Kawen T. Young, co-founder and deputy director of Advocate Initiatives for Grassroots Access, has been selected by Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to serve on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population.

     As a member of the nine-person committee, the Gardena, Calif., resident will advise the Census Bureau on the new American Community Survey and ways to achieve a more accurate count of the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population in the 2010 Census.

     Young was an executive assistant and case manager for U.S. Rep. Eni F. H. Faleomavaega of American Samoa and worked for the National Office of Samoan Affairs in Carson, Calif. Young has extensive community and civic involvement, including board appointments to the International Lions Club, National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse, City of Long Beach Multi-Cultural Committee and the Southern California Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Town Hall Planning Committee.

     Five race and ethnic advisory committees — African-American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander — advise the Census Bureau on issues affecting minority populations. The committees are assembled from the public at large and representatives of national, state, local and tribal entities, as well as nonprofit and private sector organizations. Members of the committees are academicians, community leaders, policy makers and others interested in an accurate count for their communities.