Christina Thor receives HWCC Young Professional of the Year award

Heather Graves

Staff

November 4, 2024

GREEN BAY – Christina Thor – executive state director of 9to5 Wisconsin – said being the daughter of refugees “definitely speaks to my identity.”

“When you ask me, ‘who is Christina?’ That is the first thing I think of,” she said. “My parents came to this country with the clothes on their backs as refugees of war. They raised their family with literally nothing, no education – they had to start from scratch in America, and I’m the byproduct of that.”

So, it should come as no surprise that Thor has spent her professional career focused on helping to empower marginalized communities through grassroots organizing and care-centered policies across Wisconsin.

The first-generation American said growing up with the second-hand implications of her parents’ unhealed trauma has served as inspiration for doing whatever she can to make a difference in the lives of others – especially for other Hmong professionals and businesses in Wisconsin.

Thor’s efforts were recently recognized by the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce (HWCC) who named her the 2024 Young Professional of the Year.

Selected for the award from a pool of dozens of applicants and one of two finalists, Thor said she’s “deeply humbled and grateful” for the recognition.

“This award is not mine alone – it belongs to everyone who has been a part of my journey,” she said. “I share this honor with my mentors, family, friends and community who have supported me through every challenge.”

Thor said the award she received at the HWCC’s 18th Annual Business Award Celebration held in Milwaukee last month serves as validation that “the hard work I’ve been doing to build community has been recognized.”

“We didn’t know who won until that night,” she said. “I’m still on cloud nine for being selected as the winner.”

The celebration’s theme – “Together we build our future” – Thor said, was a perfect fit for the work she has dedicated her career to, work that she said is deeply connected to her ancestors and their sacrifices.

“Each step I take is in honor of the generations before me who endured so much so I could stand here today,” she said.

In an equally similar fashion, the HWCC (according to its website, hmongchamber.org) is also dedicated to promoting the economic development of Hmong and Southeast Asian communities – which it does through programs and initiatives aimed at driving positive change.

This includes its annual business award celebration – which draws more than 500 attendees from around the state. 

In addition to the Young Professional of the Year award (age 39 and under) that was presented to Thor, the HWCC also recognized a Professional of the Year (age 40 and over), a Business of the Year, an Emerging Small Business of the Year and a New Startup Business of the Year.

Getting to the root issue

For the first half of her career, Thor said her work centered around the nonprofit sector – whether it was youth development, senior support or direct services.

Fresh out of college, she said she worked as a grant writer – a role that not only had her writing and submitting grant proposals, but one where she also had to account for the impact those dollars were making, how many people they were serving and what the needs of the community were.

“Something just clicked where I’m like, ‘why is the need continuing to rise? We were providing these services for so long, it should be decreasing,’” she said. “The math just wasn’t making sense.”

Thor said this served as an aha moment for her – “I needed to get to the root issue, and I felt like it started with policy.”

She said the revelation inspired her to focus more on legislative organizing. 

“I switched over to legislative organizing from the nonprofit sector, because instead of writing about helping the community, (I wanted to be part of the solution) – and the rest became history,” she said.

Thor said she realized pretty quickly how legislative organizing has many layers – such as race, inequities, institutional barriers or the historical oppression of different community members and ethnic groups.

“What I’m doing today speaks a lot to my personal mission, which is inspired by my upbringing in poverty and understanding the systems that my parents went through and their parents went through – that generational experience,” she said. “I love it when we’re able to build community out of adversity, as well as establish hope and compassion for another.”

A proud Northeast Wisconsinite

Thor said her roots run deep in Northeastern Wisconsin – a region that not only welcomed her refugee parents but helped shape her into the person she is today.

As a graduate of Appleton North High School, an alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and a first-generation homeowner in Green Bay, Thor said her academic and personal experiences have modeled her into a passionate advocate for racial and gender equity in her community.

That passion, she said, extends to her role with 9to5 Wisconsin, where she oversees all operations – including fundraising, grant writing, staff management, program development and more.

“Our mission is to uplift and fight for protection for women, especially working women and non-binary people of color within the workplace, and understanding that there’s a huge intersection between family, workplace justice and building power,” she said.

One area of focus for 9to5 Wisconsin, Thor said, is leadership development, as well as civic engagement.

“We are nonpartisan, and I feel very strongly about issue-based campaigns because I feel like that’s where community is built,” she said. “One of the things we fight for is affordable childcare – as a new mom, I see the struggles. We also fight for paid family medical leave, higher wages, equal pay and voting rights. I believe those most impacted by the issues should be part of finding the solutions.”

As she rides the “cloud nine” feeling of being selected as the HWCC Young Professional of the Year and continues her work with 9to5 Wisconsin, Thor said she looks forward to mentoring the next generation of professionals.

“Something I do every year is mentor high school students,” she said. “It gives me an opportunity to talk to them about a variety of things and support them so they can get to where I am at and go even further.”