Chad Nico Hiu

Chad Nico Hiu [@chadnico] is a Hawaii-born student of the world, aspiring anti-racist, and Senior Vice President for Strategy, Equity, and Impact with the YMCA of Greater San Francisco (YGSF). In this role, he serves as a catalyst, ensuring continuous strategic alignment and impact – grounded in community needs and input - across all areas of the Ys work from operations and people services to advancement. He leads a team facilitating YSF’s strategic planning process, driving global, diversity, equity, and inclusion (GDEI) efforts, and fostering sustainable organizational change focused on collaboration, evaluation, and impact. Chad facilitated the co-creation of YSF’s 2030 Vision; ‘where you can be, belong, and become’ – with over 1000 staff, members, youth, and volunteers providing input. This process also yielded YSF’s mission, ‘to build healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities for all generations’, as well as strengthened organizational values and impact pillars that will guide YGSF’s work for the next decade and beyond.

Previously, Chad served with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA) Global, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (GDEI) team in Chicago for ten years, most recently as Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion where he helped to build local, state-wide, national, and global capacity to engage diverse, vulnerable, underserved and marginalized communities, co-led Y-USA’s GDEI strategy and network, and integration of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, practices and programs towards community bridge building and social cohesion for all in the 10,000 communities the Y serves across the U.S. Prior to that, he served as Director of International Operations & Youth Exchanges for the YMCA of Greater New York, where he was part of an era of dynamic growth in cultural exchanges, collaborations, and global education/inclusion programming. Chad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Administration & Youth Development and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management and Leadership from Springfield College in Massachusetts and a Global Studies Certificate from the University of Pittsburgh.  

Chad currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Tyler Clementi Foundation, dedicated to ending online and offline bullying, harassment, and humiliation, on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation promoting health, wellness and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV, on Y-USA’s Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, and is a mentor in the YMCA Reach & Rise program. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for Howard Brown, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ health care networks, and Chicago Fair Trade supporting workers rights and global social responsibility, has traveled to 40 countries on almost every continent of the world, participated in the globally recognized Semester at Sea study abroad program, volunteered with the CASA YMCA youth shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, represented Y-USA in global settings and the World YMCA at the United Nations. He helped launch the Ys inaugural partnership with the Biden Foundation advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity across 19 states, and served as a policy volunteer with the Biden/Harris 2020 Campaign. He has lived in Hong Kong for two years, provided voter engagement support to various political campaigns, and served as Youth Director with the YMCA of Honolulu. Chad can be reached at CNHiu@ymcasf.org and lives in San Francisco, California with his husband.