Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Event Details
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Time: 6:30PM - 8:30PM CT
Venue: The Blind Goat, 8145 Long Point Rd, Houston, TX 77055
Admission: Members: $20 I Non-Members: $30
Agenda
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM : Welcome, Introductions, and food served
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM : Fireside Chat and Q&A
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM : Closing and networking
Description:
Ascend Houston is thrilled to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month by showcasing two incredible trailblazers who have exhibited success in their respective careers. We’ll have a fireside chat with Christine Há, the Season 3 winner of MasterChef and owner/chef of The Blind Goat, and Rose-Ann Aragon, the Emmy award-winning Filipina American storyteller who leads innovation storytelling and strategy at Microsoft. They will share their inspiring journeys and discuss how their heritage and leadership style have influenced their successful careers.
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We are honored to host this exclusive event at Blind Goat, Christine’s newest restaurant, to enjoy chef selected dishes. Please register by May 17th, 2023 to reserve your spot.
Speakers

Rose-Ann Aragon
Innovation Storytelling Communications Manager
Microsoft
Rose-Ann Aragon is a proud Emmy award-winning Filipina American storyteller with a firm belief in the power of storytelling. She graduated summa cum laude at Illinois for Broadcast Journalism. Working for Microsoft as an Innovation Storytelling Communications Manager, Rose-Ann’s work and purpose resonates with the tech company’s overall mission: to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Rose-Ann and her team lead innovation storytelling and strategy at Microsoft. Inclusion and trust are pillars of their work. Rose-Ann believes there is no single path to building, strengthening and empowering a community: voices and stories can create the ripples of change. She is currently leading Microsoft’s programming for Level Up, a local program dedicated to improving inclusion, equity, and increasing diverse representation in tech, focusing on student development and mentorship. Rose-Ann creates storytelling and public speaking workshops to empower student voices. On behalf of Microsoft, she is also programming for ColorComm, the nation’s leading women’s platform addressing D&I across communications and media.
Rose-Ann was previously KPRC2’s Space Reporter and led KPRC's committee dedicated to increasing diverse and community-driven storytelling. As a multimedia journalist and fill-in anchor, Rose-Ann pursued stories from all walks of life, inspiring hope and humanity. She led her own award-winning series on education and safety and told stories from all over the world: live NASA rocket launches, the Tokyo Winter Olympics in Japan, the Astros’ journeys to the World Series, and sitting down with a U.S. president on immigration. Her reporting was awarded a Telly, Lone Star, Edward R. Murrow, and Emmy award.
Rose-Ann loves Texas and enjoys serving however she can. She leads workshops, moderates and emcees for non-profits like APAHA, HOPE Clinic, Big Brothers Big Sisters, PACCTX and others. Rose-Ann is an advisor and former Programming Director of UniPro Texas, founding its core Lumikha arts storytelling event. Before coming to Texas, she co-founded UniPro Chicago and co-directed FACT, the Midwest’s largest Fil-Am collegiate conference. She is proud to call Texas home.

Christine Há
Owner and Chef
The Blind Goat
Christine Ha is the blind cook who won “MasterChef" season 3 with Gordon Ramsay. Her cookbook, Recipes from My Home Kitchen, was a New York Times best-seller. Christine holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Creative Writing Program at University of Houston and a Bachelor of Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. Christine’s first restaurant in Houston, The Blind Goat, was named a semi-finalist for 2020 Best New Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation. Her second restaurant, Xin Chào, opened in September 2020, and Christine was again named one of the James Beard Award 2022 finalists for Best Chef, Texas region, and an Outstanding Chef semi-finalist in 2023.
We strongly encourage all guests to be vaccinated and to wear masks during our events when they are not actively eating or drinking. We request that attendees take a Covid test before they attend our events and that they not attend an event should they test positive or if they experience Covid symptoms prior to the event.