Steve Arounsack

Steve Arounsack teaches at California State University, Stanislaus. He has worked alongside the Lao diaspora and Southeast Asian groups for almost 15 years in various capacities. Along with serving on multiple boards and national organizations, he has published numerous articles and papers on the Lao, including acculturation experiences, history, and identity. At age 19, he became Editor-in-Chief of Lao Vision Magazine, the nation's first Lao-American hybrid publication. Later, he founded and became president of Pacific Arc Media LLC, a digital media company that highlighted Southeast Asian culture. In over a decade of multimedia experience in digital video, web, and print, Steve’s productions have been showcased on PBS, satellite television, at universities, and theatre venues across the nation. His media projects have been funded by the Ford Foundation, Texaco Foundation, and the California Council for the Humanities among others. Additionally, Steve coordinated the first two Lao International Film Festivals for the Center for Lao Studies.

Steve has traveled to Laos numerous times in the last 15 years to document conditions there. He co-developed a touchscreen program for the Legacies of War project to educate the public about the secret bombings in the 1960s and 70s; he is also serving as the media director for the Lao Oral History Archive.

Steve holds a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis. He was part of the inaugural class of prestigious national Gates Millennium Scholars (2000-2005), a fellow with Sustainable Communities Leadership Program (2002), and a fellow for the American Leadership Forum (2009-2010).