About Us

Susan Au Allen is the National President & CEO of the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation (USPAACC), a national nonprofit and nonpartisan organization founded in 1984 to serve as a unifying voice for the diverse Pan Asian American business community. The name “Pan Asian American” was selected to reflect the organization’s inclusivity. Like a frying pan, it encompasses communities from the Pacific Rim, East, South, and Southeast Asia, Native Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands.

Susan compares USPAACC’s journey to a tiny acorn that has grown into a sturdy oak tree, with strong roots anchoring it to the communities it serves and wide branches reaching thousands of small businesses, Pan Asian American businesses, and professionals across the United States, Asia-Pacific, and Indian Subcontinent regions.

Susan received her Juris Doctor from the Antioch School of Law and her LL.M. in International Law from Georgetown University. During her 17 years with Paul Shearman Allen & Associates in Washington, DC and Hong Kong, she became nationally recognized for her work in immigration, international trade, and investment. She also developed extensive knowledge of the history and experiences of East, South, and Southeast Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

After earning her law degree in 1984, Susan founded USPAACC with business and civic leaders in Washington, DC and California to bring Pan Asian American businesses and professionals together as one unified voice in business, commerce, and trade.

A longtime advocate for small businesses before Congress, the Executive Branch, corporate America, and the media, Susan was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, where she served from 1991 to 1996. In 2021, she was appointed Vice Chair of the Federal Communications Commission’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council, supporting efforts to expand equitable access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet in underserved and unserved communities.

Susan has appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, ABC, CNBC, Fox News, and other national media outlets to discuss women in business, Asian American businesses, and US-Asia trade and commerce. Her extensive public and private sector service has included national councils, advisory committees, and boards supporting small businesses, women entrepreneurs, transportation, workforce development, communications access, and economic opportunity. She has also contributed opinion articles to USA Today, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, AsianWeek, and Asian Fortune.

Under Susan’s leadership, USPAACC has become an industry thought leader with a proven record of innovative business development programs, including Business Matchmaking, the Chief Procurement Officers Forum, technology leadership forums, What’s Your Pitch Innovation Competition, Business Express: ReadySetGrow, and WISE.

Susan was also the first person to bring Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, White, women, disability, LGBT, and veteran business communities together in one room to advance collaboration and improve business opportunities on a level playing field for all.