Falls are a common source of injuries. In some crimes, victims are pushed to the ground. In the martial arts community, it is known we can reduce risk of injury by practicing techniques for safer falling.  API ERG sponsored  three 15-minute on-site sessions to teach similar techniques within the Lab community. 

The techniques are simple and do not require a high level of fitness, but must be internalized through practice. For this reason, these sessions were in-person, and physical participation was required. Participants arrived wearing clothing and shoes that were comfortable for movement and for lying on a pad on the ground. 

Highlights of this year’s program included:

• Welcome Remarks: Shalanda H. Baker, Secretarial Advisor on Equity and Director, Office of Energy Justice and Equity

• Opening Remarks: The Honorable David M. Turk, Deputy Secretary of Energy

Speakers Included:

• Chris P. Lu, U.S. Ambassador for the United Nations for Management and Reform

• Dr. Audrey Lee, Senior Director of Energy Strategy, Microsoft

• The Honorable Jigar Shaw, Director, Loan Programs Office

• Message from Asian American Pacific Islander Network (AAPIN) Employee Resource Group: Arlene Fetizanan, President

• Special Performance: Story telling of the cultural origins and significance of the Lion Dance to include the Lucky Lion traditional ground routine with lucky gift giving.

API ERG had a special lunchtime talk featuring Grace Loh Prasad, author of the The Translator's Daughter, a memoir about living between languages, navigating loss, and the search for belonging.  Prasad gave a brief presentation and reading from her memoir, followed by a Q&A and book signing. The APIERG provided Asian snacks for this special event.

More about Grace Loh Prasad and The Translator's Daughter:

Born in Taiwan, Grace Loh Prasad was two years old when the threat of political persecution under Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship drove her family to the United States, setting her up to become an “accidental immigrant.” The family did not know when they would be able to go home again; this exile lasted long enough for Prasad to forget her native Taiwanese language and grow up American. Having multilingual parents—including a father who worked as a translator—meant she never had to develop the fluency to navigate Taiwan on visits. But when her parents moved back to Taiwan permanently when she was in college and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she recognized the urgency of forging a stronger connection with her birthplace before it was too late. As she recounts her journey to reclaim her heritage in The Translator’s Daughter, Prasad unfurls themes of memory, dislocation, and loss in all their rich complexity. The result is a unique immigration story about the loneliness of living in a diaspora, the search for belonging, and the meaning of home. Prasad's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Longreads, The Offing, Hyperallergic, Catapult, KHÔRA, and elsewhere.  A member of the Writers Grotto and the AAPI writers collective Seventeen Syllables, she lives in the Bay Area.   

This one-hour virtual workshop featured a panel discussion with API scientific leaders, facilitated breakout groups, and remarks by Lab leaders. It explored specific career development challenges and issues faced by the API scientific community and explore ways to help support their professional growth and development.