Today we’re joined by Miriam Chan, who leads our People Excellence team in the US and founded our Miro Asian Community.
Hi! I’m Miriam Chan. I am from Texas and work out of Miro’s Los Angeles hub. In my free time, I enjoy discovering new books by writers of color, hiking in Griffith Park, and trying new restaurants in LA’s diverse food culture. I am a values-driven person, so it is important for me to be able to lead with grace, curiosity, and empathy. I began my Miro journey two years ago in April 2020 as the People Programs Manager. Now, I lead the People Excellence Team in the US and the Miro Asian Community (MAC). What inspires me the most about working in the People space, and at Miro, is that we’re able to have a positive impact on people’s lives.
How our Miro Asian Community started
Founded in June 2020, the Miro Asian Community (MAC) aims to create an open, supportive, and safe community to share stories and experiences, learn from other Asian Mironeers, and explore professional development opportunities. We also aim to create awareness across Miro and invite our fellow Mironeers to some of our events. MAC now has over a hundred members across the globe!
Annually, MAC celebrates Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Asian Heritage Month through events, internal communications, and cause campaigns. In the last year, MAC helped raise over $18K for causes that help end anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate, provide COVID-19 relief in India, and help save endangered tigers and other big cats in Asia for the year of the tiger.
Some of our other initiatives and programs include bi-monthly meetings, social events, and community lunches and dinners in our local hubs. In the past, MAC hosted a virtual tai chi event, dumpling-making classes, and a virtual tour of Jaipur, known as The Royal City of India. Most recently, we hosted a karaoke night in Amsterdam. We also collaborate and organize activities with other employee resource groups (ERGs) at the company. For example, we recently co-hosted a community lunch with Miro’s Black Excellence ERG.
As an Asian American, it’s really important for me to see different representations in leadership in the workplace,” says JC Silverman, Workplace Manager for Miro’s Austin hub and MAC member, noting a 2019 study from Society for Human Resources Management. Their report shows that Asian and Asian-American board members make up just 8% of board member roles in Fortune 500 companies. “By having a diverse workplace, we can help turn the tide and make an impact by allowing everyone to have a seat at the table and inspire others to follow in the same footsteps.
Celebrating Asian Heritage Month
Two milestones in Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ history happened in May, which inspired the month’s designation as Asian Heritage Month: The first Japanese immigrant arrived in the United States and the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Last year, Miro officially celebrated the month for the first time with a slate of organized activities, including a fireside chat about being Asian in the workplace.
Honoring a mosaic of experiences during Miro 2022 Asian Heritage Month
To celebrate Asian Heritage Month this year, MAC came up with the theme of Mosaic to represent all of the cultures that make up Asia and contribute to the collective Asian experience. Asia is the largest continent in the world, composed of a vast array of countries and people with their own unique cultures, traditions, and histories. Moreover, the Asian identity is not limited to continental Asia. With migrations to other parts of the world from Asia, there are people with Indo-Caribbean identities, Latinasian identities, Sino-African identities, and so on and so forth, that make up the rich, complex Asian diaspora.
This month, we’re celebrating the diversity within the Asian diaspora by centering on the distinctive voices and stories of our people. MAC created a Miro board with a map of Asia that our fellow Mironeers can interact with and learn more about the many countries that make up the continent. At the beginning of the month, we hosted a community lunch with Filipino food from Petite Peso in our Los Angeles hub and dinner in Austin at Kemuri Tatsu-ya; we shared both meals with Miro’s Black Excellence ERG.
To take care of our community’s well-being, we hired career and leadership coach Michelle Yu to host a special session on burnout in the workplace, addressing the particular experiences associated with our Asian heritage. In this session, members learned tips and action steps to prevent burnout.
Being part of the Miro Asian Community
There are many benefits of being part of the Miro Asian Community
As a woman and person of color, as well as someone still growing in my career, it can be really intimidating to try to get your foot in the door within a homogenous male-dominated workplace,” says JC Silverman. “Seeing women and other Asians taking leadership roles truly inspires me to work harder and earn my seat at the table. If they can do it, I can, too.
For me personally, founding and being part of the Miro Asian Community has helped me find belonging and a sense of community at Miro as well as given me the opportunity to learn from others.
