The tantalizing aroma of food from everyone’s favorite UMBC alumni-founded restaurant, Ekiben, wafts through the air of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery. People are drawn in by the steamed buns and tofu nuggets and stay for the community, including a Q&A with Ekiben co-owner Steve Chu ’12, economics, and Mark Padoongpatt, associate professor and director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The discussion, part of the Reframing Global Asias Conversation Series and led by UMBC’s Global Asias Initiatives postdoctoral fellow Mika Thornburg, dives into Padoongpatt’s book, Flavors of Empire, with Chu providing support using his own experience creating community through food.

Mika Thornburg: Tell us a little about your personal history and how you came to work with food. 

Steve Chu: When my family immigrated from Taiwan to the U.S., most decided to go into the restaurant business. All my aunts and uncles had restaurants at one point in time, so I grew up with it. I understood the work hours behind it, the work ethic. When I was 13, I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. I told my mom that this is what I wanted to do, and she was like, “No, you’re going to college.”

So I came to UMBC, studied economics, and every paper I did was about food. I did a paper on Taco Bell, did a paper on Chipotle, and around sophomore year I was like, alright, this is getting kind of silly. So I decided to get my first job in a restaurant and work and go to school full time. That’s when I started diving into this industry and I haven’t really looked back since.

Mark Padoongpatt: Growing up as a Thai American, you get associated with food even if you have no professional relationship to food at all. I didn’t want to perpetuate that stereotype, so I avoided even thinking about food until graduate school. And that’s when I realized Thai people are so visible through food. Thai food comes to stand in for Thai people and there’s really nothing else we know about Thai people.

So instead of talking about the community outside of food, I thought maybe I should just think about that. How did we come to this point where Thai food comes to stand in for Thai people? Since then, I’ve been thinking about food as a very dynamic way to study communities.

Steve Chu ’12, left, and Mark Padoongpatt, right.

Thornburg: Our event theme is about food and community. Can you speak a little bit about your perspective on the relationship between these two things from your respective position?

Chu: Food brings people together. You see that at this event, you see that at Costco with the free sample line. When we opened Ekiben in Baltimore City, we realized that it was a very polarized city, so we built a space where people from all walks of life could come, afford the food, and sit next to someone that they typically wouldn’t be sitting next to. On any Saturday, you’ll have a squeegee kid sitting next to a Jewish grandmother listening to Cardi B on the speakers, eating some fried chicken. It’s things that you normally wouldn’t put together. Food is a really, really powerful tool to build a community.

Thornburg: What role can food play in changing culture and relationships between different groups of people, whether they be individuals, local communities or entire nations?

Padoongpatt: Food culture is incredibly transformative. Just look at European empires. How did they grow? Through food commodities. They created political and economic systems that were around food and food production. And so in terms of nation building, the evidence is all there in terms of the significance of food and the role that food can play.

The Thai government for the last 15 years has been pouring a lot of effort, time, and energy into this through a kind of gastro diplomacy so that more people will come to Thailand. I think it is a great way to stimulate curiosity and human connection, but just the eating of the food itself is not enough.

Chu: What I find really cool is if you grew up in a very diverse community, chances are you’ve had a very diverse group of friends and you’ve tried a very diverse group of foods. And that helps break down walls and allow for understanding and the building of community. One of the coolest things about coming to UMBC was how diverse a group of friends I was able to meet.

After UMBC, I went to New York and worked as a line cook, and I brought back a lot of creativity with me. I sat down with my two future business partners, [Ephrem Abebe ’13, information systems, and Nikhil Yesurpriya ’13, M.S. ’16, biological sciences]. I said, “Hey, bring me all these random ingredients that your moms aren’t using in the pantry.” And so they bring me all this stuff, and over time we just learned how to incorporate it into our core menu. Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of thought behind it—except, “that tastes good.”

Learn more about the Global Asias Initiative and follow along with their events.

Danielle Burnett ’00, M.S. ’05, information systems management, wasted no time putting her UMBC degrees to work. In 2001, a newly-minted college graduate, she founded Applied Technology Services (APS), a technology services company serving commercial and government clients throughout Maryland. Since Burnett launched the company, it’s grown exponentially, recently exceeding 10 million dollars in revenue, and earning her a spotlight in the Baltimore Business Journal. Natural business acumen accounts for much of Burnett’s success, as does the preparation she received at UMBC, she says.

“The information systems program I was in at UMBC was very project-management oriented. And those process-driven skills really did help me in dealing with [business] challenges. That’s where I was able to focus to gain my credibility – my ability to execute,” Burnett says. She also credits the availability of certificate programs at UMBC, such as the one she earned in Electronic Government (she was the first student at UMBC to receive it) as useful to honing the skills she’d eventually apply to her company.

Burnett started out small, with one employee and one consultant. In fact, she remains surprised at the rapid-fire pace growth of ATS. She didn’t always see herself heading up a traditional company with on-site employees. But the contracts were coming so quickly that the accompanying paperwork required to complete them drove ATS from a virtual company to a brick-and-mortar one in 2010.

“All these deals we were working, we needed the paper to move through the organization, from the quote to the order to the invoice,” says Burnett, who took advantage of special programs for minority and small business owners to boost her client base. As a woman-owned company with under 50 employees, ATS qualifies for both. So while most of the country was reeling from the effects of the recession, ATS continued to thrive. Between 2006 and 2011, ATS doubled in size every year.

Burnett is proud not just of her business’ growth, but of the measured way she’s nurtured it. “I’ve never had to let a single employee go,” she says.

For now, the company remains small. She has 12 employees and is contemplating hiring two or three more in the near future. While some employees are family members – including her husband, father and sister-in-law – Burnett says she works to extend the feeling of a family business throughout the company.

Of all of her employees, Burnett says, “I make sure they’re treated fairly, and that they know their importance in the business. And I give them the flexibility to do different things.”

One of the benefits of working for a small business such as ATS, notes Burnett, is that employees can acquaint themselves with various aspects of the organization fairly easily. In fact, it’s an element of the business she conscientiously promotes. “Particularly for younger employees, during performance review, more than anything else, it’s about: ‘What else would you like to be doing?’”

While Burnett feels content about the progress she’s made as a businesswoman, she acknowledges that it hasn’t always been easy. Being a female executive in the IT industry, says Burnett, is challenging. “It’s difficult to earn credibility,” she says, as the field is upwards of 80 percent male.

But she’s plugged on, undeterred. Neither her style nor her company is particularly flashy or trendy, and that’s a point she tries to drive home to young college students whom she mentors through UMBC’s Alex.Brown Entrepreneurship program.

“I try to explain to them that you don’t have to come up with the next Angry Birds to find success as an entrepreneur,” Burnett says.

— Elizabeth Heubeck ’91

We are proud of our alums and their constant achievements. Recently, four of UMBC’s alumni, in particular, have made it in the news and we thought you should know!

Governor Martin O’Malley recently announced the appointment of 23 judges who will serve across Maryland. We’re proud to share that two of our UMBC alumnae, Judge Melissa Kaye Copeland ’91, sociology, and Judge Karen Friedman ’94, political science, were appointed to the Circuit Court for Baltimore.

Copeland has served on the District Court for Baltimore City since 2012. Prior to that appointment, she worked as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Baltimore City. She spent her last seven years in that office serving as Deputy Division Chief of the Narcotics Division and received numerous awards from federal and local law enforcement agencies. Judge Copeland is a former secretary of the Monumental Bar Association, and she began her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Bonita Dancy of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

Friedman has served on the District Court for Baltimore City since 2010. Prior to that appointment, she spent nine years as a Judge on the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore City and several years at Willner and Associates practicing family law. Judge Friedman has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Baltimore City Bench/Bar Committee, the Simon Sobeloff Law Society, and the National Association of Women Judges. Read the full announcement.

Dr. Zelalem Bachore ’05, information systems management, M.S. ’07, information systems management, Ph.D. ’12, information systems management, recently began teaching at Cabrini College in Pennsylvania.

Previously, Bachore worked with the Baltimore police and fire departments as a systems programmer and a faculty member of Virginia International University and ECPI University.

She said this of her new position: “I love working at Cabrini,” Bachore said. “I love the fact that people actually acknowledge each other and take the time to greet each other. There is also a sense of serenity and peace.” Learn more about Bachore’s journey.

Associated Black Charities CEO Diane Bell-McKoy ’73, sociology, was recently named to the Daily Record’s 2014 Influential Marylanders list.

According to the website of the Daily Record, the list was created in 2006 to honor people who have each made truly significant impacts in their fields and continue to be leaders in Maryland. These individuals are selected by the Daily Record’s editors. Winners are selected in the following categories: Civic leadership, communications, education, finance, freestyle, health care, law, philanthropy, real estate and technology.

The honorees were recognized at an event on March 27, 2014, at the Grand Lodge in Cockeysville, MD. Learn more at the Daily Record’s website.

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