is not limited to today and not limited to the past But to try to help build the future for everyone and obviously the Asian American native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Group. I think most of you are well aware and probably know my life story and background as well as I do myself.

I am hugely proud to be the son of an immigrant, but importantly to be married to someone who came into this country as a refugee from Vietnam as a generic to my age was a person born in Vietnam.

Her and her family came to the United States.

Her parents lived in little Saigon in California.

I appreciate your cultural and life experiences and I will say I don't everything about my wife and I have not said to her, I understood what it was like to be on a boat with 200 people hoping that you will be rescued. I did not have that life experience but people's life experiences are important for those and who they are and who you are.

We have a thing in the IRS where we like to say we don't bring people on board to conform to the rest of us, but so the rest of us internally and externally, the folks that we interact with have a better understanding and have the ability to gain a respect for what people go through in their own lives and working together It makes us better and stronger and I can certainly say to the IRS that that's absolutely true and we need to understand each other better and respect each other better and we need to build A better path forward to serve each other together and internally and externally. I am proud to be involved and I will limit my timeframe.

The IRS folks will say, you give this guy the microphone, good luck in getting it back.

But being proud and interactive and having exposure and being born and raised in Los Angeles.

I just got back from meeting my counter parts from France.

When I go outside of the country, I'm very proud to make sure that people know that we highly value equity diversity and inclusion.

I won't tell you the comments I made, but I was around some folks who might have wanted to define diversity as a male female issue and I'm proud to say that for those at least in the United States, diversity is a much more broad concept And something that we take to heart and believe in and we push.

A huge thank you to the IRS office of the EDI and I will let them speak for themselves but I think they know where I stand in this space and I support it.

I will also state that when I do speak inside the IRS and United States, the area that I'm proud of is to say that we represent the United States of America. Take to heart that it is not a single syllable country, if you will, It's not Germany, France, etc. But look at the words united, and in my mind, I see all of us together elbow to elbow locking elbows representing this country.

Take that to heart and that's a privilege to be able to say we are all here together and all the same. No person is no more or less important than anyone else.

In countries where people think differently, figure out how to step into that and understand that people grow differently but you can get and make change by being proud of who we are.

Whatever lane you happen to be in the United States, but know the way I usually say it, if we come in from different doors, that makes us stronger and realize that you are representing a country that has a couple hundred years of history, But if we go to Asia, it's 3-5,000 years, we are stronger together because you can go back, I'm first generation, my wife, like I said was a refugee, an immigrant.

For most people in the United States you go back a few generations, they can connect with someone from another country, to a very large part certainly with respect to native Americans and Hawaiians an Pacific islanders. Let people know, this is my background and we are the same and nobody is more or less important.

Let me tell you about a few things growing up. I think it's important to share life experiences and to share stories.

I wouldn't want anybody in the IRS to conform to be like me or anybody else, but we are strong and we connect with each other in our DNA.

It's not that somebody gave me a checklist and here are the speaking opponents.

Points -- >> go from the heart.

I never said to my wife, I understand what it's like to be on that boat hoping to be rescued, etc.

I wasn't on the boat.

Her life experience and having an awareness, I know I won't have that understanding and you are not going to have that understanding and I want you to respect that understanding, but certainly recognize that we are in America stronger together and we are not asking people to conform to the contemporary But asking people to raise awareness of their life experiences of themselves or parents or grandparents.

The people in this country are the greatest people in the country on this planet and the country where it's called upon and contrary to a military context and where it's in a culture and somewhere else, why are we stronger and I firmly believe in the rest of the world Is because we do come into the room from different doors, we work together and the experiences of 1 person when they share with another person make that person stronger and that person takes it and shares it in another place.

The concept of who we are and be proud of that privilege and certainly during the last year and that privilege and challenges that we have had during the pandemic what not.

And being proud of being in the community and having an awareness of being in the community and I say to the folks, thank you for being who you are and sharing who you are.

I look back being born in Los Angeles, giving another piece of life and information.

Born and raised in Los Angeles and the neighborhood I grew up in, one comment made was my mom was born in the United States.

I think I was the only person local in the neighborhood growing up as a kid who had a parent born in the United States.

We thought that was somewhat unique, and really respected the fact and we learned a lot from the other children and obviously from their parents, etc.

We grew up respecting that. It's not a heavy lift to say, look at other people, look at their backgrounds and really try to learn what you can.

I really hope that folks take this to heart, and many of you have met and aware of and know my wife.

If we gave her the microphone, she would go on for another couple hours and explain to you the strength of the people in the native American and Hawaiian and Asian Pacific communities.

She has your back and I have your back and never forget who you are. Be proud of who you are, be proud of working together with us, and the concept, the theme for the program, Advancing Leaders Through Collaboration that's what I have been trying to convey the message now.

Work together to collaborate and don't just disagree with somebody else but give thought to what they are saying based on their life experiences and every single person in this Treasury and the IRS is incredibly important For them to be able to appropriately and respectfully serve this country whether they are just in this country or trying to get into the country.

Be proud, because I think what to some extent makes this country great is that our doors and hearts are open and we want it to be better.

As to Aspire and council cohort, we can't do this without you.

Your engagement and involvement and assistance is really important.

In closing, something I learned a long time ago is to understand that success whether individual or for in this context an agency whether it's the IRS Treasury, it's not one agency versus another. Help us broaden that plateau and get as many people and agencies on that plateau, And getting them together and I do listen and value the comments that people make. But get to know and better understand others, and get to understand their life experiences better, And then from the Treasury and IRS and other agencies, bring that home to us so we have from that perspective the better ability to really serve the people of the United States of America, and never forget, United States of America Means we are locked elbow to elbow if you will to face the challenges that we do.

In closing, a huge thank you to all of you for participating today and thank you to certainly to EDE and Aspire and other groups.

When I got on board here, I said if you need me, put me in.

My wife does not work through the IRS, but she has participated in more than a few organizational presentations, let's say.

And I take pride in the fact that the agency does its best to reach out to people in different communities, lower income communities, rural communities, Because to getting us to understanding and respecting each other and I see the comments that escaped Vietnam.

I was born in LA.

I won the Lotto being born to two parents who at the time were United States citizens in this country.

I will speak to Vietnam.

I grew up to what we refer to as the Vietnam war.

I knew I was going to Vietnam.

Our entire neighborhood otherwise went to war. They all did not come back.

My dad's comments from what became east Germany, I have a brother 16 months older.

You boys are going to be big boys getting back to this country.

And this concept would have been 2 years older going to Vietnam.

My friends went to Vietnam and they all did not come back.

We were proud that this country in the form of military context from our neighborhood where people were drafted and they went and they proudly went to support people in a situation on behalf of this country.

My respect and recognition for the folks and I'm narrowing it to Vietnam.

I thought I was sensitive growing up in a very multicultural part of Los Angeles.

And then I met my wife and realized how insensitive I was.

I'm married to somebody who escaped from a country by boat, 101 people, 27-foot boat.

That was her ninth time trying to escape. She spent 9 months in a refugee camp trying to come to this country.

I'm going to speak to people who escaped trying to come to this country, I knew the number of stripes and stars and colors on that flag.

But importantly I will now speak to my wife's family.

They can count the stitches from the stars, they can count the stenches from those stripes and the stars and stripes on the flag of this country is the respect of everybody.

It's our job and privilege as people to bring this home to everyone here and as well as outside of this country.

The last part, the last piece is we are also a military family. My son is a major in the United States Army who has deployed twice including to Korea.

My friends at the time said what if something happened over there, obviously we would hope that nothing would happen, but if something did, we are hugely proud that he went to Korea and prepared for the ultimate sacrifice.

To help people to have a better world and the world that we enjoy here.

Never forget the privilege of being in the United States and carrying the U.S. passport and remember we can make it better for everyone and I realize that I'm a little bit off topic, but I would encourage you to help others.

Our theme has been to help us help others.

In closing, thank you.

I hope you get a better sense of not only myself but obviously who we are at the IRS.

We pride ourselves not only to be a Brick and Mortar institution but privileged to working together to help other people have a better life and get to know the people around you.

So I better turn it over or you will all hang up on me.

But know that I am proud to be here.

I know that I am privileged to be here and hugely privileged to be married to somebody who came into this country through some very difficult circumstances, And as proud as I was before I met my wife and got married, my proud factor was to carry the United States of America forward is huge.

I encourage all of you to give some thought to the name of this country.

It is not a single syllable world.

It is the United States of America.

Work together, make it better and where you need us, the folks here at the IRS, will a thousand percent help others.

Thank you and a huge thank you to everybody who put this together and certainly Asian American native Hawaiian Pacific islander folks.

You've got my heart and soul.

Let me close with that and turn it back.

>> Thank you so much, Mr. Rettig for your inspiring remarks.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

>> On this occasion, steering committee wanted to take a reflection on the cultural ordinance for providing the United States such a robust and diverse community of federal employees.

>> At this time, I would like to introduce Cynthia Dunn, who serves as the director of office equity, diversity, and inclusion.

She has been the director of the IRS and I worked with her on the program.

She will go over the biography of the program moderator.

>> Hello, Commissioner.

I can't believe a year has passed by already.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Treasury's 2022, Asian American, Native-American and Hawaiian and Pacific islander.

I work in the Internal Revenue Service and the director of the office of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

I also serve on the Asian Pacific and American employee resource group as one of the founding members.

I am honored to introduce our theme panelist and moderator for today's program.

Our first panelist is Drita Tonuzi deputy chief counsel.

She provides legal guidance and legal support on all matters to the administration and importance of the IRS law.

She received her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn college and doctorate from Brooklyn law school.

She has an LLM in taxation from New York University.

Our next panelist is HIMAMAULI DAS, acting director of financial crimes and enforcement network.

His role is to safe guard the financial system from illicit use and financial authority from the collection analysis and dissemination of financial intelligence.

Him received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.

A master's degree of science from Colorado and physics from California.

Our last panelist is Lillian Cheng, who serves as chief council for the bureau of fiscal service and works to provide exceptional legal support for the bureau's administrative and mission areas including payments, collections, debt collections, shared services and government wide accounting operations.

Ms. Cheng earned her bachelor's degree magnum cum laude, and received her doctorate also magnum cum laude from Notre Dame law school.

Next I am proud to introduce Robert CHOI.

The chief privacy officer for the IRS and serves as the aspire executive champion for the Internal Revenue Service.

He works on the multi-privacy program.

Rob holds a bachelor's degree of science degree in accounting from Pen State University. And Baltimore school of law.

Rob, take it away.

>> Thank you for the introduction and the introduction of the panel members.

I also want to thank Lillian and Drita for participating in this event.

I want to begin really as an ice breaker to talk about the journey of each of the package members.

-- panel members.

I would like to know if you are share with us your leadership career journey in Federal Government and tell us about your most memorable and meaningful accomplishment.

Drita, why don't we begin with you?

>> Good morning, and good afternoon to all of you. It is really difficult to follow the Secretary and the Commissioner, but we will try.

I had the opportunity to read some of the chats and someone in there said that they came to the us via JFK with $7 in their pocket.

So I was eight 1/2 years old when I flew into JFK from France.

I was born the child of a refugee couple, and frankly I was a refugee.

My parents escaped from communism.

So I remember seeing the twinkles of New York City in the night because we came in at night.

And the reality of course disappeared immediately when we were introduced to our very tiny little roach infested apartment in one of the bureaus in Brooklyn New York. Back then it was not like Manhattan.

It was a third rate, at least a portion of the neighborhood that I was in.

I am an immigrant in this country. I am first time graduate of college, high school as well, actually.

And then I went on to law school.

I remember early saying to people, I am so lucky to have graduated from high school.

I'm so lucky to have graduated from college.

I'm so lucky to have graduated from law school, and so lucky to have become a professional in this country.

Everyday I feel very privileged.

You know, frankly, I always say, only in America.

In terms of how I got to where I am, I never really intended to work for the Federal Government.

I thought I would go into the private sector and I did for a short time.

Then kids came along.

So with two children and as a single mom, I came to the IRS office because of the work life balance.

But I promise you that I stayed because of the incredible organization that it is.

I started first as a litigator and then moved into management.

Frankly I thought management was the most fun and where you are able to really really impact people's careers.

Then I moved from there to an SES position in DC.

That was where I got my first promotion.

I came out of the Manhattan office by the way, in case you didn't know it in connection to JFK.

Then I moved into a leadership world and then to my position and in every position identify been very aware of how important it is to have diversity and to bring people along.

In terms of what I'm proud of, I'm constantly thinking about diversity. So I put a lot of things into play here in the office of chief counsel focused around diversity, not the least of which is making sure that we too have affinity groups And cohort groups.

Anne Lee heads our cohort group here at chief counsel.

With that, I will turn it over to you, Rob.

Thank you for sharing your childhood history and background. I think it's always great to hear the diverse background that we all come from and how we have all advanced our careers despite the different backgrounds, the different challenges, and to be able to be successful and to succeed in our endeavors.

Why don't we move on to Lillian next, to tell us a little bit about herself and her leadership journey.

Lillian?

>> Sure, thank you so much, Bob.

Thank you for the opportunity to be on this panel. It's such an honor to be able to participate with such a wonderful panelists.

Just a little bit about my background.

I was born in Hong Kong.

My grandfather was taken from his land in China to escape the communist in the 1940s.

To Hong Kong and then we ended up in Canada and then the United States.

My national origin is a little bit, is a mix of both my Asian heritage and Canadian heritage.

When I think about my own journey in federal service, I see so much of this year's theme of advancing through collaboration who reflected in it.

I'm a lawyer.

After law school I served as a law clerk for a judge in Boston who was the first African American female judge appointed to the bench from President Carter.

I learned a lot about this judge and not only the law but how important it is to give back to the community and pay it forward.

I saw how involved she was in the community and supported young people through programs at the court.

And how much young attorneys were looking up to her as a role model and how much that meant to them.

So that experience for working for her influenced me in two ways, one was to stay in public service.

I went on to serve as a federal prosecutor for the federal service and then I wanted to be a practicing attorney and that part of the action weres in places that I worked and all the agencies that I have worked at Even as different as they have been were all different in their operational and activities on the frontline, not so much policy or regulatory.

I began my federal career as a line attorney for the department of Homeland Security, working with law enforcement.

I worked at the ranks there at the academy.

I shifted gears to serve as the deputy counsel and international broadcasting agency best-known for its flagship voice for America and then worked on federal security issues and protected the safety of the journalist and for those working in dangerous and oppressed conditions.

I worked here at the bureau at the Treasury.

Operating the Federal Government and collection and deposit systems, payment services on behalf of federal agencies and issues 90% of the Federal Government's payments.

Offers treasury security and manages government wide accounting and financial services.

It's a broad mission and I am proud to be part of a great legal office at the bureau and also being part of the office of general counsel at the department.

Lots of smart people who care about the work and care about each other.

I am proud to be part of this service to really focus on ways to accomplish this broad mission.

In innovative or continually in better ways while not forgetting to take care of its people.

One of the reasons I'm really proud about the bureau is it recognize one of the ways that it can do its mission better and to take care of people is to prioritize equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Those are really front and center of a lot of conversations that leadership has within the bureau.

So if I could talk about one thing that I'm proud about through my career journey is that sense of community that everywhere I have gone sort of gravitated towards places where collaboration and building community are really important strands of the DNA of these organizations.

That sense of nurturing connections, networking it together. That's really been important to me in my journey and continues to be.

Back to you Bob.

>> Thank you, Lillian, for sharing that.

The words that you stated about nurturing community and collaboration really resonate among all of us because I think that is what brings us together and brings success when we are able to accomplish that.

And I think as leaders, we should never forget that because I think that is the fabric of what makes an organization successful through that constant collaboration.

So why don't we move on to Him.

Him, if you can share with us your leadership journey.

We would all be very interested in hearing all about you as well.

>> I'm incredibly honored to be here today. It's great to be on a panel with Drita and Lillian as well. It's a privilege for me.

I'm an academic faculty brat. My father came here from India and he went back with the idea of working in India academia. He moved to Texas and where I moved when I was 4 years old in Texas.

It was a great childhood, a great experience as well.

We were part of an incredibly small tight knit Indian community.

In Texas, we spent a lot of time driving around to Houston, Austin, Dallas, wherever it was to join up with other Indians and share in our culture as well.

I'm a lawyer as well as all the other panelists.

In my career, I have had an incredible privilege to contribute to some of the most consequential developments to United States security and I was here during the financial crisis and worked as a lawyer in the international affairs section.

In response to the national crisis then and worked on the creation that led to the agreement and the national security investment process and a number of sensitive trade and currency negotiations over the years.

Now, I have the privilege of helping shape this mission since the 21st century and we have a lot of work that we are doing.

I feel this privilege. It's like a Woody Allen movie where he ran in historical places and sometimes I feel like that.

I was drawn to Federal Government for several reasons. First was the amount of responsibility given and the word strength and resilience and we do more with resources in government.

I find that incredibly challenging but an incredible opportunity to be able to engage in a range of issues and to have me or have my supervisors provide me with a significant amount of responsibility, And I was just drawn to be able to contribute both to the state department where I first worked coming out of law school and to all the efforts we were doing at the state department for the American people and the American public.

I felt also the people that I worked with in government particularly in some of the government internships I worked at, my supervisors, my mentors were incredibly focused on me and my success and miable to excel to make contributions to each of those agencies and to develop my skills and talents.

They really did a lot in terms of helping me grow.

I think where I get the greatest pleasure now from my career and my role is first of all just helping the success of the institution.

We do incredibly important work here at the treasury department.

At main treasury and across all of the bureaus and to be able to to ensure it is achieving its mission in the right way for the American people is incredibly important to me and I value that significantly.

The other thing that I have grown to value over the years is just watching the growth of the careers of those around me and those that I have been fortunate to bring into government and to be able to mentor and being able to work with over the years.

I try to stay in touch with as many of my colleagues as much as possible and try to contribute to their careers in a way that makes sense to ensure that I can help foster their growth over time and their leadership skills over time as well.

>> Thank you, Him.

I think the theme that we are hearing from all the panelists and especially from Him and his comments is that there is that sense of giving back, of providing accessibility and engaging in mentoring activities.

I think that as we are able to rise in the organization and take on increasing levels of responsibility, that we are also in a position to give back, and I think that each of our panelist this afternoon has demonstrated that.

Why don't we move on.

I have some additional questions and I think in the interest of time, I will ask each of you a question that you can address for the audience.

Drita, why don't we begin with you.

Thinking about your past leadership positions, what advice would you give to us if you want to become a leader in the Treasury Department?

>> I sort of fell into the position that I am in now. All I wanted to be was a litigator. In my mind, I had achieved complete success doing that.

I remember being with my colleagues on the METRO and subway and someone mentioned SES and I said, what is that?

She explained that and she was of an Italian heritage and her father was in government and wanted to be in SES and never achieved it.

It was her mission to become SES.

I thought it was interesting and had never occurred to me. Her first opportunity to apply for a position, I applied for it, but I didn't do it just by myself.

I had others encouraging me to do it. That's really important for us to encourage others, to help cultivate their skills and abilities and also to encourage them.

I promise you I applied for positions that I did not get.

It is a little deflating, but I never took it personally. It just meant that I had to work harder.

It's a conventions of luck and being at the right place at the right time. For me, my first SES position, I thought it was a little bit of a reach but I still tried.

There weren't that many applicants. So I did get lucky there.

The other thing is you have to be present.

I know we are coming out of a pandemic and we have been accustomed to being in a virtual environment and we have to find the right balance of being virtual and being in person, present.

It's the idea of an opportunity and they present themselves at the oddest times and ways and you should leap and grab that opportunity when it comes.

Then the last thing , I think it's really important to listen to people and to again, we've heard about this collaborate taken into account divergent views, but I think it's really incredibly important to bring that altogether and to constantly be a sponge to soak up all of that.

You cannot look at things from your own vantage opponents.

-- points.

That's one of the Hallmarks to my success. I look at the shoes of the people around me, what have they done, what would they think about this.

How would it play on the West Coast and the East Coast and outside beyond our organization as well.

Those are some of the things, mentorship is key.

I did not have the benefit of a mentor growing up.

But once I figured out and navigated the path by some luck and chance, I made sure that I provided mentorship to others so that they can succeed and they can learn from my trial and error.

>> Thanks, Drita.

I think your comments about mentorship merit a follow-up.

You know, from my perspective, I have always grown up having to think that you have to achieve on your own merit, through your own hard effort, and it wasn't until government and actually at a higher level within government, That a mentor was even afforded to me and I was struck by what do I do with this mentor that they are assigning me.

That is available and it is there to help you advance in your career.

Those resources are there because there is experience behind that mentorship relationship.

I would not be dismissive of those opportunities.

Why don't we move on to Lillian.

Lillian, how can you as a department of Treasury leaders support organizations like Asian American Pacific islander resource to foster the goals of these organizations?

>> I think one great way that you touched on was this idea of mentorship.

And look, I think the more that employees see themselves reflected in an organization, I think the more they know it's a safe place for them, and that they belong.

There have been lots of studies now at this point that show the value of feeling belonging at work and how much that feeling of connectedness informs our productivity and supports our growth and our ability to flourish professionally.

An employer organizations like employee resource groups are a really important way for employees to see themselves reflected in an agency and organization and to feel like they belong.

So as leaders, we can continue and support these groups by continually reaffirming this value.

That yes, you provided a very unique and essential value to the agency, and that you have a place and you belong.

That's why it matters to have leaders like Commissioner Rettig talk about his wife's experience and that helps leaders and even the Commissioner experience the AANHPE community and we belong to these organizations.

Just by sharing those stories and communicating those stories is one way we can support these groups in their efforts.

Of course mentoring others in taking the time to know people.

One other way, I want to touch on briefly , I think in our role as leaders, it's really also important to celebrate allies and to be mindful of being allies to others.

In none of my official roles or jobs was I hired by a Native-American. In my job, they have been mostly Caucasian and males.

We need to see what is not just visible in the color of our skin but diversity as well.

As a leader, it's important to encourage openness and networking and building community with as many as goodwill as possible.

Thank you for that.

Very well said. I think that we all have to keep your words in mind as we continue to move forward to encourage that collaboration and diversity as we move forward.

So, Him, let me ask you.

If we can ambassadors with a message for this diversity Workforce, what would that message about and how to support that equity, diversity, and inclusion?

>> Thanks for that question, Bob.

First of all, in government, the ability to achieve effective outcomes and to do your work, there is no individual in that effort. It's always a team building effort.

It's been a team effort where you are not only working in your office or between offices or between bureaus or between agencies. It's always ideas across offices and across people.

And it's an incredibly fundamental part with a team of encouraging viewpoints and encouraging a range of views and options in terms of building an outcome that serves the greater good across everybody's equities and the like.

Connectivity, feeling like you belong is important.

To ensure an environment where everybody feels like they belong and has an element to contribute is a fundamental principle and message across this leadership.

And as the Secretary mention and Commissioner mentioned, the impact that the Treasury has on the American public is significant, it's vast.

That's why a diversity of viewpoints across all issues and all experiences is incredibly important to be able to ensure that we are making the right decisions, that we are bringing the right considerations no matter how legal the issue it is or what the policy issue is.

Those are the issues that I want to ensure and as we convey as well.

>> Thank you. I know that we are coming up at the top of the hour.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the panel members and have provided a diverse view across the organization and I hope that you have found this to be very informative and rewarding in terms of the information they have shared this afternoon.

With that, I would like to turn it over to I believe Amy who might move on with the agenda for closing remarks by Mr. Page.

Amy?

>> Thank you, Mr. CHOI and panelist for your participation today.

Mr. Page will deliver his remarks.

>> Thank you, Amy. I know our time is short so I will be quick.

I would like to thank you for your remarks and Commissioner for his remarks also.

Thanks again for this panelists who were participating today and Robert CHOI for leading the moderation.

This program would not be successful were it not for employees working across the screen and the bureaus which include Cynthia Dunn and Paul Hayes and staff.

I would also like to thank the members of the Asian American Native-American Pacific islander, steering committee who was very instrumental in organizing this event today.

>> TTB, APARC, aspire, AACC, BEP, BFS, and thank you for the interpreters and the platform.

I would like to thank you for participating and attending today.