WASHINGTON– President-elect Barack Obama named three Asian Americans to his Transition Team, a move hailed by many community leaders, who also congratulated Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on their victory.

Obama appointed Indian American Sonal Shah, Google Foundation director, Global Economic Development, and also former APIAVote board member, to the Transition Advisory Board.

Peter Rouse, who is Japanese American, was appointed Co-Chair of the Transition Team. Rouse was Obama’s chief of staff in the senate. Chris Lu, a Chinese American, and Obama’s legislative director in the senate, was named as Transition Executive Director.

“We are extremely proud of Sonal and other Asian Americans who have been named on the Transition Team,” said APIAVote Executive Director Vida Benavides. “With her background as an economist, Sonal’s appointment is indicative of the talent and expertise needed to guide us through these hard economic and financial crises.”

Remarked APIAVote board member Doua Thor: “Sonal’s appointment should only be just the beginning. We have high hopes for the incoming Obama-Biden administration and Congress, and intend to work closely with both so that they continue to be more inclusive of Asian American and Pacific Islanders throughout the transition process and into appointments and hiring of staff.”

“Having a diverse staff which includes AAPIs at all levels will help ensure that AAPI issues and concerns are sufficiently addressed in the policy agendas of President-elect Obama and the new Congress,” added APIAVote board co-chair EunSook Lee.

“We urge the Obama-Biden Transition Team to recruit and seek diverse candidates that also reflect President-elect Obama’s experiences,” said APIAVote board co-chair Noe Kalipi.

Asian Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) is a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the electoral and public policy processes at the national, state and local levels. APIAVote does not endorse parties or candidates. For more information, please visit www.apiavote.org

APIAVote’s presence to turn out the vote in key states like Nevada, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, and Washington was instrumental in turning out the AAPI vote on Nov. 4. National polling shows that among AAPIs, 62 percent voted for Obama, and 35 percent voted for Senator John McCain (R, AZ).

APIAVote worked to get out and protect the AAPI vote with over 30 partner organizations and coalition partners in Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida.

“We want to especially thank Obama AAPI Vote Director Charmaine Manansala and AAPI Vote Deputy Director Betsy Kim, as well as McCain AAPI Outreach Directors Peter Su and Kishan Putta, for their instrumental roles in each of these campaigns,” said Benavides.

She added: “We encourage national parties and campaigns to continue to strengthen and expand their AAPI outreach. The National Asian American Survey showed that only 27 percent of undecided AAPI voters were contacted by the campaigns, meaning that campaigns have more work to do to engage AAPI communities.”