Bernice Chao and Jessalin Lam

In 2021, united in their common purpose of advocating for the AAPI community in advertising, Bernice Chao and Jessalin Lam founded Asians in Advertising: An initiative that strives to develop a free community, create opportunities, and help elevate Asians to higher leadership positions.

What would both of you describe as your ‘purpose’? 

Asians in Advertising (AIA) strives to develop a free community, create opportunities, and help elevate Asians to higher leadership positions. To make space for Asians within the advertising to come together in a community where we are often excluded. Connecting with each other in order to advance their goals, careers, artistic/personal growth. Help answer questions, offer advice and have discussions about the issues that the Asian community faces as a whole or in creative careers.

How has this sense of purpose helped you navigate your careers?

Our purpose helps us navigate our careers by connecting and collaborating with Asian leaders in the industry across all levels and supporting each other as we continue our career journeys. We both have never had this kind of community for Asians throughout our entire career, so this was a great opportunity for us to create it. We want to eventually get into a C-Suite role and help Asians in our industry be heard and seen as the leaders they are as well as provide access to other Asian leaders. For example, we will be having a series of Asian C-Suite speakers including Michelle Tang, CMO, Digitas North America and she wrote a must-read article, “We Belong in the C-Suite” that reminds us to be bold enough to break stereotypes to make change happen. 

Bernice - you are heavily involved in nonprofits. How have these helped you cultivate a sense of purpose outside of work?

I believe in the power of using creativity for good. Whether that's giving the brands, I work on a real purpose to connect with their audience or paying it forward to my community. Outside of work, I feel It’s incredibly important to me to be involved in helping others and work with educational non-profits such as LightBringerProject, TEDxCulverCity, Speaking in schools, and mentor with many organizations MAIP, 3AF, APIA, ThinkLA, etc. 

Jessalin, as a Learning and Development Director and DEI Advocate - what progress have you seen across the industry in this space? What are the biggest areas you see where work needs to be done?

If we look at the silver lining, I’d say the progress I have seen is that people are finally listening and asking for the perspectives from the Asian community. We are being asked to speak up, get involved, and share our thoughts on what changes are needed or to create new initiatives/resources. Some great professional development examples that include Asians when it comes to progress are the legendary 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP), 3AF creating their first NextGen Leaders Mentorship program for Asians, APIA Scholars to mentor students, Women Who Create mentorship program, and organizations like Strong Training & Coaching’s BIPOC Scholarships for their Manager Essentials on-demand course. There is always room for improvement and the areas I would love to see more work getting done is not only recruiting Asians to organizations, but also retaining them with professional development opportunities, empowering them to use their voices, and putting Asians in leadership positions. 

Tell us about how you met. Was it an instant connection? 

Bernice: Jessalin and I met at an Ascend Leadership conference, she was an instant connector by introducing herself on Linkedin and setting time to connect over Zoom. Her passion for the D&I as well as carving a space for the AAPI community was infectious. I had the idea to create “Asians in Advertising” a few years ago and had the URL purchased and after just one Zoom call with her, I knew she would be the perfect person to work with to bring it to life.

Jessalin: After we connected from Ascend’s Asian Leaders in Marketing event in January 2021, it did feel like an instant connection after we set up a 1:1 video call. She is a passionate, creative, intelligent working mother, TEDx Talk speaker, and shares resources to junior talent in the industry. On top of all of that, she had told me she bought the domain asiansinadvertising.com and I told her to keep me updated with what she does with it. A few weeks later, she asked me to be the co-founder with her and I could not say no to the opportunity!  

You both recently launched Asians in Advertising. Tell us about what led you to founding it, what it’s all about and what some of your biggest learning moments have been so far since launching?

Bernice: The largest takeaway I’ve had since our launch is that there was a void in the advertising AAPI community. When we put up our Matchmaking event online I was expecting roughly 50 sign-ups, but we’re now over 600+ and we have added a third date. 

Jessalin: Once we made the announcement live to our networks on LinkedIn, it was incredible to see within days, over hundreds of people signed up to join the community. People were contacting us to thank us for creating this and that fuels us even more to keep building and growing Asians in Advertising. One of the biggest learning moments is to not wait for having all the answers and listen to your heart. We are still figuring it out as we go and we are so grateful for people reaching out asking how they could support and expressing interest in collaborating with us.  

What is your vision for Asians in Advertising?

Bernice: To see the AAPI community feel supported, seen, and have resources to navigate leveling up their career. We hope to get feedback from our events to see what talks would resonate with our audience. 

Jessalin: We would love to have our community be  a platform to amplify the voices of Asian talent and open opportunities for them. It is critical for us to have this community to stay connected, be seen, heard, and thrive together.

What is your hope for shaping the future of the industry? What are the biggest shifts you hope to see?

Bernice: I hope to see more diverse representation within the advertising agency at all levels, as well as the creative we put out. 

Jessalin: In addition to diverse leadership representation, it would be great to see more support from allies to unite and be educated in order to create the changes we need in this industry. And it would be great to see more organizations stay committed in the long-term with sustainable solutions. Silence is not acceptable and the moment is now to be part of the solution in shaping the future, even through trial and error. I hope to see leaders and organizations put the effort in creating a more inclusive industry.