TOFA honors 10 Fil-Ams to mark Int’l Men’s Day 2020

NEW YORK CITY—In celebration of November 19 as International Men’s Day 2020, The Outstanding Filipinos in America (TOFA) Awards honors 10 remarkable Filipino Americans who are role models in the United States and around the world.

Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia’s 3^rd congressional district is the highest-ranking Filipino American in politics, who serves as dean of the Democratic Party’s congressional delegation from Virginia.

Fashion Designer David Tupaz is honored every June 3^rd and December 13^th in Las Vegas for opening the city’s first couture atelier and has come to represent Nevada in major fashion events throughout the country

Elvin Laceda is a senior international student at Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii) who four years ago created RiceUp, a social enterprise that has empowered thousands of farmers in the Philippines, Cambodia, Samoa and Guatemala and paved the way for BYU-Hawaii’s three successive wins in the Enactus U.S. National Championship, besting more than 40 universities and colleges nationwide in social entrepreneurship since 2018.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning veteran journalist, radio-TV talk host/commentator and humorist, most famous for his syndicated column “Amok” which covers Asian American issues with wit, style and substance.

Dr. Joey Comiso is an emeritus scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, whose seminal work on diminishing sea ice has helped advance climate science.

Recognized as a leading authority on plant molecular evolution and genomics, Dr. Michael Purugganan is New York University’s Silver Professor of Biology and former Dean for Science, who has represented the US in international research collaborations.

A tried-and-true growth engineer to Fortune 500 and high-growth tech companies, Roland Ros is the founder of Kumu, a live streaming app used by some 5 million millennial and centennial Filipinos across 50 countries.

Sean Reyes won a second term as Attorney General of Utah in the recently concluded elections and as a long-time supporter of President Donald Trump, assists in the latter’s electoral protests across several states.

Chef Tom Cunanan is the culinary genius behind Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed Bad Saint restaurant, who won the 2019 James Beard Award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic.

Wesley So is a chess grandmaster who became the first official World Fischer Random Chess Champion in 2019 and is ranked Number 9 in the International Chess Federation’s Top 100 Players.