ALEX ENG, a second generation Chinese American was born and raised in San Francisco. He eventually settled in Sacramento with his wife Joyce and three daughters in October 1971. A career graphic designer, he worked for several state agencies and retired in August 2004 after 34 years of service.
Current Service
As a volunteer for the Asian Community Center, Alex serves with ACC Rides, the transportation service for seniors and the disabled. From November 2015 to June 2016, Alex served on the Board of Directors of the Ombudsman Services of Northern California (OSNC); he serves as its vice president. Previously he was appointed to the Sacramento County’s Adult and Aging Commission (AAC) in August 2009 and continues to serve on this commission. During his service on the AAC Alex was its chair from 2014-2015. While on the AAC he also chaired and coordinated the Community Housing and Services Coalition (CHSC), a partnership of the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD and the AAC) that hosts an informational forum for senior related issues.
In addition to his responsibilities on the OSNC, AAC and CHSC, Alex serves on the boards of several community nonprofit organizations including the Lions Clubs International, District 4-C5 Cabinet as its Community and Government Liaison Committee Chair; and the Chinese American Council of Sacramento. He attends meetings of the Greater Sacramento Task Force on Hate Crimes, the Sacramento Region Historical Consortium, and the Sacramento Grand Jury Alumni Association. He is also chair of the Senior Outreach Committee of CAPITAL (Council of Asian Pacific Islanders for Advocacy and Leadership), providing input regarding senior resources.
Other Community Service
Alex has also served the community in a number of other capacities. In September 2004, Alex was appointed by then County Supervisor Illa Collin (District 2) to the Sacramento County Project Planning Commission. In addition to his duties as commissioner, he participated in the selection of Design Guidelines Committee and attended meetings for the County’s General Plan update.
Alex served a term on the Sacramento County 2005-2006 Grand Jury; and from 2005-2007 he served on the Board of Directors of the Lambda Letters Project and Foundation, which generated support from the community by writing letters and sending emails to elected officials for legislation involving HIV, LGBTI, people of color, women, and economic Justice.
He was a member of the Community Advisory Committee to the Sacramento Police Department’s Traffic Stop Data Collection Program, a survey to ascertain if racial profiling was practiced in the SPD. Later on the Sacramento City Racial Profiling Commission was established in 2005; he was appointed to this advisory body, representing District 7.
Alex participated at meetings and workshops hosted by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), and the Rescue and Recovery program (human trafficking) on behalf of Asian Pacific Community Counseling. He also served on the found board of the Sacramento FBI Bureau’s Citizens Academy Alumni Association; and is past president and continuing member of Lions International, Embarcadero Lions Club (District 4C-5) since 1998.
Service in the Asian Pacific Islander Community
Alex first became involved in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Community in the 1990s when he was elected to the board of directors for the Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center.
Shortly thereafter he joined the board of directors of the Chinese American Council of Sacramento (CACS) and became its president from January 1998 through December 2000. The late Frank Fat established CACS as the voice of Sacramento’s Chinese American Community in the early1980s; it was to become very involved in civil rights, and was engaged in supporting anti-hate movements after the fire bombings and arson of the Jewish synagogues in the late1990s and other subsequent discriminatory incidents.
In 2001 Alex joined the board of the Asian Pacific State Employees Association and served a term as its president in 2003/04, continuing its focus to eliminate the glass ceiling in workplaces, to promote upward mobility for API State Employees.
During this same period Alex served concurrently on the board of the Sacramento Chinese Culture Foundation, as Vice President and SCCF representative on Sacramento County’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Locke project; which established the Locke Management Association (LMA) and Locke Foundation (LF). Alex served as Chair of the LMA/LF in 2006 and is a docent, dedicated to preserving its Chinese culture and maintaining its historical status on the Federal Registry of Historical Places.
From 2006 to 2009 Alex served on Publicity Committee on the board of Asian Pacific Community Counseling, a nonprofit outreach organization that provides mental health services to more than five different Asian communities.
In 2009 while serving as Vice President of Education on the board of the Greater Sacramento Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans (a national Pan-Asian organization “dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States,”) he chaired/coordinated an anti-hate crimes forum,“Youth Against the Hate.” This partnership with OCA, Sacramento City Unified School District, and Asian Resources Inc.’s youth council, YouthRise was very successful in engaging youth with the efforts of OCA.