Want to contact Dale?
Email: dale@caaelii.org
Phone: 773-248-1019

Dale Asis, Executive Director

Dale is one of the co-founders of CAAAELII and has served as Director since its inception in 1997. Previously, he ttaught at Xiangtan University in Hunan, China and is the recent recipient of the Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation. He served as Co-Chair of the Grantmakers Concerned for Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), an affinity group of philanthropists concerned about immigrant and refugee issues. Mr. Asis also was Chair of the Education and Outreach Committee of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Immigrant and Refugee Advisory Council.

Dale was awarded the 2007 Chicago Community Trust Fellowship for Community Leaders. Dale plans to use his fellowship to create an ethnography of immigrant Chicago.  This broad-based portrait of Chicago’s immigrant community will give voice, Asis says, to people who are too often silent and invisible.  Asis hopes to use this report as a building block for action – including a comprehensive immigrant policy for the Chicago region.

The ethnographies will be a collection of direct, first-hand observations of community members and leaders and their daily behavior.  By conducting interviews and observing details of community life, Asis believes that his stories can illuminate ways that newcomers are integrated into Chicago communities.  The ethnographies will also reflect the changing attitudes of the nation regarding assimilation and integration.

The findings and final reports of Trust Fellows, including highlights of their experiences, new ideas and recommendations for the future, are presented annually at a Trust-hosted event.

More info:

• Leadership Talks Archive, Immigration Justice in the Post 9/11 Era - July 26, 2002
• Find out what Dale's been during his Fellowship Leave by clicking here.