J
ohn Chin is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC), a non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve, protect, and promote Chinatown as a viable, ethnic, residential and business community.
His and PCDC’s core value of “self-determination” for neighborhoods results from the decades of environment injustice imposed upon Chinatown.
He oversees four core programs: neighborhood planning and advocacy; support services to achieve housing and economic security and benefits access; economic development and small business assistance; and neighborhood beautification and mixed-income housing development. His passion is to ensure that there is equitable development for people of all incomes, races, ethnicities, and all neighborhoods. He has led the development of Crane Community Center project, which will open its doors in fall 2019 and provides Chinatown’s first center for wellness, recreation, and cultural celebration.
John Chin serves on the board of numerous organizations including PHLDiversity and the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, as well as the PHLCVB. He chairs the Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs and sits on The Trust for Public Land Advisory Board.
He previously served on the steering committee of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity, and Mayor’s Office of Community and Empowerment Opportunity. He served on the Boards of Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, Philadelphia Forward, and Reading Terminal Market. In 2010 he served on the Philadelphia School District’s Diversity Taskforce. He was the co-chair of the Community Outreach Committee for the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. He served on transition teams for Mayors Nutter and Kenney. John joined PCDC in 2000 and graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems and Business Administration.
