Aryani ong
Board Member
The Asian American Foundation, Director of Anti-Hate & Belonging.
Aryani Ong is a Chinese-Indonesian American civil rights attorney, activist and consultant. She serves as Director, Anti-Hate and Belonging Program, at The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). Aryani wrote an early community response guide to hate crimes for OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates managed the publication of a national audit of anti-Asian violence and lobbied for stronger federal hate crime law for the AAAJ-Asian American Justice Center. She has spoken before diverse audiences, including as an invited U.S. expert before the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. She is Founder and President of Montgomery County Progressive Asian American Network and Senior Advisor to Communities United Against Hate.
Aryani also is a national leader who has spoken out to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of Asian Americans, who are susceptible to profiling during heightened conflict between the U.S. and their countries of origin. She co-founded the Asian American Federal Employees for Nondiscrimination to promotes equity reform as safeguards of these rights. Aryani also works upstream to prevent discrimination, providing community education on Asian Americans and advocating for improved media representation of Asian Americans. She has worked in immigration integration, promoting both ESOL as a workforce development strategy and civic participation. Aryani also is active in the political empowerment of Asian Americans at the local and national levels. Recently, she founded Asian American Mobilize, Organize, Vote, Empower (AAMOVE), in Maryland.
Leveraging 30 years of community involvement, Aryani has consulted with numerous organizations. She carried out landscape studies on Asian American community organizations for Harvard’s Civil Rights Project and the Urban Institute, where she also co-authored Advancing Equity for AAPI Communities. Aryani has trained in nonprofit management and board governance.
In her volunteer time, Aryani has served in leadership positions with numerous national and local boards. Currently she serves as a board member of Asian American Futures and the Asian American Action Fund. Aryani was named among Maryland's Top 100 Women.