Celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month: Meet Patricia Park-Li

"Inclusion@Climate: Sowing the Seeds of Belonging" is a feature highlighting the diverse backgrounds of our employees and their achievements, passions, and personalities. We hope you enjoy learning about their contributions to our community, and we think you'll agree that the very best elements of our culture are the people.     

Our latest entry celebrates Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, and this year's theme of “Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity”, emphasizes how being a leader can create growth opportunities for yourself and others around you.

Meet Patricia Park-Li, Senior Manager of Recruiting at Climate. Community, advocacy, and support have been key pillars of her professional success, for which she has her heritage to thank.

I'm a Senior Recruiting Manager for Climate’s non-engineering teams like science and customer experience and engagement.   

In college, I studied Psychology with an Interdisciplinary Science minor, and I aspired to go into advertising and use my influence and persuasion learnings. But like many graduates, I took the road less traveled and worked for Jim Rivaldo, a political consultant whose primary clients were in the LGBTQ+ and Black communities—most notably Harvey Milk and Kamala Harris.  

Jim introduced me to grassroots movements and fighting for social justice and doing what's right. From there, I got my footing in the tech industry. I worked to build a career in HR and Talent, eventually leading me to recruiting for major game developer Zynga, famously known for Farmville.  

After a few years at Zynga, I wanted a new experience and was intrigued by what Climate had to offer; an opportunity to apply my love for psychology and science to building a more secure and sustainable global food value chain.  

I haven't looked back after my career decision to join Climate, and eight years later, I still joke that I went from virtual farming to real farming. 

I'm Japanese and Chinese and grew up in an environment with a strong sense of community and helping others.   

My grandmother's family on my mother's side owned a farm in Martinez, California, which was a typical Japanese-American experience. When her family was sent to internment camps during WWII, they were lucky to have neighbors who looked after their farm so that they could return to it. Looking back at the times I visited the family farm as a child, I've realized that caring for the land and those around you is imperative.  

Born in Japan and planting roots in San Francisco as an adult, my mother managed a low-income housing complex for senior citizens in Japantown. Seeing her go above and beyond for the mostly elderly residents taught me kindness, patience, and what it means to be part of a community.  

From my father's side, I learned a strong work ethic. My dad, a third-generation Chinese American, went from working at the family's Chinese laundry at a young age to becoming the first Chinese American—perhaps even the first Asian American—Chief Executive Officer of the San Francisco Superior Court.    

My family's stories of compassion and perseverance have shaped who I am today, translating into my work. The first time I helped a friend with a job opportunity, it transformed his life. Years later, his family expressed gratitude at his memorial for my support. This moment clarified how helping people by matching them with the right opportunity could make a difference.  

Two things that are very important in my life are food and sustainability. Growing up in San Francisco with the never-ending threat of drought and my ancestral country of Japan being an island nation with limited space, I've always had the mindset of making the most of what I have.     

As a mother, I'm also driven to leave a better world for my kids. Though I'm not a scientist or have a technical background, I'm skilled at bringing in this type of talent to work on some of the most pressing global issues.

It wasn't until later in life that I realized how much my culture means to me. My dad's family has been in the United States for generations, and there's a large concentration of Chinese Americans in San Francisco, so I never thought of myself as different. It was when I went to college on the East Coast that I felt like a minority. On my mom's side, the Japanese American community is small and shrinking—there are only three Japantowns left in the US (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose). Keeping a connection to my heritage is crucial, not only for me but also for my kids. 

It’s increasingly important for me to participate in cultural communities to advocate for representation and equality so that history—like the Chinese Exclusion Act, WWII Japanese American Internment, displacement of Japanese Americans in the 1950s and 1960s out of Japantown, the current AANHPI hate crimes—doesn't repeat itself. 

It wasn't until later in life that I realized how much my culture means to me. My dad's family has been in the United States for generations, and there's a large concentration of Chinese Americans in San Francisco, so I never thought of myself as different. It was when I went to college on the East Coast that I felt like a minority. On my mom's side, the Japanese American community is small and shrinking—there are only three Japantowns left in the US (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose). Keeping a connection to my heritage is crucial, not only for me but also for my kids. 

It’s increasingly important for me to participate in cultural communities to advocate for representation and equality so that history—like the Chinese Exclusion Act, WWII Japanese American Internment, displacement of Japanese Americans in the 1950s and 1960s out of Japantown, the current AANHPI hate crimes—doesn't repeat itself. 

100% necessary. There's so much data out there proving that diverse organizations are more successful. I'm proud of our team's work to grow our DEI program and best practices within recruiting, like inclusive language job descriptions, structured interviewing, and bias training (shout out to our DEI Lead Annette Sarlatte-Matsu for developing Empower Hours!). Continuously improving our inclusive hiring practices is core to our talent strategy. 

We're thankful for the chance to share Patricia's career growth story and how her Japanese-Chinese culture has positively impacted it. If you're feeling inspired, our diverse, supportive, and fun team is hiring!

We're looking for passionate problem solvers to help us work towards a more sustainable future.