Asian Women Making an Impact

Asian Women Making an Impact

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we are excited to bring together an amazing group of women as part of our speaker series, Asian Women Making an Impact. Please join us to hear from Abby Nguyen-Burke, Senior Vice President and Team Leader of Equity Alliance for Business at Eastern Bank; Priya Lane, BizGrow Director at Lawyers for Civil Rights; and Rokeya Chowdhury, Co-Founder of Shanti Restaurant, Dudley Cafe and Rooted In on March 26, 2025 at 6 pm at The Boston Foundation. This panel discussion will be moderated by Shirley Leung, columnist at The Boston Globe.

Listen, get inspired and network! Food and drinks will be provided.

Panelists Bios:

Abby Nguyen-Burke has over 22 years of business and community development experience in the Boston Metro area. She currently leads the Equity Alliance for Business program at Eastern Bank to further advance the growth of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Specifically for business owners who are women or people of color and all their intersectionality, including the LGBTQIA+, veterans and disabled communities.

Abby is first generation Vietnamese American. Growing up as a refugee, she prioritizes the importance of family and community, and she strives to make a meaningful and lasting impact in the community where she lives and works. Recently, she was named as of the 2022 40 Under 40 by the Boston Business Journal as well as one of the 2022 Emerging Leaders by the American Bankers Association. In early 2023 she was featured as one of 50 of Boston’s Most Influential Asian-American Pacific Islanders by Get Konnected.

In 2024, Abby served as Chair for the Policy Committee for the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA) National. In this role she helps to lead members from 45 chapters across the country as they gather in Washington D.C for the 2024 Diversity and Fair Housing Summit to lobby and advocate for AAPI Homeownership rights. Abby served as Chairperson for the AREAA Boston Chapter in 2021 and 2022. At Eastern, Abby has served as co-chair of the Asian American Professional Collective since 2012. She was formerly Board Chairperson and President of Quincy Asian Resources, Inc. for 12+ years, a volunteer teacher at Citizen Schools, Advisory Board member of Women of Means, a volunteer for VIETAID, and a volunteer for Dorchester House. Abby has been certified by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce with a Transformational DEI Certificate and is an alumna of The Boston Partnership. In 2014, she was named as one of the 40 under 40 by South Shore Stars, and in 2018 was named GK25 Boston’s 25 Most Influential Millennials of Color by Get Konnected.

Priya Lane, Esq., is the BizGrow Director at Lawyers for Civil Rights. BizGrow provides minority, immigrant, and women entrepreneurs with free legal assistance, technical support, and education. Priya helps close this opportunity gap. She provides aspiring or current business owners with the legal tools they need to succeed, helping them develop sustainable businesses and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Under Priya’s leadership, LCR | BizGrow has rebranded, grown exponentially, and is now serving over 2000 small businesses annually. Priya actively conducts legal clinics and workshops, provides one-on-one legal consultations, and matches businesses with pro bono attorneys. Priya’s work is regularly featured in publications such as Business West, the Worcester Business Journal, and the Boston Business Journal. Priya received the prestigious Beacon Award from the Boston Bar Association for her groundbreaking work providing free legal support to struggling small businesses at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has launched innovative culturally and linguistically accessible programming to help small business owners. She successfully created LCR’s flagship annual community event, the BizGrow Conference, which connects hundreds of entrepreneurs to free legal and technical support in a single day. In 2024, the BizGrow Conference celebrated its 8th year in Boston and launched its inaugural Springfield event. Priya also teaches entrepreneurship in collaboration with the Mel King Institute for Community Building and Cambridge College.

Rokeya Chowdhury is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in local business ownership. As the co-founder of the award-winning Shanti Restaurant and Dudley Cafe, she has created vibrant, inclusive spaces that serve as community hubs. She also co-founded Rooted In, a community-conscious dispensary dedicated to meaningful engagement, service, and shared prosperity. Through an innovative shared benefits model, Rooted In channels the revenue generated by cannabis ventures into building generational wealth for Boston families—particularly in communities of color. Every purchase with Rooted In contributes to a more just and equitable cannabis industry, empowering neighborhoods through financial success and social responsibility. Through her ventures, Rokeya is committed to celebrating diversity, empowering communities, and strengthening Boston’s neighborhoods.

Moderator: Shirley Leung

Shirley Leung is a Columnist and Associate Editor at the Boston Globe. She has written on everything from the intersection of business and politics to gender and diversity issues in the workplace. She has been a three-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary. In 2018, Boston Magazine named her to its list of the “100 Most Influential People in Boston.” Shirley is also a contributor to WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio” and “Greater Boston,” as well as a regular guest on New England Cable News. Previously, Shirley served as the Globe's interim editorial page editor. She also has been the Globe’s business editor, where she oversaw its award-winning coverage of the 2008 financial crisis. A graduate of Princeton University, she started her career at her hometown paper, The Baltimore Sun.

We are grateful to partner with the Asian Community Fund and Asian Business Empowerment Council on this event.

Event Venue

Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, United States