Newsroom Archive

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today the establishment of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations and has named Neel Saxena as a member of the committee.

The National Advisory Committee will advise the Census Bureau on a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau's programs and surveys, including the once-a-decade census. The committee, which is comprised of 32 members from multiple disciplines, will advise the Census Bureau on topics such as housing, children, youth, poverty, privacy, race and ethnicity, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other populations.

“We expect that the expertise of this committee will help us meet emerging challenges the Census Bureau faces in producing statistics about our diverse nation,” said Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director. “By helping us better understand a variety of issues that affect statistical measurement, this committee will help ensure that the Census Bureau continues to provide relevant and timely statistics used by federal, state and local governments as well as business and industry in an increasingly technologically oriented society.”

The National Advisory Committee members, who serve at the discretion of the Census Bureau director, are chosen to serve based on expertise and knowledge of the cultural patterns, issues and/or statistical needs of hard-to-count populations.

Neel Saxena serves as the language access coordinator for the District of Columbia mayor's office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs. He has more than eight years of developing and implementing language access programming in the District. He spearheaded the creation of the Asian and Pacific Islander Taskforce on Education, with a goal to strengthen and enhance our youth's future by building a strong collaboration between D.C. Public Schools, Asian-American and Pacific Islander organizations and parents. Saxena plans, promotes and coordinates multicultural education programs for D.C. agencies in understanding the Asian-American and Pacific Islander demographics as well as the needs of the community. He evaluates the needs of various Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic communities and provides community needs assessments and recommendations to D.C. agencies for service inclusion and improvement. Saxena also manages the mayor's AAPI Community Grant that provides funds to community-based organizations for direct supplemental government programs and services to D.C. residents. He is highly committed to the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community and seeks to tie data with advocacy and direct service for better understanding of, and increased and appropriate service to, Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.