Tony Ahhing
Board Member
As an undergraduate at UCLA, Tony was a seminal member in founding the Pacific Islands’ Students Association (PISA), focused on community service, political activism and identifying and expanding access to higher education. After earning a Political Science degree, he served as an advisor to the PISA group while working professionally as a Student Affairs Officer for UCLA’s College of Letters and Science, counseling undergraduates and coordinating new student workshops aimed at acclimating students to the university setting and achieving academic success.
Tony was amongst the earliest group of individuals to become a Leadership Fellow of NAPALI (National Pacific American Leadership Institute) a program using culturally relevant paradigms to inform leadership development.
After nearly thirteen years engaged in service work and working in Academia; and feeling that significant headway had been made in providing access to higher education, he transitioned into the private sector, believing the next step in the successful evolution and advancement of Pacific Island communities was rooted in attaining financial acumen and expertise. He became a dually licensed (insurance and securities) broker/agent with World Group Securities, now known as Transamerica Financial Services, concentrating on providing financial education and building a strong economic infrastructure for Pacific communities.
Tony currently works in the employee benefits space. He fills the dual role of Regional Manager, overseeing an office that processes pension claims for the largest Taft-Hartley (Labor/Management) Multi-Employer Pension Trust Fund in the country, as well as providing account management, in his capacity as a Senior Account Executive, for various other Taft-Hartley benefit funds including health & welfare trust funds and training trusts.
Tony is excited and impassioned about being an EPIC board member and integrating professional skills and knowledge acquired in the private sector to enhance and positively impact the community service work being done by EPIC.