• News & Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • Atlanta After Dark
    • Atlanta 500
    • Groundbreakers
    • Women Making a Mark
  • Food & Drink
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 50 Best Bars
    • Best Barbecue
    • Best Breakfast
  • Home
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Real Estate All-Stars
    • Sponsored: Preferred HOME Partner
  • Life & Style
    • Style
    • School Guide
    • Health & Wellness
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles
    • Buckhead Guidebook
  • Travel
    • Southbound
    • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
    • Hidden Georgia
    • North Georgia Mountains
    • Great Georgia Hikes
    • Jekyll Island
    • Georgia Travel Guide
  • Best of ATL
    • Eat
    • Drink
    • See
    • Do
    • Buy
    • Readers’ Choice
  • Magazine
    • Subscription Center
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Pitch Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Give Atlanta
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
      • Atlanta Baby and Beyond
      • Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2019
      • DINES: A Taste of the City’s Best Restaurants
      • 2019 Modern Style Showhome
      • Best Burger Battle
      • Pinewood Forest Idea Home
      • 2018 Modern Style Showhouses
    • Event Photos
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Sign up
Welcome!Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Atlanta 500
  • Give Atlanta
  • Georgia Design Awards 2022
  • Atlanta Summer Guide 2022
  • GaBiz Magazine
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Create an account
Welcome! Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
  • News & Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • Atlanta After Dark
    • Atlanta 500
    • Groundbreakers
    • Women Making a Mark
  • Food & Drink
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 50 Best Bars
    • Best Barbecue
    • Best Breakfast
  • Home
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Real Estate All-Stars
    • Sponsored: Preferred HOME Partner
  • Life & Style
    • Style
    • School Guide
    • Health & Wellness
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles
    • Buckhead Guidebook
  • Travel
    • Southbound
    • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
    • Hidden Georgia
    • North Georgia Mountains
    • Great Georgia Hikes
    • Jekyll Island
    • Georgia Travel Guide
  • Best of ATL
    • Eat
    • Drink
    • See
    • Do
    • Buy
    • Readers’ Choice
  • Magazine
    • Subscription Center
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Pitch Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Give Atlanta
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
      • Atlanta Baby and Beyond
      • Atlanta Magazine Whiskey Festival 2019
      • DINES: A Taste of the City’s Best Restaurants
      • 2019 Modern Style Showhome
      • Best Burger Battle
      • Pinewood Forest Idea Home
      • 2018 Modern Style Showhouses
    • Event Photos
Home Women Making A Mark Helen Ho
Custom Publication

Helen Ho

She gives a voice to the region’s Asian American community
By
Kelly Skinner
-
June 4, 2015
1283

WMM_Helen-Ho_web“When coming to America, nobody sits you down and tells you about the struggle, loss of identity, and change in status you may face,” says Helen Ho, the forty-four-year-old founder and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta (formerly the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center).

She should know. Ho immigrated to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, when she was four. She says she wasn’t prepared for the difficulties she faced, but her parents helped her with the transition by emphasizing faith and hard work.

Ho went to Emory Law School, then moved to Houston, where she helped at a volunteer-led Asian law center. “It was clear I had found my passion,” she says.

When work caused her to move to Atlanta in 2006, Ho discovered her new hometown didn’t have organizations like the one she’d left behind. In 2010, she founded the first nonprofit law center dedicated to Asian immigrants and refugees in the Southeast. The center does everything from spearhead voter registration drives to provide information on immigration laws.

Beyond her work with the center, Ho is on the advisory council of El Refugio, a nonprofit that assists the families and friends of immigrants detained at the Stewart Detention Center. She’s also a founding board member of both NewPowerPAC and the Korean American Bar Association of Georgia. “My dad always said he wanted me to be a big tree that provides shade for a lot of people,” Ho says. No doubt she has made him proud.

Words of Wisdom

Advertisement
  • TAGS
  • El Refugio
  • Helen Ho
  • Korean American Bar Association
  • NewPowerPAC
  • Women Making A Mark 2015
  • Women Making A Mark
  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Kelundra Smith

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Wake Up Atlanta Kavi Vu Phi Nguyen

“Wake Up Atlanta” How Kavi Vu and Phi Nguyen use Facebook to get Asian American Atlantans engaged in politics

Follow Us

67,614FansLike
126,739FollowersFollow
493,957FollowersFollow
Atlanta Magazine
Since 1961, Atlanta magazine, the city’s premier general interest publication, has served as the authority on Atlanta, providing its readers with a mix of long-form nonfiction, lively lifestyle coverage, in-depth service journalism, and literary essays, columns, and profiles.

Popular posts

30,000-square-foot “eatertainment” venue Your 3rd Spot to open at the Works

March 14, 2022
Sponsored

3 Tarot Card Reading Services To Discover Your Destiny & Purpose

August 20, 2021
What to get at Buc-ee's in Georgia

10 Things You Shouldn’t Miss at Buc-ee’s

September 3, 2021

GREAT READS

Atlanta Afghan refugees

Six months after arriving in metro Atlanta, an Afghan family starts a new life

June 28, 2022
Unhoused Atlanta

As Atlanta continues to grow, unhoused people are finding a new voice—and new allies

April 12, 2022
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens

The New Mayor: Andre Dickens comes to the job calculating and confident

April 1, 2022
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Business Forum
  • Privacy and Cookies Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • General Contest Rules
© 2022. All rights reserved.