Milan is a Bay Area native, born in Oakland, raised in San Francisco, and has been nurtured in San Jose for the last 20 years. Milan R. Balinton, one of Ebony’s 2016 Power 100 People’s Choice Award Awardee, is the Executive Director of the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA), an organization dedicated to providing quality educational, cultural, social, and recreational programs, services and activities in order to perpetuate and strengthen African American identity, culture, values, traditions, knowledge, and family life. When Milan became the Executive Director of AACSA in 2011, the agency had two employees and barely a budget. Since then, the agency has grown to a 26-employee operation with a projected budget of $2.8 million — adding seven new staff members this year during the pandemic when other agencies were shutting down.