Education and Training

Educating and empowering Asian American women in the political arena and increasing their numbers in elected and appointed offices at all levels. We gratefully acknowledge The Fund for New Jersey for its major support of this program.

  Program agenda
  More details on Ready to Run™ here
  Overview of Rising Stars
  Facts on Asian American Women in Elected Office in NJ and the U.S.
  Rising Stars Steering Committee

Overview of Rising Stars

CAWP, together with a steering committee of Asian American women leaders, sponsors Rising Stars: Educating Asian American Women for Politics, a preconference session of the Ready to Run™ Campaign Training for Women. Rising Stars participants attend a half-day session that targets issues of particular interest to Asian American women running for political office.  Rising Stars participants then attend Ready to Run™ to learn about the nuts and bolts of working on a campaign. 

Ready to Run™ offers a unique opportunity for potential women candidates to hear directly from prominent elected and appointed leaders, campaign consultants, and party officials about how to get Ready to Run. Topics covered include fundraising, navigating the political parties, working with the media, and developing a campaign plan.  More details on Ready to Run™ can be found here.

Facts on Asian American Women in Elective Office

• Nationally, 32 of the 1,781 women serving in state legislatures are Asian American. Seven of the 98 women serving in the 113th Congress are Asian American. One Asian American woman serves as governor. For more details and information about Asian American women serving in other elected positions around the country, visit our Asian American women in elective office page.
• In New Jersey, no Asian American women serve in the state legislature or as county freeholders. For more details and information about women in elective office in New Jersey, view the Women in New Jersey Government fact sheet.

Rising Stars Steering Committee

    (affiliations listed for identification purposes only.)

Navneet Bhalla
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

Cecilia Xie Birge
Former Mayor, Montgomery Township

Cheryl Blodgett
Women Advocating for Good Government and
   Filipino American Political Action Committee

Zainab Chaudary

Ludi Hughes
President and Founder, Asian American Chamber of Commerce

Tina Liu Jen
Morris County Human Relations Commission
and 80-20 Initiative of New Jersey

Toral Patel

Sonal Shal

Renu Singal
East Brunswick Public Library

Seema M. Singh, Esq.
International Business Chamber of Commerce
and Asian Women’s Safety Net

Jeannie Tsukamoto
Councilwoman, Borough of Madison
 

Questions? 

Contact Jean Sinzdak at (732) 932-9384, ext. 260 or sinzdak@rci.rutgers.edu or Deanna-Marie Norcross at (732) 932-9384, ext. 223 or dnorcros@rci.rutgers.edu