Announcing Our New Executive Director!

To Our Communities, Colleagues and Supporters:

The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence is pleased to announce that we have hired our next Executive Director, Monica Khant. We were fortunate to have a talented, experienced, and dedicated pool of applicants – which made our selection challenging and rewarding. Monica will start on March 15th, 2021 and you will be able to reach her at mkhant[at]api-gbv[dot]org.

 “We are thrilled that Monica is joining our team. Monica brings tremendous passion, experience and openness from her 15 year history of building and growing with the Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network (GAIN). She brings a strong collaborative and coalition building approach to her work both internally and externally. Our Board and Staff look forward to this coming phase of growth and community collaboration to uplift the voices and experiences of the AAPI communities that are impacted by violence. We are so pleased to bring her leadership skills and expertise to the Institute.” – Debbie Lee, Board Chair

 Monica came to us after 15 years as the Executive Director of GAIN in Atlanta, Georgia. Under her leadership, the organization grew from an all-volunteer organization to a staff of 12, and a $1+ million-dollar budget. She worked closely with the founders, board, donors and staff to ensure the organization’s effectiveness by focusing on alignment, scalability, and deliverables. Monica developed an innovative free legal services model for immigrants with law firms and corporations in Atlanta to provide legal services to victims of crime and persecution. Further, to strengthen GAIN’s work, she developed a strong multiracial coalition-building approach on a grassroots and state level in Georgia and also partnered with local and national organizations to influence policies that affected the immigrants they served. At GAIN, she demonstrated that she was a skillful fundraiser, who worked with government, private and corporate partners, and individual donors to foster involvement and raise awareness, while increasing revenue. In addition to her externally focused work, Monica invested in her staff, providing support, opportunities, and inspiration. The GAIN staff describes her as genuine, empowering, passionate, defiant, pioneering and tenacious.

Monica Khant states,

“It is an honor and privilege to join the Institute, after Chic Dabby’s tremendous legacy and years of dedicated leadership to this work. While representing immigrant clients, I firsthand have benefited from the treasure trove of resources, trainings, advocacy and collaborations that the Institute brings to the national and grassroots communities. The work that the expert team does at the Institute is nothing short of visionary and inspiring. I am grateful for the opportunity to join them as we continue to disrupt gender-based violence in AAPI communities. I am also committed to listening as I bring my passion for engaging and connecting communities nationally and hope to respond even deeper to our community’s needs. I look forward to meeting you as we are in this movement together.”

 

In addition to her leadership at GAIN, Monica was involved with other partnering organizations in Georgia to create and implement the Victim Legal Assistance Network to bring statewide holistic services to victims of crime. She also served as a Board member of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Raksha, which offers support, healing, and advocacy to South Asians and other immigrant survivors of violence. As an experienced trainer and national speaker, she shared her expertise on immigration law, as well as the intersection of immigrant rights, human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, asylum, social services and economic security. With over two decades of experience in the non-profit legal community, she is also a speaker on leadership in the nonprofit community and has been awarded a prestigious fellowship on women’s leadership with International Women’s Forum. Monica is eager to extend her expertise to impact systemic changes at the local and national levels, strengthen communities, and create a broader understanding to influence culture and lives of AAPI survivors and their families.

We are looking forward to our partnership with Monica and the staff in continuing the Institute’s commitment to address gender-based violence through its leadership, its treasury of resources and collaboration with advocates, practitioners, service providers and community activists. Under her leadership, we are committed to continuing our current relationships and building new ones to better serve our communities. We hope you will extend a warm welcome to her into your networks, organizations, circles and communities.

With appreciation,
Debbie Lee, Leni Marin, Sujata Warrier, Lori Kodama and Linda Phan
On Behalf of the Board and Staff