LISA LYNN CHAPMAN
Director, Survivor Services Department, BPSOS
Lisa Lynn Chapman, JD recently joined BPSOS as Survivor Services Department Director. The Survivor Services Department provides immigration assistance and case management for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. Ms. Chapman bring over 8 years of domestic violence programming experience from Nevada. Her positions include Public Information Specialist, Crisis Counselor, Court Advocate, and Executive Director. Additionally, Ms. Chapman received her Juris Doctorate from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University Nevada, Las Vegas. Her primary concentration was in Immigration and Women’s Issues, especially Human Trafficking and Violence Against Women.
DAPHNE DANG
Intern, VOICE
Daphne Dang grew up in San Jose, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. She volunteered with VOICE in the Philippines as a legal representative and Office Manager from April to November 2007. Daphne’s work in Manila, Philippines consisted mainly of completing immigration applications for the remaining stateless Vietnamese in the Philippines to resettle to Canada. Currently, Daphne is continuing to work with VOICE through an internship in the organization’s Washington DC office. She plans to pursue a graduate education following her internship.
IAN DANG, Ph.D.
AASuccess
Ian Dang received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Davidson College, Davidson, N.C., and a Doctorate in Neurobiology from Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. His dissertation focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms causing the genetic disorder Neurofibromatosis. After obtaining his Ph.D., he continued his scientific training as a post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, CA. As a fellow, Dr. Dang was part of a team of scientists that investigated how the mutations of normal proteins contribute to the development of cancer in animal models. Dr. Dang is now a patent examiner in the area of Biotechnology at the United States Patent and Trademark Office located in Alexandria, VA.
DR. DAO THI HOI, Ed.D.
Board of Directors, NCVA
Born June 12, 1935, in Hanoi, Dao Thi Hoi received her early training in Vietnam, and did graduate work at Columbia University where she received her Ed. D. (Doctorate in Education) in Linguistics from the Teachers College in 1965.
Dr. Hoi—as she is professionally known—retired in June 2000 after 46 years of teaching (high school, college and university levels). Her last function before retirement was ESL Chairperson at Edison High School in Fairfax, VA. Before then, she had taught Vietnamese Culture and Civilization in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), was a bilingual teacher trainer at Trinity College (Washington, DC), in various Teacher Corps projects and in the School of Languages and Linguistics (SLL), Georgetown University.
An educator all her life, Dr. Hoi taught Vietnamese and English Literature (Trung Vuong H.S. for Girls, Saigon); was in charge of teacher training for the Vietnamese American Association (VAA, Saigon, 1965-1968), while cumulating the functions of Chairperson, Language Department, University of Saigon Faculty of Medicine, and Lecturer at various universities in South Vietnam (Saigon Faculty of Letters and Faculty of Pedagogy, and Van Hanh Buddhist University). In 1967-68, she represented Vietnam on the Southeast Asian Regional English Language Center (RELC) Coordinating Committee and was concurrently Rapporteur for SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization)-RELC Coordinating Committee (Singapore). From August 1972 to April 1975, she was both Dean of Studies and Secretary-General at Mekong University (Saigon, Vietnam).
Dr. Hoi is one of the founding members of NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education) in which she served as one of the original Vice Presidents, from 1979 to 1989. As a founding member of NCVA (National Congress of Vietnamese in America) since 1986, Dr. Hoi has also been a long-time member of NCVA’s Board of Directors, where she served as General Administrator.
Dr. Hoi is the author and/or co-author of a number of educational materials, including a famous sound-slide presentation (1/2 hour long) entitled Vietnamese Culture and Language (1975) and a very well-known paper on the history of the Vietnamese language, which she co-authored with Nguyen Ngoc Bich, “Linguistic Strata in the History of the Vietnamese Language” (published by The Indochina Institute, George Mason University, 1983). Her doctoral dissertation deal with “Representation of Time and Time-Relationships in English and Vietnamese,” a comparative analysis (1965).
LESLIE MOE KAISER
Corporate Relations Manager, State Farm
Leslie Moe-Kaiser is State Farm’s Corporate Relations Manager for national Asian American Pacific Islander organizations. She holds the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation.
Leslie serves on the National Advisory Council of the Asian American Justice Center, Washington, D.C., Business Advisory Council of OCA, Washington, D.C.; the Advisory Board of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, and the Board of the Center for Asian Pacific American Women. She is a 2003 National Fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute, and listed in Who’s Who in the Humanities, 1992-93.
Her first career was a college professor specializing in Asian Art History and Asian Philosophies. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration of Higher Education from Illinois State University. Her M.Ph. and M.A. are in Asian Art History from University of Kansas; her B.B.A. in Accounting from University of Hawaii. She did post-graduate studies at Sophia University in Tokyo and has conducted research in Japan, Taiwan, and China.
Active in the community, she is a founding Board member of the OCA-Central Illinois Chapter, a founding member of the Asian Women’s Alliance in Peoria, and serves on the OSF Hospitals Women’s Health Advisory Board in Peoria. She previously served on the Board of the Mental Health Association of Illinois Valley. She is a USPTA certified tennis pro.
ANH-THU LU
VAYLC 2008 Staff
Lu Anh-Thu arrived in the United States in 1975 at Camp Pendleton, CA. In 1976, her family moved to Falls Church, Virginia. She graduated from the George Washington University in 1982 and received her advance degree from Strayer University in 1994.
Anh-Thu has worked for Computer Sciences Corporation since 1987. In 1998 and 1999, she joined the Da Hieu Youth Alliance and the Vietnamese American Youth Movement, respectively. She currently serves as a member of the Fairfax County (VA) Consumer Protection Commission.
Her hobbies include traveling, sports, movies and lobbying.
KENTON NGO
Executive Board, Virginia Young Democrats
Kenton Ngo is 17 years old and lives in Springfield, Virginia. Born in Los Angeles, he settled in Northern Virginia in 2001. He began working on campaigns at the age of 12 opening mail for the Kerry for President campaign, and later became involved in local and state politics. His blog, 750 Volts, began on December 2004, as blogs in Virginia were beginning to gain influence on statewide elections. The profile of blogs increased as Tim Kaine and Jim Webb were elected Governor and Senator, and Kenton has been profiled in media outlets across the state. He has served as campaign staff for school board and congressional races, in addition to volunteering. Currently, he serves as secretary of his local district committee and on the executive board of the Virginia Young Democrats.
BICH NGOC NGUYEN
Board Chair, National Congress of Vietnamese American
Nguyen Ngoc Bich is a former Director of the Vietnamese Service at Radio Free Asia (RFA). Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and educated in Saigon, the United States, Japan and Europe, Mr. Bich is fluent in seven languages. He came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship as an undergraduate student and received his B.A. from Princeton University (Political Science, 1958). He did graduate work in Asian studies at Columbia University (1959-65), Japanese literature at Kyoto University (1962-63), bilingual education and theoretical linguistics at Georgetown University (1980-85).
As educator, writer, translator from the Vietnamese, and author, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has taught at George Mason University, Trinity College and Georgetown University. Trained in Vietnam, the U.S., Japan and briefly in some other countries, namely Germany (University of Munich), Austria (University of Vienna) and Spain (Madrid University), Bich is best known as the compiler, together with such renowned American poets as W.S. Merwin and Burton Raffel, of A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry (Knopf, 1975); the translator of Vietnamese Architecture (1972, from the French by Nguyen Quang Nhac and Nguyen Nang Dac) and An Ocean Apart: Contemporary Vietnamese Art from the United States and Vietnam (Smithsonian, 1995); the author of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year (East Coast USA Vietnamese Publishers Consortium, 2002); and the translator of numerous authors and poets from the Vietnamese, including Nguyen Chi Thien (Nguc Ca/Prison Songs, 1982, The Flowers of Hell, Blood Seeds Become Poetry, both published in 1996, Hoa Lo/Hanoi Hilton Stories, Yale, 2007), Bui Tin (From Enemy to Friend, Naval Institute Press, 2000), and Truong Anh Thuy’s A Mother’s Lullaby (1989).
A dedicated community leader, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has been appointed Deputy, then Acting, Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) at the U.S. Department of Education (1991-93) by President George Bush, and before retirement he was for seven years (1997-2003) Director of the Vietnamese Service, Radio Free Asia (RFA).
DAVE TRONG NGUYEN
Executive Director, AASuccess
Dave Trong Nguyen is currently working in the Director’s Office as an Intellectual Property Specialist and Assistant to the Director of the Organics, Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology Center of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Dave received his M.S. in Biotechnology and Gene Therapy from The Johns Hopkins University. Dave has received 7 consecutive Outstanding Service Awards and the Bronze Medal Award from the USPTO. The founder and current Executive Director of Asian American Success (AASuccess, www.aasuccess.org), Dave likens his role to that of a setter of a volleyball team. “Working with such a group of wonderful and multi-talented volunteers including students and career professionals, we play our respective roles to enhance collaborations among all of us to exchange best practices and resources in pursuing our formal studies, career development, and civic life” he says. “I enjoy every opportunity to realize my new potential by experiencing the profoundly rewarding act of ‘giving back’ to the community”.
Dave resides in Annandale, Virginia, with his wife Thuc and two children.
HUNG Q. NGUYEN
Former President, NCVA
Hung Quoc Nguyen is a community activist with over 20 years of hands-on community experience. He works in the high-tech industry and from 2001 to 2007 served as the President/Chief Executive Officer of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and former Chair of its signature leadership program, the Vietnamese American Youth Leadership Conference. His community involvements include leadership roles in the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL), the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia (CAPAVA), the Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG) and the Smithsonian Institution’s Vietnamese American Heritage Project. Additionally, Mr. Nguyen serves on the Virginia Asian Advisory Board, Governor’s Commission on Community and Volunteer Service, Virginia 2007 Community Citizen Planning Committee, Fairfax County (VA) Consumer Protection Commission and the President’s Advisory Board of the NAACP – San Jose Chapter. Previously, he served as Director of Public Relations for the Vietnamese Nationalist Community of Austin, an organizational recipient of the Austin Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raiser Executives’ 1999 Philanthropic Organization of the Year Award and the Executive Committee of the California State Conference of the NAACP.
Mr. Nguyen has been quoted in Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Fairfax Times, Los Angeles Times, Reuter, San Jose Mercury News, Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, NPR’s Marketplace and Talk of the Nation, XM’s The Bob Edwards Show, BBC, Radio Australia, Radio Free Asia and many other community newspapers, and has appeared on television and radio programs to inform and educate the public on issues affecting the communities of interest. He is committed to developing partnerships for and strengthening the infrastructure of the communities of interest with which he works. Mr. Nguyen has worked on community and legislative issues relating to at-risk youth, youth leadership development, economic self-sufficiency, redistricting, human rights, cultural identity, and voter education and empowerment. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts and currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
JOHN DUY-AN NGUYEN
Senior Vice President, National Geographic Society
John Duy-An Nguyen is Senior Vice President for National Geographic, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious non-profit organizations dedicated to education, science and the environment. In this capacity, Mr. Nguyen oversees an annual budget of over $40 million to support critical expeditions and scientific fieldwork; encourage geography education for students; promote natural and cultural conservation; and inspire people to care about the planet through new media, vibrant exhibitions, and live events.
Mr. Nguyen joined National Geographic in August 1998 as Director, Infrastructure Planning & Management to re-design the Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) infrastructure to support n-tier client-server applications needed for National Geographic. In December 2000, Mr. Nguyen was named Vice President responsible for supporting the technology initiatives, education, research and administrative functions of National Geographic. Five years later, he was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President in January 2006 responsible for overseeing and coordinating all aspects of global information systems and technology for National Geographic and its subsidiaries. Before joining National Geographic, he was responsible for developing and implementing an enterprise-wide strategic information technology plan for TRW. He directed all production application processing, application support and technical services for telecommunications networks at TRW.
Mr. Nguyen’s career began with an Associate of Applied Science degree (1987) in Data Processing from Northern Virginia Community College, which he achieved while working as a custodian after arriving in the United States as a refugee in August 1984. He holds both Bachelor of Science degree (1990) and Master of Science degree (1993) in Information Systems from Strayer University in Washington, DC; he also attended Harvard Business School (HBS) Executive Education program, MIT and University of Cambridge fellowship programs that span fields of engineering, science, and computation. He is a member of Technical Advisory Board at IBM. In addition, Mr. Nguyen serves as a member for NextGen (Next Generation) International Mentors Advisory Panel.
LISA T.D. NGUYEN
Executive Director, VOICE
Lisa T.D. Nguyen graduated from Arts/Law at the University of Sydney in 2005 and has worked extensively for the past two years on issues relating to refugee protection. In 2006, she volunteered at the Representative Office of the Vietnamese Community in Australia (VCA) as a legal representative, Office Manager and advocate for stateless Vietnamese people remaining in the Philippines. Currently, she is the Executive Director of VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment) and is presently working on submissions on behalf of the stateless Vietnamese in the Philippines for resettlement to Canada under a new public policy.
Lisa has held various leadership positions, including School Captain of her school, President of the Interact Club and numerous office bearer positions with the Vietnamese Students Association in Australia. For her community service work, she was awarded the Order of Australia Association Medal for Community Services. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Young Vietnamese Australian of the Year 2008 award.
DR. THANG DINH NGUYEN
Executive Director, Boat People S.O.S.
Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang came to the US as a boat person in 1979. In 1980 he co-founded Xac Dinh, a youth-focused publication. In 1986 he established a college entrance preparation project for newly arrived refugees. Most of his students are now professionals or successful business owners.He joined Boat People SOS in 1989 at the height of the boat push-backs, when thousands drowned at sea.
In 1990 he launched Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers (LAVAS), which sent pro bono lawyers to first-asylum camps. Hundreds of Vietnamese boat people were saved from repatriation. Through a lawsuit against the Department of State which reached the Supreme Court, LAVAS reunited hundreds of families with their loved ones about to be repatriated from Hong Kong. In 1995 Dr. Thang successfully advocated for the Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Refugees (ROVR) program, which has since resettled over 18,000 boat people after their repatriation to Vietnam.
Since 1996 he has worked to bring to the United States hundreds of torture survivors under the Humanitarian Operation program, thousands of adult children of torture survivors, and hundreds of former US government employees.
In 1997 he launched a community organizing initiative and has since secured $700,000 in funding for and provided over $150,000 in sub-grant to small non-profits. In that period, Boat People SOS grew from a small organization with no full-time staff and an annual budget of $23,000 into a national organization with 14 branch offices, over 60 full-time staff, and an annual budget of $4.5 million.
Dr. Thang has worked closely on the Amerasian issue. In 1997 he successfully lobbied for the resettlement of all Amerasians left behind in the Philippines. In 2000 he worked with members of the US Congress to get the US Department of State to re-open cases of Amerasians unfairly rejected. In 2003 he launched an on-going national campaign to lobby for automatic citizenship for Amerasians already resettled to the United States. Through his advocacy efforts, just last month the US resumed the processing of Amerasians in Vietnam, suspended after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Dr. Thang obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He worked as an engineer and quality control manager at a Navy lab for 13 years. He authored many technical papers and has four patented inventions. He left his engineering career in 2001 to devote his full energy to community service.
TRINH NGUYEN
General Administrator, NCVA
Currently a Pharmacist Supervisor at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Trinh Nguyen has for many years been active in community work. From the early years of Vietnamese immigration to the U.S., he had founded the Vietnamese Buddhist Association in San Antonio, Texas, to meet the spiritual needs of the new community. As the numbers increased, Trinh founded the Vietnamese Pharmacists Association to help many of his colleagues get back to professional practice.
Once serving as Co-Chairman of the Vietnamese Community in the Greater Washington D.C. Area, Trinh is almost never absent at community activities, calling for democracy in Vietnam and building a strong voice for the community. Presently serving as Vice President of the Vietnamese Senior Citizens Association, Trinh helps bringing the elders together and make their senior years as enjoyable as possible, coping with new culture and environment.
Currently, he is General Administrator in the NCVA Board of Directors. He once served as NCVA’s Executive President and it was during his watch that the first VAYLC was started (1999).
NHAN T. VO
President and Executive Producer, VATV (Vietnamese American Television); Chairman, International Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouting
Nhan Thanh Vo is a Federal employee. He used to be a Board Member of Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association and a volunteer tutor in a tutoring program at two elementary schools in Montgomery County.
A community advocate, he saw the need for creating sports activities and/or scouting for Vietnamese youngsters living in the low-income area of Silver Spring, MD. He was the founder of the Vietnamese Boy and Girl Scouts movement that has saved many kids who otherwise would have turned into delinquents or joined gang activities. He helped organize field trips over weekends and summers for economically disadvantaged Vietnamese kids who normally do not have a chance to go anywhere. He organized sport tournaments to encourage Vietnamese youngsters to spend their energy on healthy competition instead of involvement in illegal activities.
Currently, Nhan Vo is the Executive Producer for VATV (Vietnamese American Television) and SBTV (Saigon Broadcasting Television), Washington office, that seek to preserve Vietnamese culture and language while informing the community on current events of local and national interest. In recognition for all his work, he has been elected Chairman, International Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouting worldwide.