About this Episode
Episode 159: Published on May 23, 2024
With experience in public policy, law, and human services, Hong Duffin serves on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing; learn about her work with mental and physical wellness.
Building Healthier Communities, with Grace Hong Duffin '95
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[MUSIC PLAYING] MAX: Welcome back to "Northwestern Intersections," a Northwestern Alumni Association podcast. We'll be talking to alums about their careers and the lessons they've learned along the way. Our guest today is Grace Hong Duffin, President and CEO of the Kenneth Young Center, a community services organization. She has experience in government, law and human services, and also serves as a club leader NU-A5, Northwestern's Asian and Asian-American Alumni Association.
We'll discuss APIDA Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month and more in this edition of "Northwestern Intersections."
Grace, thank you so much for being on the show.
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
MAX: Absolutely. And I want to first ask you, what brought you to Northwestern? Why did you come to campus and what did you study?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: So I chose Northwestern. I grew up in Morton Grove, went to Maine East High School really close, right? And so, 30 minutes away. And so I knew of Northwestern. I wanted to stay local.
And really, I am first-generation or 1.5 generation Korean-American. And my mom and dad were very-- what's the kind word to say? It was important to them that I picked a great school to attend and was thrilled that I got into Northwestern and knew that it was going to be a place that I could thrive. I was familiar with the campus, because even in high school, we'd come visit the lake, eat at Buffalo Joe's. And so it felt like it was going to be an easy transition for me.
I was a homebody. I'm very close to my family. And so it was a win-win. I studied social policy and communications at the School of Education and Social Policy and was there and graduated in 1995.
MAX: I can't give an official endorsement, but shout-out to Buffalo Joe's. I had that for dinner last night. So yeah, the locals-- the locals know what we're talking about. And sort of going off of that theme, you stayed in Illinois for most of, if not all of your career.
What did you do after Northwestern? Like, what were your next steps in terms of school and work?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: So actually, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do next. Because I was a social policy major, social issues were really important to me. So I had the options of potentially working with the Hmong community in Minnesota. I interviewed with Michelle Obama when she was running AmeriCorps. I had applied to schools of social work.
And did I tell you, I have Korean parents? They said, hey, you need to go to law school. So, guess what? I went to law school. So went to law school, Chicago-Kent, and graduated and joined the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
I think, again, my parents had different plans that I would be kind of a corporate lawyer. But it was in my bones to work with people in a social policy aspect. And so joined the Cook County State's Attorney's office, loved my time there, and would have probably stayed. But, you know, there were things that as a prosecutor I didn't have control over and decided, OK, I needed more tools in my toolbox.
I went to graduate school out in Cambridge, came back, and then had another career with the state of Illinois and worked under three governors-- Governor Blagojevich, Governor Quinn, and Governor Rauner. Each different experiences. All wonderful.
I got to be legislative counsel, draft legislation, work with legislators, create some really great policies, and work with some really great providers that were doing such impactful work in their communities. And so also thought I could stay in state government for the rest of my career and then made a different decision. State government was doing some different stuff and I started then looking for opportunities to help providers that wasn't doing so great during an economic time for not-for-profits.
And so came over to Kenneth Young Center to assist and help them clean their back office and been here ever since. I've been here for the last eight years, joined as a special projects operations officer in 2016, and then became the CEO September of 2018. So it's been quite a ride, I have to say. Kenneth Young Center, our main office is located in Elk Grove Village, but we run a whole gamut of services.
It's really, I want to say cradle to grave, but really it's kind of toddler to grave. We do older adult services, making sure that older adults can stay safely in their homes. So if people have heard Meals on Wheels, that's something that my agency does. We also do substance use treatment and also mental health treatments. So we kind of umbrella that in behavioral health. And as well as we do prevention services in the schools, as well as recovery services, both for mental health and substance use disorder.
So we really run the gamut. We run 35 different programs, all kind of in the Northwest suburbs, but really all about working with the communities. Most of our clients are under Medicaid or would be Medicaid eligible or they have no insurance. And so those are the ones that are the most impacted when things go awry.
And so Kenneth Young Center has been a mainstay for the last 52 years here. I saw so much potential to make more impact and so I stuck around. I actually don't live close to here. So for me, the commitment to make that commute and to really invest in this community has been very rewarding. So yeah, especially it being not only Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month, it's also Mental Health Awareness Month.
So I feel like this is a very opportune time for me to be on.
MAX: It's a perfect time. My marketing and communications team would be so proud of you for saying that, because that literally dovetails right into my next question, which was going to be about Mental Health Awareness Month, because obviously the Kenneth Young Center provides a huge array of services, like you mentioned. What's it like going from maybe an earlier role when you're working on more specific projects to managing something like this where you're overseeing so much different work? And did Northwestern help prepare you for these responsibilities?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: You know, I really think so. And again, the School of Education and Social Policy folks probably might not know about it because it's one of the smaller schools. And I think a lot of people think, oh, it's education. People will go into education. And I'm sure some folks did.
But in terms of social policy, it really gave me kind of that groundwork and understanding of the social issues that people are facing. And it goes from the cradle all the way to how different things impact people's lives. You know, different forces-- environmental, social, economic. And that's really where I learned it is at Northwestern through my undergrad.
And people don't think about it like, right? There's people that are like, oh, it doesn't matter what your undergrad is, right? It's grad school and what you do after that. But really, for me, I didn't give it much thought because I went to law school after. I'm like, oh, criminal justice.
But really it set the foundation of my trajectory and my career. And it's only now that I'm older-- I'm going to put it out there, I'm older now-- that I can reflect how much of a positive impact my experience at Northwestern was.
MAX: I want to ask you, transitioning a little bit, as you mentioned, APIDA Heritage Month. Another question I wanted to ask you about is NU-A5. And I was really lucky to have Hannah Jurowicz on the show as well. She's also on the board. Why did you join NU-A5? And what kind of responsibilities do you have within the club?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Well, so I was very involved with the Korean-American club when I was at Northwestern. And I don't know if the admissions office thought they were being funny, but my freshman year, literally, I was at 1835 Hinman and everyone in my suite were all Asian women except for the two Jewish girls across the hallway. And we really bonded and I knew that being Korean-American that was super important to me. And so it was very identifying on campus.
My roommate, my freshman year roommate, Freda Lin, was actually one of the protesters that did the hunger strike to get AAPI studies at Northwestern. And so seeing her and the work she was doing, and she's still doing that work today, doing AAPI education curriculum, again, I feel like this just being part of the Alumni Association with NU-A5 has been so important. And I thought during my time at Northwestern, there were so many API students. I did not realize until I kind of ran some statistics myself that it's grown to be 26% on campus.
And so realizing the impacts that the API community and the students have and also the alumni have, and to be visible, and to show the successes that we've all had. So joining the club-- specifically, the NU-A5 versus just being part of the Alumni Association has been important to me to just continue that work that I feel like I really resonated with when I was on campus.
MAX: I asked Hannah a very similar question when she was on the show. If you could have a dream for NU-A5 or a vision for it, what would it look like?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: You know, NU-A5 has been just a wonderful organization. It's really been kind of a stellar organization within the Alumni Association and really a goal or a dream. I would love for it to show us that it has more members, that it is able to have a greater voice with the president and also the international community. We have a lot of international-- NU-A5 is domestic-based right now.
But I think really because of what we do, who we are, the connections that we have, that we really could have an international voice as well and a greater voice across the nation. Because although it's based in Illinois, their reaches are very far-reaching. I have family in Hawaii and I'll wear my Northwestern gear and they're like, oh, that's such an awesome school. I want to go there. Strangers, right, as I'm kind of walking through places.
So again, this is where NU-A5 gets credit. But there's so much more that I think we can be doing and get recognized for, and it'd be great for the Alumni Association and the school to see that, the impacts that we could be making.
MAX: I want to ask you one final career-related question. What are some lessons that you've learned about mental health services? And again, what's your dream or your vision for mental health awareness both in Illinois, in the city of Chicago, and more broadly?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Yeah, really, especially again, coming back that it's Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, people talk about that mental health-- "oh, there's no more stigma." People talk about it like, you know, it's not a big deal to go to a therapist. "Oh yeah, taking medication is no big deal."
Yes, and-- and I'm going to actually say but. But for the API community, it still is. There is a lot of stigma. There's a lot of doubt. There's a lot of mistrust in seeing mental health providers and it just doesn't happen. And especially for the older community, it's not just something you talk about. And it resonates because I was not raised in a place that you talk about mental health issues and you pray about it. And that is still a lot of what impacts our community today.
It's getting better, except there needs to be more culturally and linguistic sensitive individuals that can speak Chinese, speak Korean, speak Urdu. There's just not enough need when the umbrella of API is so broad and each of those cultures have their own nuances. And so again, umbrelling everyone that, oh, mental health, there's no more stigma. There is, and we need to be doing more.
Kenneth Young Center actually runs a program around mental health first aid, both for adults and teens. And really, it's about recognizing signs before somebody goes into crisis. Or as they might recognize, hey, this person is in a challenging situation, how can I help? And like I said before, as you have a growing API population at schools, in the workplaces, those kinds of skills could actually help, right?
A peer-to-peer interaction can save a life, because sometimes it's like the person that was ignored or I don't know your language. But if you can break those barriers, lives can be saved. And so it's so important these days, so.
MAX: Before we close, I always ask our guests if there's any Northwestern shout-outs they like to give. But when we're celebrating a special occasion or a heritage month, I also add are there any APIDA Heritage Month shout-outs that you'd like to give, any Mental Health Awareness Month shout-outs that you'd like to give, and of course, if there's any people, places, programs at Northwestern that you'd like to give a little shout-out to as well?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Well, you know, again, Happy Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month. There are wonderful organizations all over Illinois. I am part of HANA Center, which does Korean-American culture and social justice work on the North side. They have activities, so check them out.
I also am on the board of KANWIN. It's Korean American Women in Need, or that was their old name. They just go by KANWIN now. But it really works on eradicating gender violence for AAPI women. But it's not only women, because there's so much need now that it's anyone that has experienced gender violence, we support and assist them. It started as a Korean-American organization back in 1994, and I was one of their first 40-hour domestic violence volunteers back when I was at Northwestern. So it's near and dear to my heart as well.
But yes, check it all out. And I can't-- it's a work thing, please take a look at taking some mental health first aid trainings. They're free. Kenneth Young Center does them. And again, you just never know what somebody is going through, so a hi and a smile makes a big difference. So, thanks for having me.
MAX: Grace, thank you so much for being here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We'll discuss APIDA Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month and more in this edition of "Northwestern Intersections."
Grace, thank you so much for being on the show.
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
MAX: Absolutely. And I want to first ask you, what brought you to Northwestern? Why did you come to campus and what did you study?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: So I chose Northwestern. I grew up in Morton Grove, went to Maine East High School really close, right? And so, 30 minutes away. And so I knew of Northwestern. I wanted to stay local.
And really, I am first-generation or 1.5 generation Korean-American. And my mom and dad were very-- what's the kind word to say? It was important to them that I picked a great school to attend and was thrilled that I got into Northwestern and knew that it was going to be a place that I could thrive. I was familiar with the campus, because even in high school, we'd come visit the lake, eat at Buffalo Joe's. And so it felt like it was going to be an easy transition for me.
I was a homebody. I'm very close to my family. And so it was a win-win. I studied social policy and communications at the School of Education and Social Policy and was there and graduated in 1995.
MAX: I can't give an official endorsement, but shout-out to Buffalo Joe's. I had that for dinner last night. So yeah, the locals-- the locals know what we're talking about. And sort of going off of that theme, you stayed in Illinois for most of, if not all of your career.
What did you do after Northwestern? Like, what were your next steps in terms of school and work?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: So actually, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do next. Because I was a social policy major, social issues were really important to me. So I had the options of potentially working with the Hmong community in Minnesota. I interviewed with Michelle Obama when she was running AmeriCorps. I had applied to schools of social work.
And did I tell you, I have Korean parents? They said, hey, you need to go to law school. So, guess what? I went to law school. So went to law school, Chicago-Kent, and graduated and joined the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
I think, again, my parents had different plans that I would be kind of a corporate lawyer. But it was in my bones to work with people in a social policy aspect. And so joined the Cook County State's Attorney's office, loved my time there, and would have probably stayed. But, you know, there were things that as a prosecutor I didn't have control over and decided, OK, I needed more tools in my toolbox.
I went to graduate school out in Cambridge, came back, and then had another career with the state of Illinois and worked under three governors-- Governor Blagojevich, Governor Quinn, and Governor Rauner. Each different experiences. All wonderful.
I got to be legislative counsel, draft legislation, work with legislators, create some really great policies, and work with some really great providers that were doing such impactful work in their communities. And so also thought I could stay in state government for the rest of my career and then made a different decision. State government was doing some different stuff and I started then looking for opportunities to help providers that wasn't doing so great during an economic time for not-for-profits.
And so came over to Kenneth Young Center to assist and help them clean their back office and been here ever since. I've been here for the last eight years, joined as a special projects operations officer in 2016, and then became the CEO September of 2018. So it's been quite a ride, I have to say. Kenneth Young Center, our main office is located in Elk Grove Village, but we run a whole gamut of services.
It's really, I want to say cradle to grave, but really it's kind of toddler to grave. We do older adult services, making sure that older adults can stay safely in their homes. So if people have heard Meals on Wheels, that's something that my agency does. We also do substance use treatment and also mental health treatments. So we kind of umbrella that in behavioral health. And as well as we do prevention services in the schools, as well as recovery services, both for mental health and substance use disorder.
So we really run the gamut. We run 35 different programs, all kind of in the Northwest suburbs, but really all about working with the communities. Most of our clients are under Medicaid or would be Medicaid eligible or they have no insurance. And so those are the ones that are the most impacted when things go awry.
And so Kenneth Young Center has been a mainstay for the last 52 years here. I saw so much potential to make more impact and so I stuck around. I actually don't live close to here. So for me, the commitment to make that commute and to really invest in this community has been very rewarding. So yeah, especially it being not only Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month, it's also Mental Health Awareness Month.
So I feel like this is a very opportune time for me to be on.
MAX: It's a perfect time. My marketing and communications team would be so proud of you for saying that, because that literally dovetails right into my next question, which was going to be about Mental Health Awareness Month, because obviously the Kenneth Young Center provides a huge array of services, like you mentioned. What's it like going from maybe an earlier role when you're working on more specific projects to managing something like this where you're overseeing so much different work? And did Northwestern help prepare you for these responsibilities?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: You know, I really think so. And again, the School of Education and Social Policy folks probably might not know about it because it's one of the smaller schools. And I think a lot of people think, oh, it's education. People will go into education. And I'm sure some folks did.
But in terms of social policy, it really gave me kind of that groundwork and understanding of the social issues that people are facing. And it goes from the cradle all the way to how different things impact people's lives. You know, different forces-- environmental, social, economic. And that's really where I learned it is at Northwestern through my undergrad.
And people don't think about it like, right? There's people that are like, oh, it doesn't matter what your undergrad is, right? It's grad school and what you do after that. But really, for me, I didn't give it much thought because I went to law school after. I'm like, oh, criminal justice.
But really it set the foundation of my trajectory and my career. And it's only now that I'm older-- I'm going to put it out there, I'm older now-- that I can reflect how much of a positive impact my experience at Northwestern was.
MAX: I want to ask you, transitioning a little bit, as you mentioned, APIDA Heritage Month. Another question I wanted to ask you about is NU-A5. And I was really lucky to have Hannah Jurowicz on the show as well. She's also on the board. Why did you join NU-A5? And what kind of responsibilities do you have within the club?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Well, so I was very involved with the Korean-American club when I was at Northwestern. And I don't know if the admissions office thought they were being funny, but my freshman year, literally, I was at 1835 Hinman and everyone in my suite were all Asian women except for the two Jewish girls across the hallway. And we really bonded and I knew that being Korean-American that was super important to me. And so it was very identifying on campus.
My roommate, my freshman year roommate, Freda Lin, was actually one of the protesters that did the hunger strike to get AAPI studies at Northwestern. And so seeing her and the work she was doing, and she's still doing that work today, doing AAPI education curriculum, again, I feel like this just being part of the Alumni Association with NU-A5 has been so important. And I thought during my time at Northwestern, there were so many API students. I did not realize until I kind of ran some statistics myself that it's grown to be 26% on campus.
And so realizing the impacts that the API community and the students have and also the alumni have, and to be visible, and to show the successes that we've all had. So joining the club-- specifically, the NU-A5 versus just being part of the Alumni Association has been important to me to just continue that work that I feel like I really resonated with when I was on campus.
MAX: I asked Hannah a very similar question when she was on the show. If you could have a dream for NU-A5 or a vision for it, what would it look like?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: You know, NU-A5 has been just a wonderful organization. It's really been kind of a stellar organization within the Alumni Association and really a goal or a dream. I would love for it to show us that it has more members, that it is able to have a greater voice with the president and also the international community. We have a lot of international-- NU-A5 is domestic-based right now.
But I think really because of what we do, who we are, the connections that we have, that we really could have an international voice as well and a greater voice across the nation. Because although it's based in Illinois, their reaches are very far-reaching. I have family in Hawaii and I'll wear my Northwestern gear and they're like, oh, that's such an awesome school. I want to go there. Strangers, right, as I'm kind of walking through places.
So again, this is where NU-A5 gets credit. But there's so much more that I think we can be doing and get recognized for, and it'd be great for the Alumni Association and the school to see that, the impacts that we could be making.
MAX: I want to ask you one final career-related question. What are some lessons that you've learned about mental health services? And again, what's your dream or your vision for mental health awareness both in Illinois, in the city of Chicago, and more broadly?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Yeah, really, especially again, coming back that it's Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, people talk about that mental health-- "oh, there's no more stigma." People talk about it like, you know, it's not a big deal to go to a therapist. "Oh yeah, taking medication is no big deal."
Yes, and-- and I'm going to actually say but. But for the API community, it still is. There is a lot of stigma. There's a lot of doubt. There's a lot of mistrust in seeing mental health providers and it just doesn't happen. And especially for the older community, it's not just something you talk about. And it resonates because I was not raised in a place that you talk about mental health issues and you pray about it. And that is still a lot of what impacts our community today.
It's getting better, except there needs to be more culturally and linguistic sensitive individuals that can speak Chinese, speak Korean, speak Urdu. There's just not enough need when the umbrella of API is so broad and each of those cultures have their own nuances. And so again, umbrelling everyone that, oh, mental health, there's no more stigma. There is, and we need to be doing more.
Kenneth Young Center actually runs a program around mental health first aid, both for adults and teens. And really, it's about recognizing signs before somebody goes into crisis. Or as they might recognize, hey, this person is in a challenging situation, how can I help? And like I said before, as you have a growing API population at schools, in the workplaces, those kinds of skills could actually help, right?
A peer-to-peer interaction can save a life, because sometimes it's like the person that was ignored or I don't know your language. But if you can break those barriers, lives can be saved. And so it's so important these days, so.
MAX: Before we close, I always ask our guests if there's any Northwestern shout-outs they like to give. But when we're celebrating a special occasion or a heritage month, I also add are there any APIDA Heritage Month shout-outs that you'd like to give, any Mental Health Awareness Month shout-outs that you'd like to give, and of course, if there's any people, places, programs at Northwestern that you'd like to give a little shout-out to as well?
GRACE HONG DUFFIN: Well, you know, again, Happy Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month. There are wonderful organizations all over Illinois. I am part of HANA Center, which does Korean-American culture and social justice work on the North side. They have activities, so check them out.
I also am on the board of KANWIN. It's Korean American Women in Need, or that was their old name. They just go by KANWIN now. But it really works on eradicating gender violence for AAPI women. But it's not only women, because there's so much need now that it's anyone that has experienced gender violence, we support and assist them. It started as a Korean-American organization back in 1994, and I was one of their first 40-hour domestic violence volunteers back when I was at Northwestern. So it's near and dear to my heart as well.
But yes, check it all out. And I can't-- it's a work thing, please take a look at taking some mental health first aid trainings. They're free. Kenneth Young Center does them. And again, you just never know what somebody is going through, so a hi and a smile makes a big difference. So, thanks for having me.
MAX: Grace, thank you so much for being here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]