[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 13 (Tuesday, January 27, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING MS. ABHA PANDYA

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 27, 2015

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ms. Abha Pandya, who 
is retiring at the end of this month from the position of Chief 
Executive Officer of Asian Human Services, Inc. (AHS) after 20 years in 
leadership at the organization. AHS is Chicago's largest social service 
agency serving the needs of the pan-Asian and other immigrant and 
underserved communities residing in metropolitan Chicago. Ms. Pandya 
joined AHS in June 1994 as the Executive Director, and in 2004 she 
became the Chief Executive Officer. In 1994, AHS had a staff of six 
employees and a budget of $294,000. Under Ms. Pandya's leadership, AHS 
has grown nearly 40 fold--having a budget of approximately $15 million 
in fiscal year 2015, and a staff of 115 full-time employees.
  Ms. Pandya is a truly remarkable leader. She always completed what 
she set out to do, including big projects that are important to the 
community, such as opening several Federally Qualified Health Care 
Clinics, providing dental services to the community, and opening 
education and job training centers. I attended many wonderful ribbon 
cuttings of AHS projects under Ms. Pandya's leadership.
  AHS is a multilingual, functionally diverse, not-for-profit social 
service agency that provides direct services to over 27,000 clients a 
year. Its excellent staff speaks 24 languages and includes people of 
different ages, genders, ethnicities and races.
  Under Ms. Pandya's leadership, AHS opened Illinois' first federally-
funded primary care and dental clinic to provide linguistically and 
culturally appropriate clinical services to Asian immigrants and 
others; a comprehensive mental health program, the only state-funded 
program for the Asian community in Illinois; a large community health 
education and prevention program; an extensive family literacy program; 
and a job training and placement program. In 2011, AHS received $2.8 
million in capital funds from the state and federal governments to 
start an expanded primary care and dental clinic, and the new clinic 
became fully operational on September 3, 2013. In 2014 AHS received 
federal funding to establish an additional primary care clinic in my 
district, in Skokie, Illinois.
  AHS will be naming one of their clinics the ``Abha Pandya's Family 
Health Center'' to honor her contributions. It is an extremely well-
deserved honor.
  Ms. Pandya has advocated extensively at the federal, state and city 
levels on behalf of Asian and other immigrant and refugee communities 
in Chicago for a more equitable distribution of resources, greater 
access, and linguistically appropriate services. She has served on the 
Governor's Multicultural Services Committee, and on the Board of 
Directors of the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs, the Coalition of 
Limited English Speaking Elderly, the metropolitan Board of the United 
Way of Chicago and the Chicago Council of the United Way.
  Ms. Pandya received a B.A. with honors from Elphinstone College, 
University of Bombay, and a master's degree with distinction from the 
University of Delhi, and an M.S. in journalism from Boston University. 
She will be spending time with her family, including her grandchildren, 
in California. I thank Ms. Pandya for her leadership and service. I 
will miss working with her in her leadership role at AHS, but I know 
she will continue to look for ways to serve our community.

                          ____________________