DEC Celebrates Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AANHPI) is held each May to recognize and highlight the experiences, achievements, and innovations of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across New York and nationwide. The diverse groups celebrated during AANHPI Heritage Month are either directly from or descendants of families from: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Guam, Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific.
With so many DEC staff leading innovative discoveries and research, and hundreds more supporting these efforts in a variety of technical, policy, and administrative capacities each day, DEC is particularly excited for the National Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Resource Center designation of this year’s national theme, Advancing Leaders Through Innovation. The hero image for DEC’s website further helps artistically convey this theme using images that invoke science, technology, and innovation here in New York. For more information on this year’s national celebration, visit the Federal Asian Pacific American Council website.
Below are profiles of AAPI community members who are pioneers and innovators in both environmental and social justice work that connects with the work performed at DEC:
Sian Kou-Giesbrecht

Sian Kou-Giesbrecht is an ecologist who published broadly on interactions between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change and as a multi-racial Asian American, advocated for increasing a sense of acceptance and belonging for minority groups in environmental sciences. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht says it became apparent to her as an undergraduate becoming immersed in environmental studies in her university’s field courses and outdoors club that there was a lack of diverse mentors in outdoor spaces and in the field of environmental science. It is telling that Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht reflects on her upbringing that the only role models set in natural environments she identified with were the animated characters from Miyazaki films. This realization sparked a passion to foster greater inclusivity in outdoor spaces and in the field of environmental science. In addition to leading outreach activities for women in science and cultural equity in the field of ecology as a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht applied her skills in scientific research to publish an article titled “Asian Americans: The Forgotten Minority in Ecology” in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America in 2020.
In this article, Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht provides data documenting underrepresentation of Asian Americans in ecology and highlights how recent studies fail to include Asian Americans in identifying the alarming underrepresentation of racial minorities in environmental fields. The articles she is referring to explicitly omit Asian Americans, citing the common assumption that Asian Americans are not underrepresented in the sciences. However, Kou-Giesbrecht effectively demonstrates that this trend does not apply to environmental sciences and ecology. Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht’s experience and findings are salient to ongoing efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in environmental fields in New York State, as is her example of using the power of data to demonstrate inequities and foster societal change.
Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht’s scientific work is also relevant to environmental conservation in New York State. She published widely on the greenhouse gas effects of nitrogen-fixing trees, including a 2021 article in the journal Ecology. Her research showed soil nitrogen levels can determine whether nitrogen-fixing trees are effective at sequestering greenhouse gases in reforestation projects. These results were field-tested in New York State forests and suggest that the nitrogen enrichment of soil should be considered in selecting species for forest restoration projects helping mitigate for climate change.
Many of Dr. Kou-Giesbrecht’s articles are available on her website. Contact our DEC Research Library for assistance in finding articles not available online.
Julie Sze

Julie Sze is an activist and a prominent, respected scholar of American Studies and Environmental Justice. Dr. Sze was born in New York City’s Chinatown, where her father worked in the restaurant industry after emigrating from China. Dr. Sze received her Doctoral degree in American Studies from New York University, and she is currently a Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Sze wrote three books, including Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger (2020, University of California Press) and Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice (2007, MIT Press). In 2008, Noxious New York won the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, which honors the most outstanding book published in American studies for the year preceding. She also wrote more than 60 articles and book chapters on environmental justice, the environmental humanities, geography, and public policy.
Dr. Sze has been an invited keynote speaker at international conferences and events and is also an active mentor for first-generation and low-income students in undergraduate and graduate education, with a 15-year active involvement with the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.
You can find both books mentioned above in the DEC Research Library. Learn more about Dr. Sze and her work at her website.
Recommended Reading List:
Bibliography by Kate Moss, DEC Senior Librarian
Boggs, Grace Lee. 2016. Living for Change: An Autobiography. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press.
Boggs, Grace Lee. (2011). The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century. Berkely and Los Angeles, University of California Press.
Clark, Eugenie. (1951). Lady with a Spear. New York, Harper & Brothers.
Kou, Giesbrecht, Sian. 2020. “Asian Americans: The Forgotten Minority in Ecology.” Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 101 (3): 1–5. doi:10.1002/bes2.1696.
Scharlin, Craig, and Lilia V. Villanueva. (2000). Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement. Seattle and Washington, University of Washington Press.
Shiva, Vandana. (2020). Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth. Santa Fe and London, Synergetic Press.
Shiva, Vandana. (2022). Agroecology & Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change. Santa Fe and London, Synergetic Press.
Shiva, Vandana. (2022). Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements. White River Junction, VT, Chelsea Green Publishing.
Suzuki, David. 2003. A David Suzuki Collection: A Lifetime of Ideas. St Leonards, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin.
Suzuki, David. 2010. The Legacy: An Elder’s Vision for Our Sustainable Future. Vancouver; Berkeley: Greystone Books.
Suzuki, David, Amanda McConnell, and Adrienne Mason. 2009. The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, Updated and Expanded. [Book discussion group ed.].
Sze, Julie. (2020). Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger. Oakland, CA, University of California Press.
Sze, Julie. 2007. Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice. Urban and Industrial Environments. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.