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HELEN T. CHANG

          Ms. Helen Chang is the Director of International Affairs and Economic Development of the office of the Mayor, City of Houston, Texas, and has been an executive assistant to the Mayor since 1992. She was the first Asian to serve on a Houston Mayor's transition team and as executive assistant to the Mayor. In her current position, she serves as liaison for the Mayor on issues and concerns affecting the Asian community, organizes Asian community-based events, works extensively in promoting commercial and cultural cooperation between the city of Houston and Asia-Pacific region, and many other activities that involve community and international trade and business development.

          Prior to her present position, Ms. Chang was a member of the Advisory Council on Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC, and also a member of Texas Statewide Health Coordinating Council (1990-1993). Ms. Chang was a television anchorperson of Southern Chinese T.V. for three years (1988-1991). She was an administrative associate at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, for almost twenty-two years. Prior to that, Ms. Chang worked as a research statistician at the University of Washington, Seattle, and as an instructor at the Institute of Business Administration, Republic of China , Taiwan . She received her B.A. degree from National Chung Hsing University, and an MBA from Auburn University, Alabama.

          Ms. Chang is involved in various community, business, and political organizations. She is a member of the International Trade Committee of Greater Houston Partnership, the Organization of Women in International Trade-Houston, the E.B. Cape Center Senior Professional Development Committee, the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations, and others. She was the founder and honorary chair of the U.S. Asian Business Partnership, chair of the Asian-American Heritage Association of Houston, national chair of the International Distinguished Citizens Association, and president of the Chinese Women's Business Association. Currently, she is the chairperson of the US-China Technology and Culture Center as well as the publisher of World Business Journal.

          Ms. Chang is the president of the Asian-American Voters' Coalition, national chair of the National Republican Asian Assembly, advisor to the Texas Asian Republic Caucus, and chair of the Asia Advisory Board for Senator Buster Brown. She was a national board member of the Bob Dole for President campaign, co-chairman of the steering committee of the Texas Bush/Quayle campaign, and a member of the steering committee for the Kay Bailey Hutchinson for U.S. Senate campaign. Ms. Chang has also been involved in various local and state level political organizations and activities.

          Ms. Chang has received numerous awards and recognitions. Among those are: Honorary Citizen, City of Dalian, China (1997), International Leaders in Achievement (1995), International Who's Who of Professional and Business Women (1995), Five Hundred Leaders of Influence (1995), Who's Who Among Asian Americans (1994-95), and International Directory of Distinguished Leadership (1994). Ms. Chang was an advisory professor to Tongji University, Shanghai, China (2002), and a visiting professor at Nankai University, Tianjin, China (1998), and Dalian University of Technology, China (1997). She has been an honorary commissioner of the Texas Agriculture Department, an agriculture ambassador for the Texas Senate Natural Resource Committee, and a trade consultant for the Texas Senate Agriculture Committee.

          In 1994, the July issue of the Asian Women Magazine published her picture on the cover page, and in the same year she was also on a TV special feature program by the U.S. Information Agency. At present, she is appointed an honorary international trade and economic development advisor to various organizations, including the Jianyin Economic and Development Zone, the Dalian Economic and Technological Zone, the China Chamber of International Commerce, the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, the Shenyang Municipal Government, the Dalian Municipal Government, the Liaoning Province Construction Consortium Group, and the Guangdong Province Economic and Enterprises Association.

          Contact address: City of Houston, Office of the Mayor, 901 Bagby, 4th Floor, Houston, TX 77002.