Speaker Bios
Michael Fung, Senior Vice President, Finance, Wal-Mart U.S.A. - Opening Remarks
Michael Fung joined Wal-Mart in 2001 as Vice President, Finance and Administration for Global Procurement. Michael was promoted to Senior Vice President, Internal Audit Services in February 2003 and was later promoted to his current position Senior Vice President, Finance Wal-Mart U.S. in 2006. In his current role, Michael is responsible for U.S. finance operations including merchandising, logistics, real estate, operations, services, global procurement, and financial planning and analysis. Michael’s involvement in the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund was initiated by Wal-Mart who asked him to increase the company’s understanding and impact on Asian Pacific Islanders on a national and local level. Michael is also an executive sponsor of Wal-Mart’s API resource group and a board advisor to the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA).
Trinh Le - Organizing in Vietnamese Communities
Trinh Le moved to Biloxi, Mississippi from California to join the movement of rebuilding the Gulf Coast post-Katrina. She first started out as a NAVASA Dan Than fellow where she worked on economic development and community buildingin the Vietnamese community and the greater community in East Biloxi. Now as a New Voices fellow with Hope Community Development Agency for two years, she is organizing local residents to identify key issues in their neighborhoods and empowering them with the tools and resources necessary to address those issues. She is involved in many organizations in the Mississippi Gulf Coast such as Coastal Women for Change, Asian Americans for Change, and the STEPS Coalition.
Christina Wadhwani - Organizing in Vietnamese Communities
Christina Wadhwani is an alumna of George Washington University where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health and is a Virginia native. At her university, she served as the President of George Washington’s VSA for two terms. She was a capstone student at Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health where she did research on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on Vietnamese American women’s mental health in the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East. She began as a NAVASA Dan Than Fellow for the Mary Queen of Viet Nam Community Development Corporation as the Health Project Assistant.
Bao Ky Vu and Kim-Hanh Dang - Speak and Be Heard: Communicate to Succeed
BaoKy is a principal of Atlas Global Capital, a private investment firm based in Atlanta. He holds degrees from Georgia Tech (BS’90) and Georgetown University (MBA’95). His current affiliations include: Leadership Georgia Class of 2008, DeKalb County Board of Registration & Elections, Finance Director of Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee, member of NAAAP-Atlanta, Vietnamese Professionals Society, Georgia Public Policy Foundation and the 159 Group. He was an honoree in the inaugural 2006 Who’s Who in Asian- American Communities. In August of 2001, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. In 2004, he served as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention and was a member of the Bush-Cheney ’04 National Steering Committee. He was a panelist on Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s Racial Reconciliation Panel in 2003 in Savannah, Georgia and currently serves as an ex-officio member of Governor Perdue’s Asian American Commission for a New Georgia.
Ms. Kim-Hanh Dang studied at the Law and Economics School in Saigon, Vietnam before emigrating to the United States after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. She earned her Bachelor Degree in Computer Information Science from GA Tech in 1981. She was the first President of GA Tech Vietnamese Student Assocation (1977 – 1981). Since graduating from GA Tech in 1981 she’s been serving as an Advisor to the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations in Georgia. 2007. She won the Million Dollar Club Award 2007 and the Dekalb County Realtor Association Rookie of the year award in 2004. Currently, she is managing the Horizon Real Estate, LLC and the Nail Elite, Inc and the Director and Producer of of Vietnamese American Broadcasting Radio – Atlanta.
Phan Dinh Minh - Strengthening Your Organization by Building Coalitions and Partnerships
Phan Dinh Minh came to the United Sates in 1975 and is a partnership specialist with the UC Census Bureau. Having been a former pilot for the Vietnamese Air Force, Minh received his BA from the Air Force Academy. His involvement includes talk show host and commentator for Saigon Dallas Radio 890 AM and Saigon Houston Radio 900 AM. Minh is a commentator for Saigon Broadcasting Television Network Dallas and publisher/editor-in-chief of the The He Magazine. He is an active member of the Vietnamese PEN Club and Vietnamese Music Association.
Huy Tran, Hong Vo and Amy Nguyen - Sponsorship
Huy Tran, Hong Vo and Amy Nguyen have seen their fair share of successful fundraising and sponsored events. Being the 2008-2009 Collective Philanthropy Project Directors, this dynamic team has outreached, network and worked with Vietnamese communities across the nation to create successful events to fundraise for VietHope. In 2005, uNAVSA established the annual CPP to provide a medium for students and youths across North America to join together behind one charitable cause build leaders, relationships and form a foundation for the Vietnamese Community.
Huy Tran - Sponsorship
Huy Tran is a graduate of San Jose State University and has been active in different levels of VSA since 2001, starting out as a member, but eventually serving in multiple officer positions, including President of UVSA Norcal and Internal Vice-President of uNAVSA. He is also a strong supporter of the labor movement, having organized workers in Mississippi and Washington DC. He is currently serving as co-director of this year’s Collective Philanthropy Project campaign supporting VietHope. At the conclusion of this year’s CPP campaign, Huy will go on to study law at Santa Clara University.
Hong Vo - Sponsorship
Hong Vo, graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelors degree in Marketing and Minor in Finance. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Hong enjoys the outdoors, especially snowboarding. Her involvement with the Vietnamese community started when she was President of the Vietnamese Student Association while in college. She also served as uNAVSA’s CoRR representative for the Southwest region and was Co-Programming Director for the uNAVSA-5 Conference held in Portland, Oregon. Currently, Hong holds the position as the Co-Director for uNAVSA’s Collective Philanthropy Project. Hong hopes to continue her involvement representing the Vietnamese community while focusing on her career ambitions in the fields of hospitality and Web 2.0.
Amy Nguyen - Sponsorship
Amy Nguyen is the Deputy Director for the Collective Philanthropy Project, an arm of the Union of North American Vietnamese Students Association, which seeks to promote volunteerism, leadership and unity among the collegiate community. She has been an active member in the Asian American community for the past seven years, and continues to promote cultural awareness in Southern California as a member of the Union of Vietnamese Students Association. She currently works as a corporate communications intern at a Fleishman Hillard in Los Angeles, where she assists in providing strategic counsel and media support to multinational and global companies. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Houston and is currently a student in Los Angeles.
Long S. Le - Historicizing Vietnamese American Experiences and Identities
Long S. Le is the Director of International Initiatives for Global Studies in the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston since 2007. He is the co-founder/lecturer of the Vietnamese Studies courses at the University of Houston where he has served as a lecturer since 2005. Le has developed and taught courses on the Vietnamese diaspora, Vietnamese American community, Vietnamese culture and society, and contemporary Vietnam. Long’s key journal publication includes "Harvard Asia Quarterly Journal," "Asian American Policy Review," "Education About Asia," and "Far Eastern Economic Review." He is a contributor to BBC-Vietnamese and Asia Times Online.
My Diem - Educational Disparities and Difficulties among Southeast Asian Communities
My Diem has been the Student Affairs Officer for the Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Davis since 2005. She serves to connect students, the ASA program, and campus resources by advising students and advocating for the educational needs of Asian American Pacific Islander students on campus. My Diem co-chaired the UC Davis Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance from 2005-2007. She earned a B.A. in Asian American Studies and Sociology from UC Davis and M.A. in Asian American Studies in 2005 from UCLA.
Hoan Dang - Transition from School to the "Real World"
Hoan Dang started volunteering with Project Homecoming to help resettle families of Amerasian children who were fathered by American soldiers in Vietnam. Since 2001, Dang has served as Board Chair/President of the Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association. In 2004, he co-founded the Montgomery County Asian American Health Initiative to help eliminate health disparities and served as Chair from 2007-2009. Dang is a founding board member of the Asian American Political Alliance in Montgomery County, the Voice of Vietnamese Americans in the Washington DC metro area, and recently elected to the Board of Coalition of Asian Pacific American Democrats in Maryland. He is a community advisor to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney and the Attorney General of Maryland.
Duy Hoang - Human Rights Issues in Vietnam
Duy Hoang passion is advocating for social justice. He is a member of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy party with members in Vietnam and around the world. He has testified before the US Congressional committees on human rights issues and written extensively on the subject. A co-founder of the Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment and serves on the Board of Directors of the Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee.
Ethan Nguyen - Vietnamese Medicine Practices and Health
Ethan Nguyen is a graduate of Vassar College. His current involvement includes his role as project manager of Philadelphia’s New Routes to Community Health, a collaborative partnership with the community to identify health disparities and develop awareness campaigns utilizing community generated multimedia. Ethan will also commence work on research projects examining the role of community-involvement and depression in AAPI geriatric populations, AAPI women, human papillomaviruses (HPV) and cancer, and the role of communication and HIV/AIDS infection in selected subgroups of foreign born AAPI men.
Quyen Dieu Nguyen - Women in Leadership Roles
Quyen Dieu Nguyen was selected as one of California's "Person of the Year" by the U.S. state's local government. She is a newsreader for the local television station and regularly MC for events organized by the overseas Vietnamese community in California. She serves as part of the management board of representatives of Vietnamese language centers for the overseas Vietnamese community in Southern California. Nguyen is currently a math teacher at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California.
Peter Nguyen - How to Change the World: The Essential Guide to Succeed in Any Organization
Peter Nguyen is currently the Executive Director of Asian American International Ministries. He has started five business start-ups over the past six years as an entrepreneur, worked as a marketing consultant for the global leader in electronic payments and is a contributing writer for a diversity business publication. For the past six years, Nguyen served in various leadership roles for youth, college, and young adult ministries in the Vietnamese American community. Having traveled the states speaking and empowering next generation Asian American leaders, he serves on a board for five national and global non-profit organizations including World AIDS Marathon, GoHub.com, Southeast Asian Committee, and Universal Outreach Cooperative.
Sonny Vu - Success: Entrepreneurship Style
Sonny Vu is currently the chairman and executive vice president at AgaMatrix, a medical devices company that he founded in 2001. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a PhD in Linguistics and received a B.S. in Mathematics as well as a B.A. in Linguistics at the University of Illinois. He currently resides in the Greater Boston area of the United States.
June Chu - Methodology of Retaining At-Risk Students in Education
June Chu is the director of the Pan-Asian American Community House. Her work focuses on guiding students and giving them light to how being involved can affect one's personal growth. Chu research encompasses the mental well-being of Asian-American populations. Her background includes receiving an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Bryn Mawr College, a masters degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University and a masters degree in Social Psychology from the University of California Davis. As a specialist in mental health, Chu lectures about Asian-American experiences and issues such as biculturalism and cultural variability.
Marc Cordon - Leadership Styles
Marc Cordon is the Associate Director of the Office of Multicultural Programs and Services and a doctoral student in the University of Georgia's Student Affairs Administration Program. Since 1996, he has conducted a variety of workshops, given keynote addresses, and presentations with a focus on leadership, student activism, and identity development around the country. Additionally, he has coordinated several national and regional conferences for Asian American youth. Marc recently received the 2007 Advisor of the Year Award from the Center for Student Leadership and Engagement.
Vu Dinh - Membership Recruitment and Retention
Vu Dinh served as the Internal Vice President for the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations Southern California from 2007-2009. Starting his involvement with the Vietnamese community back during his college years, Dinh has dedicated his time and energy to cultivating the next generation of Vietnamese youth leaders. Dinh has been co-chair of 2009 So-Cal's Tet Festival, VAHSA and UVSA Leadership Camps.
Hoan Do - Succeeding in the Real World: How to Thrive While Many Struggle to Survive
Hoan Do is a national speaker, acclaimed author and entrepreneur. Recognized as America's College Success Coach, Hoan travels across the country speaking at colleges on the topics of leadership, success and motivation. At the age of 23, Hoan published his first book titled Succeeding in the Real World What School WON'T Teach You, which helps to equip students with practical advice and knowledge to succeed in school and in the real world. Prior to starting his own company, Hoan worked as a speaker and trainer for world renowned success coach Tony Robbins where he advised and consulted with Fortune 500 companies, executives, managers and sales professionals on the areas of peak performance and achievement. After graduating from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Hoan returned home where he currently lives in Seattle, Washington. Hoan Do's website.
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