Lou Vargas

Lou Vargas

Region Chair, NaFFAA Pacific Northwest

Lou's journey of community service and his career began with Dignity Memorial 8 years ago where he now currently serves as a Family Service Advisor, helping families navigate the burial process along with the pre-planning stages of burials, funerals, and cremations. In 2014, Lou sought to organize the Filipino community to have a voice a share of the privilege in financial literacy pertaining to funeral and cemetery trusts. What he found was a community looking to rediscover itself and its oneness. Through this, he found inspiration to serve as the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations' (NaFFAA) Youth Leadership Chair. Since then, Lou has been the pillar of the Seattle NaFFAA community establishing several projects and events benefiting the community. Among those projects include the Entrepreneurial and Economic Empowerment revamp project, the Fil-Am Fashion Week project, the Let's Get Social Intensive, and so much more. With his holistic foresight, Lou is always able to connect his community service passion with his career and vocation. In 2017, the Mabuhay Statue of Pagasa, the Philippine Eagle was erected at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, WA - a memorial dedicated to the representation of departed Filipino-Americans. Lou believes that an organization's success depends on the continuity of its mission as carried out by renewal and skillset of its membership pool. He is proud to proclaim that NaFFAA PNW's new membership rate is 80% millennial. Today, he serves as the Senior Family Service Advisor through Dignity Memorial and the PW Chair.

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Nevada Ballroom

Plenary Session: LGBTQIA+ Panel

The purpose of the roundtable discussion is part of NaFFAA’s ongoing campaign to advocate and educate the Filipinx-American community around LGBTQIA+ rights and recognition. The featured panelists will contextualize the hardships they faced coming out and being part of the typically traditional Filipinx culture.