Board Of Directors

Sarah R. Kith

Sarah R. Kith is the chair of the SEARAC board. Sarah first arrived in the United States as a child refugee from Cambodia. Today, she works as an ombudsman at the American Red Cross and serves as a confidential, neutral, and independent resource for people to share concerns about the Red Cross and assists in finding options to address those concerns. She is a community leader who works with many people from across diverse backgrounds, bringing ideas and creative synergy to accomplish goals. In 2002, Sarah was one of 500 international facilitators for the America Speaks "Listening to the City" event. This event engaged 5,000 survivors from the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area impacted by 9/11 to discuss the future footprint of the twin towers.

Sarah has held numerous leadership roles in various Cambodian American organizations, including as the current vice chair for the National Cambodian American Organization, as the past president of the Cambodian Investment Group, and as past chair for the Night of the Apsara Second Annual Fundraiser in support of Friends Without A Border (FWAB). Night of the Apsara is an ad-hoc planning group consisting predominantly of Cambodian Americans who sponsor an annual fundraising event to support the Angkor Hospital for Children, providing Cambodian children access to health care.

Sarah received her undergraduate degree in an Interdisciplinary Study (Communication, Legal Institution, Economics, and Government) from the American University in Washington, DC and her Master of Science degree from the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She is also a mother to three wonderful sons, Camerin, Zackiri, and Jareth.

Vichet Chhuon

Vichet Chhuon is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Human Development and affiliate faculty in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He teaches courses on research methods, ethnic identity, and child and adolescent development. Broadly, Vichet’s research focuses on meeting the needs of immigrant and marginalized students, examining the relationships between educational institutions, families, and social context, and employing interdisciplinary frameworks and diverse methodologies to the study of education. His work has appeared in leading journals including Youth and Society, Educational Administration Quarterly and Adolescence. Vichet grew up in Los Angeles (Van Nuys to be exact!) and earned his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Kevin Fong

Kevin Fong is the Founder and President of Elemental Partners, an organizational design and development firm that specializes in building leadership capacity; strategic planning; facilitation; teambuilding; evaluation; executive coaching; board development; and organizational systems. His mission is to clarify purpose, align principles, and integrate systems to cultivate health and prosperity in the workplace.

Kevin has extensive experience in facilitating trainings, retreats and meetings in a variety of settings, especially with diverse, multi-ethic/multi-lingual groups. He also serves as lead faculty in several leadership training programs and fellowships.  He coaches corporate and nonprofit executive leaders and facilitates seminars and conferences on leadership and organizational design.

The foundation of Kevin’s work is built upon “The Five Elements of Success,” a system that uses Eastern traditions and philosophies, along with conventional organizational and leadership theories to design functional and harmonious organizational systems. He has trained and lectured on the “The Five Elements of Success” system throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Prior to creating his consulting practice in 1995, Kevin spent five years in the management development program at Macy’s CA. He then moved to the nonprofit sector, where he directed the HIV program at Asian Health Services in Oakland, CA. Kevin supervised a multi-cultural staff who spoke 15 languages. He worked on the frontlines of client services and designed and coordinated outreach and organizational strategies, program management, public policy, evaluation, and fundraising activities.

In addition, Kevin was awarded a three-year fellowship from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. During his assignments in East Africa, Brazil, Guatemala, Turkey, Central and Eastern Europe, and throughout the U.S., Kevin paid particular attention to the effects of globalization on families, neighborhoods, and villages from the context of social justice and citizen leadership. He has served on numerous community and national boards, and has played a key role in the development of several HIV and social service organizations. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Kevin lives with his partner and two sons in San Francisco.

Bill Ong Hing

Bill Ong Hing is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law Emeritus, at the University of California, Davis. He teaches Rebellious Lawyering, Immigration Law and Policy, Evidence, and Negotiation. Professor Hing is the founder of, and continues to volunteer as General Counsel for, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco. He started his legal career as a legal services attorney in San Francisco. Throughout his career, he has pursued social justice by combining community work, litigation, and scholarship. He is the author of numerous academic and practice-oriented books and articles on immigration policy and community lawyering. His most recent book is Ethical Borders: NAFTA, Globalization, and Mexican Migration (Temple Press 2010). His other books include Deporting Our Souls—Values, Morality, and Immigration Policy (Cambridge Univ. Press 2006), Defining America Through Immigration Policy (Temple Univ. Press 2004), Making and Remaking Asian America Through Immigration Policy (Stanford Press 1993), Handling Immigration Cases (Aspen Publishers 1995), and Immigration and the Law—a Dictionary (ABC-CLIO 1999). His book, To Be An American, Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation (NYU Press 1997) received the award for Outstanding Academic Book in 1997 by the librarians’ journal Choice. He was also co-counsel in the precedent-setting Supreme Court asylum case, INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987). He is an advisor to the Asian Law Caucus, the Asian American Justice Center, and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

Linda Kim

Linda Kim is the Deputy Director of OneJustice, where she is responsible for expanding the organization's operational processes to ensure scalable infrastructure and organizational growth. Linda also oversees all OneJustice programs, focusing her advocacy on federal legislation, funding, and regulations that affect the capacity of California nonprofit legal organizations to serve clients. While at the University of San Francisco School of Law, she clerked with the State Bar of California Office of Chief Trial Counsel, mediated in Small Claims Division of San Francisco County Superior Court, and lobbied at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. Linda has worked in Cambodia and Indonesia developing legal advocacy projects, and in Costa Rica as a translator with the Central American Human Rights Commission. Linda currently serves on the Regulations and Restrictions Committee of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s (NLADA) Civil Policy Group and is thrilled to join the SEARAC Board.

Board Of Directors

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