Christina Lee hosts Korean Beacons Weekly Monday Mashup highlighting some of the weekly headlines in Korean American news.

This week, January 4, 2009 we cover:

Korean Beacon 2009 Top 10 List: #2 – Euguene Kang and The Koh Brothers
Korean Beacon 2009 Top 10 List: #1 – Michelle Rhee and Kim Jim Yong

Send comments to: beacon@koreanbeacon.com

Just because it’s 2010, it doesn’t mean our top ten countdown ended for most influential Korean-Americans of 2009. Please excuse us for the past week’s hiatus as the whole staff was out west escaping the arctic weather, but we’re back and so is our countdown. Obama becoming the first minority President of the United States was not only symbolic but it also caused ripples across the political spectrum. Obama’s entry into the White House will undoubtedly stir up ambitions for Korean-Americans and minorities to pursue politics and that’s why we’ve chosen to group Eugene Kang and the Koh Brothers as the second most influential Korean-Americans of 2009. They are the face of the changing political spectrum for Koreans and though they may not actually be in elected positions, they are influential nonetheless, more than we may know. Eugene Kang is a special projects coordinator and direct assistant to President Obama and when you’re with the “prez” every day and have access to him, you’re going to be doing some influencing. How many of you have a direct line to Obama? Not many people out there do. Eugene also represents the influence of youth in an arena where gray hairs have ruled politics.

We’ve also grouped the Koh brothers, Harold and Howard, with Eugene and their influence.  They may be two of the most powerful brothers in America, this according to the Wall Street Journal.  Harold is the former dean of Yale Law School who is now the top lawyer at the state department which means he will be very influential in how the U.S. interprets international law. Harold’s brother Howard is currently the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health for the Department of Health and Human Services and advises the administration on healthcare policies and practices for the country, and we all know about the heated debates over healthcare reform. There are other Korean-Americans who should be named in this grouping, but these three are the faces of today’s politics and they are all in positions to influence policy and law. More importantly, they’re blazing a path for other Korean-Americans to consider a life in politics.

Who’s the latest power siblings to storm Washington D.C.?  Harold Koh and Howard Koh just took up residence in the District of Columbia last month and they are paving the way for more Korean-Americans into politics.  In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, there was a feature on the Koh brothers and their rise to prominence.  Harold Koh, former dean of Yale Law School and now top lawyer at the State Department, and Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, both were confirmed by the Senate late last month.

Their’s is a simple but common story that we all know very well:  Korean-American immigrant family instilling a work ethic and a super strong focus on education.  They are truly living the American dream; they just happened to have an earlier start than most Korean-Americans.  Their story is symbollic of the stories that Korean Beacon tries to share and it makes the staff here even more excited about Korean Beacon.  We are finally at a point in time where there are so many Korean-Americans who are really emerging and making a difference in the U.S.  Why now?  It’s because there’s a whole generation of Korean-Americans who have been educated or have made investments in themselves and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor.  What’s amazing is that we find a story of a Korean-American who is doing something very interesting almost every single day, and we know we’re missing a whole lot of other stories.

The Koh brothers are symbollic of the many Korean-American lives out there.  Their parents arrived in the United States when they were very young.   Through diligence and perseverance, they focused on education as a a path to something greater, but with this understanding from their parents:

“I guess like any immigrant parents they wanted their kids to succeed in this new country,” says Howard Koh, 57 years old, who was previously a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. His parents’ mantra, he says, was, “It’s one thing to get a great education and do well in school, but it’s not important if you can’t ultimately use it to help other people.”

The Koh’s are paving a way for more Korean-Americans into politics.  There are others like Sam Yoon who’s running for Boston mayor; PJ Kim and Kevin Kim running for council seats in New York; and Eugene Kang who’s in the inner circle of President Obama.  There are many more Korean-Americans who are trying to make inroads into politics, and it’s exciting for all of us to see them try and succeed.  This is another story of the American dream.

Who’s the most powerful Korean-American family in U.S. politics today?  The person closest to President Obama is Eugene Kang, but the most powerful Korean-American family is the Koh brothers: Meet Harold and Howard Koh.

Howard Koh was recently nominatd to be assistant health secretary for the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and he’s the brother of another Obama nominee: Harold Hongju Koh, the nominee to be the top lawer for the State Department.  Harold has also been mentioned most recently as a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, which would make him the very first Asian-American to be nominated for the highest judicial seat in the land.  I’m sure there’s also some sibling rivalry because Harold is the dean of Yale Law School and Howard is the director of the Harvard School of Public Health.  

They are two of six children and we can only imagine what the other four kids are doing.  They were born of Korean immigrants who’s parents were the first Asian professors at Yale.  I guess you can say that they stressed education in that household.  Hopefully both will get through the nomination process.

Washington has tapped an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health to serve as the second-highest health official in the country.

Howard K. Koh will manage the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health as assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, President Obama announced in his nomination Wednesday.