WASHINGTON – Decades after being labeled the “model minority,” Asian Americans struggle with a stereotype that obscures significant socioeconomic, education, and health disparities within a group made up of more than 30 ethnicities in the U.S.

For Kiran Ahuja, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), communicating an accurate picture of Asian American diversity to policymakers across the federal government represents a fundamental task of the office she has been leading since this past November.

“It’s our job to make sure our colleagues have a good understanding of the unique issues that impact our community and how diverse we are,” Ahuja said during an interview at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters. “All Asian Americans are not doing well.”

Fighting against fiction goes with the territory, said Ahuja, who spends much of her time directing efforts to disaggregate data that give an incomplete picture of the more than 13 million Americans of AAPI heritage. She also reports to a 20-person commission that advises President Barack Obama on AAPI issues, which includes Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as co-chairs.

The Obama administration appointed Ahuja, who is Indian American, to her position after the president signed an executive order re-establishing the office, fulfilling a campaign commitment to increase the AAPI community’s visibility, access to, and participation in federal programs and services.

Originally established under the Clinton administration, the AAPI White House Initiative set out to improve the lives of AAPIs through coordination of leadership across federal agencies. While there was an AAPI business initiative in place at the Commerce Department, the Education Department-based initiative was inactive during the George W. Bush administration.

Asian Diversity

While established groups such as Japanese, Asian Indian, and Korean Americans show high levels of education and social mobility in national statistics, recently immigrated or refugee groups like Cambodians, Laotians, and Filipinos often do not share those same experiences.