WASHINGTON, D.C. (EYT) – Since graduating from Redbank Valley High school in 1993, Alpha Lillstrom Cheng uses the lessons she learned growing up on the family farm in New Bethlehem to help guide her career.
It has already been a remarkable career for this young woman, one that has included owning her own Washington, D.C. lobbying company, serving as senior policy adviser and counsel for U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) for over six years; helping write the Affordable Care Act; recount director and voter protection director for the Al Franken for Senate Campaign; a law degree and MA in International Affairs from American University; a bachelor’s degree in cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago; spending time living in China and Taiwan; among other things.
Her academic and professional accomplishments are more than name dropping exercises, and she still makes sure to return home frequently to the same family farm in New Bethlehem; she and her husband Eric got married there this past May.
“I grew up without a TV,” said Alpha, daughter of Aatis Lillstrom (of Redbank Township, New Bethlehem) and Ping Pirrung (of Butler). “It was great, and I think it has made me really grounded. I’ve learned a ton from spending my childhood running around outside and reading books and having farmers as friends and neighbors.”
“I think understanding dirt and the seasons is really valuable because you know that there are certain things you can’t rush and times when you do everything right and it still doesn’t work because other factors get in the way. You learn how to be trustworthy and helpful at the same time.”
“I think there’s a ton of skills that you learn growing up in the country that no city kid will ever get. I’m so glad that I grew up on a farm and I’m hoping that when Eric and I have kids that we can get them enough time in the country to at least learn some of the things I learned.”
Her father still lives on the family farm, but some of the land is now farmed by her sister Aeros and husband Chris Brittenburg who now operate it as an organic vegetable farm called the “Who Cooks For You Farm,” which has a CSA (community supported agriculture) program and supplies farm-to-table restaurants in Pittsburgh. The farm is Certified Naturally Grown and grows a diverse assortment of organic vegetables, some fruit, and herbs.
Active in the choir at Redbank and academic activities such as the Eco Team and National Honor Society, Alpha enrolled at the University of Chicago after graduation from Redbank. She studied cultural anthropology and was also able to study Mandarin Chinese. She isn’t quite sure what attracted her to China, but it played an important part in her academic studies.
[Pictured above: Alpha with Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) left and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana)]
“When I was in college many of my friends were Chinese Americans, and I was also studying cultural anthropology. I took classes about the culture of China and its Diaspora. A lot of things I learned were interesting and resonated – in terms of the sense of family, the sense of community, the way that food and education are a big part of the culture,” said Alpha.
“I learned that in the Chinese culture, when you show love to someone you feed them and support them in their scholarly efforts. It just clicked. I started learning Mandarin because I thought it would be interesting. I had taken American Sign Language in college as my required language and because my language requirements were filled, I could take Mandarin Chinese as an elective. That made it possible to take Mandarin and not be at risk by being overwhelmed by it.”
After graduating from Chicago, she moved to China for six months in order to study more Chinese and also traveled by herself for four months and visited 34 cities all across China.
Coming back home for Christmas, Alpha worked for a short while before moving to Taiwan from August of 1998 until May of the next year.
“Both China and Taiwan were interesting and fun,” said Alpha. “I like speaking the language, and it’s an exciting and fascinating language. I can do math in my head since I speak Mandarin, and I couldn’t do that before. It’s a really interesting language because words and sentences are very visual as well as full of references and nuanced meaning; there are a lot of puns in Mandarin. It’s intriguing academically.”
She worked for about a year before moving to Washington, D.C., in 2000 to earn a law degree and Masters Degree with a focus on China Policy from American University.
Political Involvement
Although she eventually was drawn into the political arena, Alpha never felt any pressure on political involvement at home, high school, or even any of her college education. As a youngster she remembers visiting with Jimmy Carter, but the only reason was that her grandparents were peanut farmers in Georgia, and they had the same attorney as President Carter.
“It wasn’t until 2004 that I became involved with politics because I was incredibly upset about Iraq that I wanted to do whatever I could to make it so that President Bush didn’t win again,” said Alpha.
She decided to take three weeks off of work as an attorney, drove to Pittsburgh and within three hours she was hired to be the field organizer for the Presidential campaign. They gave her a list of things she was supposed to do, and despite not knowing how to do them, or what to do, or the protocols generally followed, or even how hard it was to do, she ended up with a 28 percent higher voter turnout levels than they expected in that district.
“I basically discovered by accident that this was something I was really good at and that I enjoyed it,” said Alpha.
In 2006, she was a field director in Maryland and then returned to Pittsburgh to work on the Rendell campaign and Senator Casey’s election in 2006, then joined Tester in 2007.
She took a leave of absence to be the policy director for Al Franken when he was first running; she also served as his voter protection director. When the election wasn’t decided on election night, she became the recount director. She ran the legal field and operations side of the 2008 recount in Minnesota.
Part Two of Alpha’s story and her work helping write the Affordable Care Act, her rise in the Senate working with Senator Tester, the impact of the ACA on her own life, and her plans for the future will be featured tomorrow on exploreClarion.com.
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