Profiles in Leadership: Jennifer Sun focuses on the big picture

Jennifer Sun's parents had strong opinions about what her career path should be. Her mom wanted her to be a teacher. Her father wanted her to have a corporate job. They'd fled Communist China for Taiwan and left Taiwan for the United States, and security, financially and otherwise, was paramount to them.
 
"When I was applying to college, I was interested in political science. My father literally changed my major on the form to economics," says Sun, co-executive director of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), a New York NeighborWorks America network organization. Sun spent four years studying economics at UCLA, double-majoring in East Asian Studies to nurture her own interests.
 

But soon, her path became her own. She was aware of disparities that crystallized when she was living in Koreatown, Los Angeles, a working-class, immigrant neighborhood while working in Beverly Hills, managing finances for the high-income Hollywood elite. "It was such a contrast," she says. "I felt a responsibility. I'd had the privilege and benefit of an education. I wanted to use that to help others in under-resourced neighborhoods have fair access to opportunity."
 
She took a job as youth program manager for Chinatown Service Center, working as a safe sex educator and reproductive health advocate. She also organized high school students to successfully campaign for a Chinatown health clinic providing reproductive health services. 
 
At the same time, Sun volunteered at the Japanese American National Museum. By then, she'd read about the history of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the Civil Rights movement to fight systemic racism. Now she was learning how Asian American leaders organized residents and advocated for public investment in housing, small businesses, and social services. "It made me realize there was a role I could play to improve access to opportunities for people at an individual level and a community level."
 
She crossed the country to study urban planning at Columbia University. One of her first New York jobs was at AAFE, helping to make sure Chinatown wasn't left behind in redevelopment after 9/11. "It taught me the power of community-based planning to secure the public investment needed for stable, healthy neighborhoods," she says.
 
Later, when Sun worked on Mayor Bloomberg's economic policy team, she was self-conscious as the only team member with a community organizing and advocacy background. "An important lesson for me was learning how my community advocacy background was relevant to the work I was doing," she says. "I realized: I am here because I'm different. Being different was actually a source of power." That power became increasingly important as she worked, advocating for her assigned neighborhoods in Harlem and the South Bronx.


Following the Mayor's office, she joined the New York City Economic Development Corporation. She eventually became responsible for strategic planning to modernize the city's food distribution center in the South Bronx. "I learned the effectiveness of bringing teams together, with a shared goal and purpose, to solve complex problems," she says. She learned about her strengths in building public and private partnerships to support economic development and using strategic planning to shape policy priorities and resource allocation. Other posts followed, but "my work was around infrastructure and real estate; I was losing touch with the people I wanted to benefit." 
 
When she had the chance to return to AAFE in 2018 as co-executive director with Thomas Yu, she welcomed the role. By then, she was known for being an adept, wise leader, known as the go-to person for thorny projects. Alyssa Cobb Konon, the deputy commissioner for New York City Parks, has worked with Sun several times in economic development and for New York City Parks. 

"I remember her saying she wanted more 'technical skills," Konon recalls. "And I remember thinking, 'you have those skills already.' But she meant she wanted to dig in. She is precise, and uses the facts to underpin her strategy. She uses the details to figure out the big picture."

Sun says that at a staff meeting after she and Yu were announced as co-directors, "it was the feeling that I was reunited with family again." There were people among the 120 staff members that she knew from years earlier. There were others, like her, who'd come back to serve the organization. "It made me feel that I am where I should be at this moment in time." 
 
Before the pandemic, Yu and Sun had talked about establishing more services for residents in AAFE-managed housing. During the pandemic, the need became critical, and they organized wellness calls to check on residents. Sun's goal is to formalize Resident Services as a program and a model for increasing community impact. 
 
In the months ahead, she also wants to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion values into AAFE's practices and programs, making sure they reflect her region's multi-ethnic community. "In the communities we serve, Asians live side by side with Black and Latinx community members. The work of cross-racial partnerships and services is increasingly important and necessary."