BIOGRAPHIES
Bui Diem is a consultant on Vietnam, author of "In the Jaws of History”, and
Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States from 1967 to 1972, one of the key
figures in the relationship between South Vietnamese and the U.S. in this
tumultuous period.
The former ambassador was born in North Vietnam, and like many of his peers,
joined the nationalistic revolutionary movement against the French. After WWII,
he became very involved in the Dai Viet movement, which had become a hated rival
to the Viet Minh, another nationalistic movement headed by Ho Chi Minh.
From 1954 to 1963, Mr. Bui Diem spearheaded a leading English language newspaper
in Vietnam, the Saigon Post. After 1965, he became more deeply immersed in
Vietnam’s politics by holding a cabinet minister position under Prime Minister
Phan Huy Quat, serving as special advisor for Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, and
as Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States under President Nguyen Van Thieu.
He played a key role in the last desperate attempt to secure $700 million in
military aid to defend South Vietnam against the North in 1975.
Today he lives in the Washington DC area with his family.
Top
Nguyen Quoc Tuan arrived in the United States in
1981. He resettled in Olympia, Washington as a boat people refugee.
He attended and graduated from the University of Washington (1984-1989). He worked 9 months
in Rochester, MN as an intern for IBM during his senior year of college. He was
actively involved with the Vietnamese Students Association (VSA) and the
communities in Seattle and Rochester. He was elected vice-president and president of VSA during
his sophomore and junior years, respectively.
In
1989, Tuan joined the United States Navy and served in the Persian Gulf to
enforce the No-Fly Zones over Iraq after the Persian Gulf
War. He attained the rank of Lieutenant. After his military service,
Tuan began his MBA and graduate studies at UC Irvine and the San Diego State
University. From
1994-2000, he worked for the Navy as a civilian electrical engineer/project
manager. He currently works for the US Department of State as project
executive/construction manager.
His hobbies include sports, music, travel, reading. He is a registered
professional Electrical Engineer in California
and Virginia.
Top
Born June 12, 1935, in Hanoi, Dao Thi Hoi
received her early training in Vietnam. She obtained a B.A. in English Language
and Literature from the University of Saigon in 1960. Her graduate work was
done at Columbia University in New York where she received a M.A. in Linguistics
and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in 1961, her Professional
Diploma in 1962 and her Ed. D. (Doctorate in Education) in the same field from
Teachers College, Columbia University, 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 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.
Dr. Hoi has been an educator all her life,
having taught Vietnamese and English Literature in high school (Trung Vuong H.S.
for Girls, Saigon) from 1955 to 1960; been in charge of teacher training for the
Vietnamese American Association (VAA, Saigon) from 1965 to 1968, during which
time she also cumulated 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 1969 till May 1971,
she was with WIT (World Instruction and Translation, Inc., Arlington, VA) where
she was first Senior Linguist and Chairman of the Vietnamese Department (41
teacher staff), then Academic Coordinator for the entire school (which taught 71
languages on Defense Department contracts). From August 1972 to April 1975, she
assumed both functions of Dean of Studies and Secretary-General at Mekong
University (Saigon, Vietnam). Since coming back to the States, she has been a
Counselor in Camp Management, Ft. Indian-town Gap Refugee Arrival Center (1975),
Bilingual Assistant to the ESOL Program Coordinator, Arlington Public Schools
(Arlington, VA), 1976-77, and College On-site Coordinator for the
Arlington-Trinity College Teach Corps Project in Bilingual-Multicultural
Education (Elisabeth Maxwell, Director).
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. This
association used to gather Vietnamese and American educators who are concerned
with all educational issues and aspects affecting Vietnamese, Laotian and
Cambodian students in the U.S. 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 serves as General Administrator.
In terms of management, Dr. Hoi has been
Academic Coordinator in charge of teacher training at the Vietnamese American
Association (1966-68) in Saigon and WIT in Arlington, VA (1969-71), and a
teacher trainer at Trinity College, 1978-80, and GU-BESC (Georgetown University
Bilingual Education Service Center), 1986-89. She was also the founder and
first Chairperson of the Language School attached to Saigon Univeristy Medical
School (1965-68), SEAMEO-RELC Coordinator and Rapporteur in Singapore
(representing Vietnam), Dean of Studies and Secretary-General in charge of
Management at Mekong University in Saigon (1972-75). In most of these functions
she was the first person on the job and therefore had to develop full programs
of studies for these institutions.
Dr. Hoi is often called upon to lecture
widely across the United States on Vietnamese education, contrastive analysis of
Vietnamese and English, Vietnamese-American cultural differences, ESOL
methodology and curriculum development. She is also a consummate workshop
organizer, an expert on in-service and teacher training.
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).
Top
1975-2002 , Le Van Ba, 81 years old, has been a resident of Gaithersburg, MD for
more than 27 year resident.
From
1946-1975 he worked in Vietnam as an Airline employee. Resettling in the
United States, he worked from
1978-1986 at the Montgomery County, Human Resources on Federally funded
project. He retired in June 1986.
Since 1982, Le Van Ba has been a Board Member of the Vietnamese Senior Citizen Association in the Washington
Metropolitan Area. Since 1986, he has been a member of the National Congress of Vietnamese in America (NCVA).
He has also served as a Board Member at various times. From
1988-1998, he served as Chairman of the Washington Area League of Vietnamese Associations.
He has served as the Honorary President since 1998. His associations have
also included the Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners
Association, with Mrs. Khuc Minh Tho serving as the President.
Since 1994, The Washington Area League of Vietnamese Associations became an
affiliate of FVPRA. As Chairman of the League, Mr. Le participated in all the
lobbying effort of FVPRA in Congress in favor of the resettlement of former
Vietnamese political prisoners (a.ka. the H.O. program), the over 21 single
children of former political prisoners, the McCain children, etc.
Top
Lu AnhThu 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.
AnhThu 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.
Her hobbies include traveling, sports, movies and lobbying.
Top
Nguyen Ngoc Bich is currently 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 an educator, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has taught at university
level both in Vietnam and in the United States. Since coming to the U.S. in
1975, he has taught adult education, elementary school and high school in
Arlington, Virginia, then at the university level at Trinity College, George
Mason University (where he taught Vietnamese Literature and Vietnamese Culture
and Civilization), and Georgetown University (where he was a teacher trainer in
Bilingual and Multicultural Education). Together with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi,
a linguist and ESL specialist, he was one of a group of educators who in 1979
founded NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education), the
ancestor of NAFEA (National Association for the Education and Advancement of
Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans). Mr. Bich was the third president
of NAVAE, which he headed from 1984 to 1986. Widely recognized for his work in
education, he was appointed by President Bush to the post of Deputy Director,
Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (aka OBEMLA), at the
U.S. Department of Education, where he served under Secretary Lamar Alexander
from 1991 to 1993.
Mr. Bich is Chairman, Board of Directors, of Boat People
S.O.S., Inc. a community service organization located in Falls Church, VA. He
was also the founder of National News Service, which provides news of interest
to readers of Vietnamese language newspapers worldwide, and one of the founding
members of NCVA (National Congress of Vietnamese in America, formed in 1986). He
is the author of a number of publications on Vietnam, including An Annotated
Atlas of the Republic of Vietnam (1972), North Vietnam: Backtracking on
Socialism (1971) and Literature Under Communism in Vietnam (under
press). But he is best known as a translator and writer on the arts. The author
of The Poetry of Vietnam (Asia Society of New York, 1969), A Thousand
Years of Vietnamese Poetry (Knopf, 1975), he also edited War and Exile: A
Vietnamese Anthology (Vietnamese PEN, 1989) and translated two collections
of poetry coming from the pen of Nguyen Chi Thien, Hoa Dia Nguc / The
Flowers of Hell and Hat Mau Tho / Blood Seeds Become Poetry
(both published in 1996).
In the field of art and music, he co-authored (with his wife,
Dr. Dao Thi Hoi) a bilingual collection of Christmas carols (1975) and
translated a book on Vietnamese Architecture (1972). More recently, he
has translated Truong Anh Thuy’s Truong Ca Loi Me Ru / A Mother’s
Lullaby (1989); had a hand in doing a photography book by Tran Cao Linh,
Vietnam, My Country Forever (Aide à l’Enfance du Vietnam, 1988), the
catalogue of a traveling exhibition of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American
paintings, An Ocean Apart (Smithsonian, 1996), the book Thai Tuan: Selected
Paintings and Essays (VAALA, 1996); and has completed a comprehensive
history on Seven Thousand Years of Vietnamese Ceramics (under press). His
edition of the complete works of the poetess Ho Xuan Huong (ca. 1770-1835) was
published in 2000 to wide acclaim. His most recent publication (2002) is Omar
Khayyam – Rubaiyat: Tho va Doi, a study of the famous eleventh-century
Persian poet-astronomer-philosopher and his world-renowned poetry collection
made famous by Edward Fitzgerald’s English translation.
Prior to joining RFA (in January 1997), Mr. Bich has worked
for 13 years as a Vietnamese-language Program Director for WHFS 103.4 FM and
WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC. Because of his varied background and mastery of
many aspects of Vietnamese culture, he is a much sought-after lecturer
nationwide, on college campuses, at national and international conferences.
As a world-renowned translator from and into Vietnamese, Mr.
Bich is also often asked to do simultaneous translation for international
conferences and in public courts of law.
Top
Nguyen Manh Hung is associate professor of Public and
International Affairs, director of the Indochina Program, and program
coordinator of the Asia Pacific Studies Minor, George Mason University. He
received his License en Droit (J.D.) from the Faculty of Law, University of
Saigon (1960), and both his M.A. (1963) and Ph.D. in International Relations
from the University of Virginia (1965). Prior to 1975, Dr. Hung was professor of
International Politics, National School of Public Administration and the
University of Saigon, Vietnam, and a frequent lecturer at the National Defense
College.
Outside the academia, Dr. Hung chaired several committees to reorganize
the Vietnamese civil service, served as planning advisor to the President of the
National Economic Development Fund, then Deputy Minister of National Planning of
the Republic of Vietnam. A former Fulbright Scholar and Social Science Research
Council Fellow, Dr. Hung is the author of several books, book chapters, and
articles. His major publications include Introduction to International
Relations (Saigon, 1971), Peace and Development in South Vietnam
(with Nguyen Van Hao et al, Saigon, 1973), and The Challenge of Vietnam's
Reconstruction (with A. Terry Rambo and Neil L. Jameison, Virginia, 1991).
His contributed book chapters to New Directions in the International
Relations of Southeast Asia (Singapore University Press, 1973), Refugees
in the United States (Greenwood Press, 1985), The American War in
Vietnam: Lessons, Legacies, and Implications for Future Conflict (Greenwood
Press, 1987), Refugees in America in the 1990's (Greenwood Press, 1996),
Southeast Asia On The Growth Path (Universiti Pertanian Malaysia Press,
1997) and published articles in World Affairs, Asian Survey,
Pacific Affairs, Amerasia Journal, and Journal of Asian Thought
and Society. Dr. Hung is a member of the International Studies Association
and the Association for Asian Studies and has participated in major policy
working groups on Vietnam and Indochina, including the Indochina Policy Forum of
the Aspen Institute, the Indochina Study Group of the Council on Foreign
Relations, and the Southeast Asia Working Group of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies. He has served as an advisor to the National Association
for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese
Americans (NAFEA), the National Congress of Vietnamese in America (NCVA), and
the Vietnamese Association for Computing, Engineering Technology and Science (VACETS).
COURSES TAUGHT: American Foreign Policy, Introduction to International Politics,
Government and Politics of Asia
CURRENT RESEARCH: Vietnamese government and politics, U.S.-Vietnamese Relations,
U.S. foreign policy toward Asia, Transformation of Communism with special
emphasis on China and Vietnam.
Top
Hung Quoc Nguyen has been a community activist and has over 18 years of hands-on
community experience. He works in the high-tech industry and currently serves as
the Chief Executive Officer/President of the National Congress of Vietnamese
Americans, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and Chair of the Vietnamese
American Youth Leadership Conference. His community involvements include
leadership roles in the Conference of Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL)
and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia (CAPAVA). Additionally,
Mr. Nguyen serves on the President's Advisory Board of the NAACP - San José
Chapter and the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission. 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's current goal with NCVA is to raise funds for NCVA's $1 Million
Endowment Fund to create an office with full-time staff that will continually
advocate for issues on behalf of Vietnamese Americans and to train young
Vietnamese Americans to have greater leadership roles in their respective
communities.
Mr. Nguyen has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San José
Mercury News, Associated Press, Reuter, Fairfax Times 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 (Vietnamese Heritage Flag) and voter education and empowerment. He
holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts and currently resides in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area.
Top
Dang Pham has been appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie
Brown as Executive Director of the Immigrant Rights Commission/City Census 2000
Liaison on October 18, 1999. With this appointment, Dang was the first
Vietnamese American appointed as the Department Head in the history of the City
and County of San Francisco.
He was the former Deputy Assistant Secretary/Chief of Staff
of the Office of Bilingual Education & Minority Languages Affairs, US Department
of Education. Dang was appointed by President Clinton on February 28, 1994. In
November 1996, he was on a one-year special assignment as the Deputy Director of
the Office of Presidential Personnel in the White House for outreach to the
Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders community.
Dang left Washington, D.C. in 1998 and became the Executive
Director of Petrusky Educational Center in Garden Grove, Orange County. The
center offers an after school program for the Vietnamese students in the Orange
County area.
Dang Pham was appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis of
Massachusetts in 1986 as the Educational Program Director of the Massachusetts
Office for Refugees & Immigrants. He was the first Asian American
appointed as the Commissioner of the Fair Housing Commission of the City of
Boston. He was a secondary math teacher and discipline coordinator in
Boston Public Schools for 7 years. He was a delegate to the Democratic
National Conventions in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Dang received a number of national awards to recognize his
strong commitment and advocate for the language minority community such as:
-
National Service Award from National Association for
Education of Asian & Pacific Americans (NAAPEA)
-
Outstanding Community Service Award from National Association
for the Education & Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian & Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA)
-
Ambassador in Education Award from the Vietnamese American
Professional & Engineer Society (VASPES)
-
Ten Young Leaders Award from Boston Jaycees
-
Nominee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce’s 2001
Public Managerial Excellence Award
Top
Nam Van Pham has been a community activist for more than 20
years. Currently, he chairs the Massachusetts Governor Asian American Commission
and the American Cancer Society’s Asian American Advisory Board. He has traveled
to many states and countries to inform the American and international public
about human right abuses in Vietnam by Hanoi communist government. Recently, he
organized the Massachusetts Commission for Human Rights in Vietnam, a coalition
of Vietnamese American organizations and leading activists to advocate for
respect of religious freedom and other individual rights for Vietnam. He is also
establishing the Next Vietnam Foundation, whose goal is to advocate for an open
Vietnamese society, which includes free elections and government accountability.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the Federated
Dorchester Neighborhood Houses, VietAid,
and Veteran Benefits Clearing House. Previously, Governor Weld appointed him to
chair the Governor’s Advisory Council on Refugees and Immigrants.
After having served the Commonwealth as Commissioner of the
Office for Refugees and Immigrants for four years and Deputy Director of
International Trade for one year, he returned to the private sector. He has been
a Vice President of Metropolitan Banking for Citizens Bank since August 2000.
In 1990, the Boston Jaycees honored him as one of the 10
Outstanding Young Leaders. He holds a Master Degree from Harvard’s Kennedy
School of Government and BS from University of Minnesota. He is a fellow of The
Royal Institute for International Affairs, British-American Project. Nam also
taught at Tuft University on Vietnam War as well as US immigration policy.
Top
Jackie Bong-Wright received
her Bachelor of Arts, University of Bordeaux, France and Saigon University, Vietnam in
1964. In 1984, she received a M.Sc. in Foreign Service, Georgetown
University, International Relations.
Jackie Bong-Wright has been involved in numerous
activities.
In 1981, she was named one
of ten outstanding Asian-Americans in the U.S. for 1981 by U.S.-Asia Institute,
Washington, D.C. In 1995, she was
awarded the Key to the City of Kingston,
Jamaica by the Mayor for her social work. Her book Autumn Cloud: From
Vietnamese War Widow to American Activist was published in 2001.
2002 –
Outreach Worker, Project Resilience, Department of Human Services, Arlington County, counseling
Vietnamese affected by 9/11.
2000 – Certified
Medical Interpreter, Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center (NOVA-AHEC).
2000 -
Recruiter and Trainer of enumerators, U.S. Census Bureau.
1999 –
President & CEO, Vietnamese-American Voters Association (VAVA).
Educates Vietnamese-Americans on how to access services that contribute to
citizens’ civic, social, health, and economic growth.
1998 –
Consultant on educational and health-related issues to public and private
organizations. Conducts surveys and needs’ assessments. Organizes workshops and
conferences, and gives lectures on cross-cultural and belief systems to
Department of Health and to public schools.
Radio talk show host
on Vietnamese radio. Interview Vietnamese on topics including women, youth,
health, politics, and the economy.
Reporter,
Asian Fortune and various Vietnamese newspapers, reporting on community
activities.
1985 – 1997 Accompanied
diplomat husband to Thailand, Mexico, Trinidad, Jamaica and Brazil,
and did immigration work in U.S. Embassies.
From 1964-1972, she taught
French at the Alliance Francaise, Saigon, Vietnam. From 1972-1975, she
served as the Director of Cultural Activities for the Vietnamese-American
Association in Saigon, Vietnam. From 1979-1982, she served as the
Executive Director of the Indochinese Refugees Social Services (IRSS) which
provided resettlement and employment services to refugee boat people.
Top
