Tina Buss

Vice President, People Operations

AAPI ancestry/background: Filipino. Her parents immigrated from the Philippines in the 1970s and her father served in the U.S. Army.

What she does at the Commanders: Tina works with various departments as an HR Business Partner and with the efforts related to the health and benefit programs, employee experience, career planning and employee relations. What she enjoys most about her role is the opportunities she gets to support different departments – both on an individual and team level.

Her favorite Filipino traditions: "When our family gets together, we celebrate with food. It always feels like home when my mom prepares Filipino dishes. Chicken Adobo is probably my favorite!"

How her Filipino background has shaped her: "Being an immigrant and having my father serve in the U.S. military, we moved quite a bit – almost every two years, I was in a new school. It helped me learn to adjust to new situations and gave me courage as a child to not be afraid to be in new environments and to learn as much as I can. I really admire and respect what it took for my parents to uproot themselves from all they'd ever known and come to the US to provide this opportunity for our family."

What AAPI Heritage Month means to her: "I think it's a moment where we can celebrate and share our heritage. The AAPI community is so vast. There's a lot of different cultures within it, and I'm just excited to learn more about all those different communities and to have an opportunity to share and celebrate my own individual heritage."

Favorite quote/mantra: "My dad, who became a high school teacher in San Francisco after retiring from the U.S. Army, always told me to be diligent and uplifting. I really try to think about his example daily, and also to be compassionate."