Debadutta Dash delivers keynote remarks at Bellevue naturalization ceremony. (Photo provided by Debadutta Dash)

Fifty-one local immigrants became U.S. citizens during the first-ever naturalization ceremony at Bellevue City Hall.

The ceremony was organized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Seattle Field Office in partnership with the City of Bellevue and the nonprofit Bellevue Downtown Association.

Debadutta Dash delivered the keynote remarks, talking about his experience as a naturalized U.S. citizen. Dash is King County’s representative to the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and co-chair of the Washington State India Trade Relations Action Committee. (end)

By Assunta Ng

Guests at the WASITRAC event (Photo by Assunta Ng/NWAW)

On Aug. 15, a group of Indian Americans were celebrating India’s 64th Independence Day at Il Terrazzo Carmine. Read the full story

Guests at the summit included, from left: Daphne Kwok, chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPI’s; Christina Lagdameo, Deputy Director, White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; Ronnie Chatterji, Senior Economist, White House Council of Economic Advisors; Christopher Lu, Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary; Umni Song, member of the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs; Kamuela Enos, member of the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs and director of enterprise at MA’O Organic Farms; and Hyeok Kim, member of the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs and executive director of Interim Community Development Association (Photo by Rebecca Ip/SCP)

By Janelle Wetzstein
UW News Lab

Sustainability is no longer just about the environment, according to White House Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu, who spoke in Seattle last weekend.   Read the full story

By Nina Huang
Northwest Asian Weekly

Honorees of NWAW's Top Contributors 2010 (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)

It was a night that included delicious food, great company, and a room filled with influential community leaders. Eleven individuals and an organization were honored last Friday evening at the Northwest Asian Weekly Foundation’s Top Contributors to the Asian Community banquet. The event was held at the House of Hong Restaurant. Read the full story

By Sarah Yee
Northwest Asian Weekly

Debadutta Dash

In 2001, at a round table meeting in Tacoma with Asian community leaders and Congressman Adam Smith, Debadutta Dash had an unpleasant experience.

“They said to me, ‘Excuse me sir, this meeting is for the Asian community.’ I said, ‘OK, I am an Asian.’ And they asked me [to leave] again a second time, third time, and [then] they left. Not all of them, but a few of them have that wrong perception that Indians are not Asians, because we don’t look like [East] Asians.”

Now, as Dash attends these kinds of meetings almost a decade later, he feels welcomed. He is the founder and co-chair of the Washington State India Trade Relations Action Committee (WASITRAC), a major achievement that Dash looks back on this year. Read the full story

Habib M. Habib (far left), Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (third from left), Assunta Ng (in white), U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (in back), Debadutta Dash (at podium, yellow tie), and Prashanta Nanda (far right) with dignitaries at WASITRAC’s awards luncheon (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)

Northwest Asian Weekly and Seattle Chinese Post Publisher Assunta Ng and Oriya filmmaker Prashanta Nanda were awarded the first Washington State India Trade Relations Action Committee (WASITRAC) Building Bridges Across the Nations Award. The ceremony was held at the Space Needle and about 200 people attended. Read the full story

WASITRAC co-chairs Habib M. Habib (left) and Debadutta Dash

“Bold” and “mainstream” would be the words I’d use to describe how Indian community leaders achieved their goal.

A decade ago, the Indian population in Washington state was barely noticeable. Today, Indian immigrants are a visible force. Read the full story

By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly

WASITRAC co-chair Debadutta Dash (Photo by James Tabafunda/NWAW )

Debadutta Dash is a community leader interested in building a 7,456-mile-long bridge.

In 2007, he just wanted to build cooperation among different Asian American communities in Washington state. Now, the co-chair of the Washington State India Trade Relations Action Committee (WASITRAC) has set his sights on connecting Washington state and the state of Orissa in India.

The official launch of WASITRAC’s trade delegation to India will be held on June 28 in Bellevue, giving Washington’s small and medium businesses a chance to learn about opportunities in Orissa. Read the full story

From top to bottom, left to right: Sophia Aragon, Debadutta Dash, Jeannie Lee, Faaluaina (Lua) Pritchard, and Albert Shen

Local community leaders Sophia Aragon, Debadutta Dash, Jeannie Lee, Faaluaina (Lua) Pritchard, and Albert Shen were appointed (and reappointed, in Pritchard’s case) as commissioners to the Washington State Commission on Asian and Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) by Gov. Chris Gregoire for three-year terms.

Aragon is the senior governmental affairs advisor for the Washington State Nurses Association. She was previously the legislative and policy manager for the Community and Family Health Division at the Department of Health.

Dash was a board member of the Asian Counseling and Referral Service and is the co-chair of the Washington State and India Trade Relations Action Committee.

Lee is the executive director of the Korean American Grocers Association and a member of the Sharing Love Foundation, the Federal Way Korean American Association, and an organizer of the Hanwoori Festival.

Pritchard formerly served as the executive director of the Korean Women’s Association. She also serves as chair to the Pierce County Asian Pacific Island Coalition.

Shen is the current Board Chair for the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority and board president of the Northwest Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans. ♦