WASHINGTON — 5 On Your Side reporter and anchor Michelle Li received a national award from FBI Director Christopher Wray this weekend for her work with her Very Asian Foundation.
Li was one of 50 recipients of the 2022 Director's Community Leadership Award(DCLA).
"Like the 38,000 employees of the FBI you don’t do what you do for fame—and certainly not for fortune," Director Wray told the honorees. "You do it out of kindness, out of compassion for others, out of a hope and a dream for safer communities, to leave your towns and cities better places than when you got there."
Li started the Very Asian Foundation as a way to respond to a racist voicemail she received following a segment where she talked about her Korean heritage.
Following the incident, Li received a more than $10,000 donation from Ellen DeGeneres herself to launch the foundation. The foundation also established "The May Book Project,” which makes finding AAPI books easier and readily available for readers in libraries.
"The foundation works to shine a light on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) experiences through advocacy and celebration; as one project, it created a list of AAPI books, compiled by experts, for local libraries," the FBI said on its award page.
The DLCA was initially founded in 1990 to honor people and/or organizations that demonstrate “outstanding service to the local community” and provide “contributions to the advancement of justice,” according to the release.
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