From President Frank H. Wu:
Joyce Moy, the executive director of CUNY’s Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI), has announced her retirement, effective March 31. Joyce has held this position since 2008.
AAARI is a university-wide scholarly research and resource institute that focuses on policies and issues that affect Asians and Asian Americans. The institute reports to Queens College. As executive director, Joyce’s duties include the support of scholars as well as disseminating and conducting research on Asian American and Asian issues and affairs. AAARI also engages in educating the general public on Asian American and Asian affairs through seminars, conferences, research projects, collaborations with community-based organizations, public and private institutions, and other educational institutions. The role of executive director of AAARI has been of personal importance to Joyce because she is a first-generation Asian American (her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who emigrated from China were barred from U.S .Citizenship by the Chinese Exclusion Act). Joyce wanted to help facilitate a greater understanding and education about the Asian American community and its history.
Prior to her work at the AAARI, Joyce was the first Asian American appointed to the position of regional director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which was funded by the Small Business Administration (SBA). As founding director of the SBDC at LaGuardia Community College, she built a team of counselors who spoke English, Spanish, Korean, and three dialects of Chinese to address the issues facing the large immigrant and marginalized business communities after 9/11. She was later appointed executive director of Economic Development at LaGuardia, giving her oversight of the SBDC, a Procurement Technical Assistance Center, and corporate training. Her desire to be of greater service to the community and the opportunity to use her advocacy skills as a former practicing attorney to support marginalized communities drew Joyce to the work at CUNY.
Joyce has many fond memories of her time at AAARI. She will miss the ability to share ideas with her colleagues and faculty across the university and the ability to connect to students and to connect students to individuals that ultimately become mentors and friends. Joyce has shared that she is especially grateful for the opportunity to work with colleagues on the University Advisory Council on Diversity, who have shown an extraordinary dedication and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at CUNY.
Joyce’s proudest achievement as executive director came in 2016 when AAARI produced a report about the state of Asian American leadership—or lack thereof—in higher education. The data showed that just 1.2 percent of over 4,000 colleges and universities had Asian Americans in high-ranking positions. CUNY had no Asian American representation in the higher ranks of leadership at the time. That report, along with conversations within the University, led to change, opening doors for greater diversity in the ranks of higher leadership positions within CUNY. My own appointment as president of QC is one such example. I am indebted to Joyce for her advocacy and commitment to diversity and academic excellence.
Looking forward to the next chapter in her life, Joyce plans to return to promoting economic development and community development, working to help build affordable housing and to build communities with strong support for minority- and women-owned businesses, while also supporting financial education and financial empowerment in communities.
We thank Joyce for her excellent work for AAARI, for the Asian American community, and on behalf of students and colleagues. An appropriate event to express our collective and individual appreciation is being planned by CUNY and QC. We wish Joyce the best of luck upon her retirement from CUNY.
Stay safe and well.
