Thursday, January 20, 2022

Filipino-Americans and Diversity During the First Year of the Biden-Harris Administration

My Award Plaque during my Retirement Party ( October, 2002) from the Asian Pacific Network in appreciation of my service and promotion of work diversity and outstanding leadership during my 12 years with FDA. The idea of Diversity in the work place specifically in the Federal government is not new. Actually, workplace diversity training first emerged in the mid-1960s following the introduction of equal employment laws and affirmative action. Prior to this, many companies had known histories of racial discrimination. Today, the Biden-Harris administration is known to be the most diverse ever. It is also the first year anniversary of his presidency. For his accomplishments see the video on the bottom of this page.

Promoting diversity and inclusion with a government that looks like America is a priority for the Biden-Harris administration — and new data from the White House shows it’s the most diverse government in America’s history.

In their first 100 days in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have assembled a group of nearly 1,500 diverse and highly qualified individuals to serve in the Cabinet and other positions in the executive branch. These public servants represent minority groups across America that have been previously underrepresented at the highest levels of government.

The most senior officials require Senate confirmation by majority vote in order to serve in the president’s Cabinet.

Janet Yellen raising one hand and placing other on book held by man as Vice President Harris speaks (© Patrick Semansky/AP Images) — Vice President Harris participates in a swearing-in ceremony for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Washington on January 26. (© Patrick Semansky/AP Images)

Lloyd Austin is the first Black secretary of defense.
Janet Yellen is the first woman to be secretary of the treasury.
Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Latino and immigrant to serve as secretary of homeland security.
Xavier Becerra is the first Latino to serve as secretary of health and human services.
Deb Haaland, the secretary of the interior, is the first Native American to ever serve as a Cabinet secretary.
Pete Buttigieg is the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as secretary of transportation.
Cecilia Rouse is the first woman of color to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.
Katherine Tai is the first woman of color to serve as U.S. trade representative.
Avril Haines is the first woman to lead the U.S. intelligence community.
Rachel Levine, serving in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate.

Beyond the Cabinet, presidential appointees serve in key agency positions that do not require Senate confirmation. In line with Biden’s commitment to leveraging the talent, creativity and expertise of the American people and to build an administration that looks like America, more than half of the 1,500 presidential appointees hired to date are women, and half identify as non-white. In this group of appointees:

58% are women.
18% identify as Black or African American.
15% identify as Latino or Hispanic.
15% identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander.
3% identify as Middle Eastern or North African.
2% identify as American Indian or Alaska Native.
14% identify as LGBTQ+.
4% are veterans.
3% identify as disabled or having a disability.
15% were the first in their families to go to college.
32% are naturalized citizens or the children of immigrants.

Today, as far as I know there are only eight Biden's appointees that claimed to have Filipino ancestry. https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=filipino+american+in+the+biden+administration

I am hoping that in the near future, another Filipino-American close to my heart will have the privilege to serve the Biden-Harris Administration.

The idea of diversity in the work place is not new specifically in the Federal government specifically in FDA. Way back in the late 1990's, when I was the Chemistry Team Leader in the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Office of New Drug Chemistry, Center of New Drugs Evaluation and Research, my team of five Review Chemists ( GS-13 and 14) was known as the most diverse team in the Office of New Drugs. I had one Irish-American, one Black American, two Indian-Americans, and one Chinese-American Review Chemists. This is one of the reasons why I received the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) award in 1998. Later on, a year before my retirement, I hired a female Chemist. All members of my team except for the Irish-American Chemist had Ph.D degrees from prestigious US universities. The white Caucasian Chemist had only an M.S. degree.

At the State Department, Secretary Antony Blinken has emphasized that “diversity and inclusion make our diplomatic team stronger, smarter, more creative, more innovative.”

Speaking to the press after announcing former Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the department’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer, Blinken added: “As President Biden has made clear, prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is also a national security imperative.”

Source: https://share.america.gov/biden-harris-administration-most-diverse/

Biden's Press Conference Yesterday

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Highlights of My Professional Career

In my more than 40 years of professional career, I have experienced both working rank and file, as well as supervising the work of subordinates. I have worked in four private firms and the Federal Government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where I retired. I enjoyed the challenges and difficulties of both types of job situations. This is the highlights of my work experience story.

My first job after completing my doctorate degree was a Chemist for Chemagro Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a subsidiary of Bayer Corporation, a German conglomerate. I worked for the analytical chemistry department comprised of about fifty people; half that number was either chemists or biologists. My specific task was to develop analytical methods for the detection of pesticide residues in plant and animal tissues. I worked on my own, similar to six other bench chemists, and we all reported to the same supervisor.

The firm sponsored my visa conversion from a student to a permanent resident, and I was able to legally work and reside in the United States with my family. The company generously took care of its employees. At the end of each successful year, everyone received a 13th month salary bonus. The employees and their families celebrated wonderful annual Christmas parties in a downtown Kansas City hotel, with dancing and free drinks for the whole night.

Inasmuch as I enjoyed and loved working for Chemagro for five years, I found a new job which offered a substantially higher pay. Due to my exemplary work performance, my supervisor preferred and lobbied for me to stay with the company. I had to turn him down because they could not match the package presented by my new employer. It was also a chance for me and my family to move and live in the US west coast, where the mild winter climate is bearable compared to the Midwest.

My next job was at the agricultural research division of Shell Development Company in Modesto, California. I was a Research Chemist, and again I worked individually, same as five other chemists who all reported to a supervisor. My specific duty was similar to my previous job. I worked for them for five years, until the company decided to get out of the pesticide business. They closed their research facility affecting the jobs of more than 200 employees.

My third industrial job was with the agricultural research division of Stauffer chemical company, located in Richmond, California. I was a Senior Research Chemist doing the same project as my two previous jobs. I worked for twelve continuous years for the company, with outstanding annual job performance. I became a Principal Research Chemist, the highest attainable non-supervisory position.

One day in 1986, my supervisor informed me that my job had been eliminated, and I had one day to vacate the facility. It was the most dreadful lay off experience in my life. I felt anger, sadness and humiliation to be dismissed from work with one day notice, after all the years of hard work invested for the company. This was an unforgettable incident and was the gloomiest point in my professional career.
The company terminated sixty research employees, who were upset of the bad news.

One of the chemists was distressed and expressed his outrageous anger by threatening the company and its workers. He told his supervisor of his intention to bomb and burn down the laboratory. He was immediately escorted by the security staff out of the building and into his car. He was informed to leave behind his personal belongings; they will be mailed to his residence. He was warned never to show up again near the company premises or risk getting arrested.

My supervisor was kind and allowed me to take my time to pack up my belongings. It took me two days to clear up my workplace, after toiling for a long period in the same jobsite. We were provided clerical help and office space, in preparation to look for another job, such as updating our resumes, and using the computer and copy machine. We were given six weeks of separation pay plus benefits.

Fortunately, with the help of a friend who is a Church parishioner, I found another job thirty days after leaving Stauffer chemical company. He hired me as a senior research chemist and as a group leader with two technicians to supervise. It was in the same field as my expertise in my previous three jobs spanning the last twenty one years. My new employer was Chevron Chemical Company, and which was located in the same area as my former employer.

This job gave me the introduction and basic knowledge of managing the work of subordinates. I worked for Chevron Company for four and a half years. The company decided to consolidate their research facilities in Texas, and lay off all its research employees. This time I had enough distress and agony from working, and eventually getting laid off from several private companies. To avoid going through any more miserable layoffs, I made a vow that I would never again work for a private company.

In my work experiences, there were noticeable and unavoidable jobsite occurrences. One can never miss the office romantic relationships between co-workers, both illicit and permitted. Though it was frowned upon, there was a boss and staff relationship, which was used as a ploy to get ahead in the company. Some relationships had chemistry, no pun intended, but some never worked out. Oftentimes, there was a sense of distrust among bench chemists for some workers who unjustly obtained preferred work assignments.

Some employees resorted to bribing superiors to get special privileges, such as being able to attend choice conferences and meetings in exciting venues or locations. Likewise, politics was always present at the worksites. It was during an era when various forms of harassment, equal opportunity and discrimination laws were not yet enforced in the workplace. Occasionally, an unexpected chemical explosion happens in a laboratory setting, where luckily no one got seriously hurt.

In the three private companies I worked for, I was able to publish scientific journals for some of the research studies and analytical methods which I developed for the respective companies of Chemagro, Shell Development and Stauffer.

After deciding and making a vow to avoid working in the private sector, I made my new goal which was either to work for the state of California, or the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Four months after I lost my job in Chevron, I was lucky and joyful to be hired by the Food and Drug Administration as a review chemist in the fall of 1990.

In 1994 I was promoted as an Expert Research Chemist with a GS-14 rating. My expertise was on Anti-malarial and Anti-parasitic drug products. In 1997, I was again deservingly promoted to Chemistry team leader, supervising the work of six Chemistry reviewers including five with doctorate degrees.

As team leader, I was responsible for prioritizing, assigning, and assuring the technical accuracy of all chemistry, manufacturing and control issues for all new drug applications submitted to the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Center of New Drugs.

It was part of my responsibility to give advice, instruct and promote high morale and teamwork in my group. My work in the FDA is confidential, until the drug patent on the products I worked on has expired. There are manufacturing supplements that I have approved that are now open for the public in the Internet.

In 1998, I won the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Award. The citation reads, “For outstanding accomplishments in fostering the objectives of the EEO Program by hiring minorities and encouraging their professional growth while providing excellent leadership.” I have received numerous certificates of appreciation, awards in leadership and communications, commendation for teamwork and excellence in the accomplishment of the FDA mission. I have also received several letters of appreciation from private industry for my review work.

There are many good things working as rank and file while enjoying doing one’s job individually. It is a humbling, satisfying and productive experience, if one can work in harmony with one’s immediate supervisor. Working individually develops one’s skills in goal setting and scheduling. But in general, the financial rewards are less than a person who has supervisory responsibilities.

Managing the work of others has its challenges. Moreover, it develops one’s skill in handling and developing people, and the compensation rewards and benefits are better. Due to additional duties, responsibilities and leadership, supervisory work can be more stressful than working as a subordinate. However, supervisory jobs give one more personal growth and satisfaction, based on my personal experience. My work in FDA as a team leader managing the work of six scientists had been the happiest and rewarding work experience in my career in Chemistry. You might also like:

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Filipino-Americans and Diversity During the First Year of the Biden-Harris Administration

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