Staff

Doua Thor

Executive Director

Doua Thor is the Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). She and her family were among the many thousands of Hmong refugees who were resettled in the United States after supporting and fighting alongside the U.S. during the Vietnam War. The Thor family was resettled in Detroit, Michigan in 1979 where Doua spent much of her youth volunteering and working with Southeast Asian American communities. Over the years, Doua has gained a wealth of experience working with national and grassroots Southeast Asian American and refugee serving organizations.

Doua was appointed by President Obama to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2010. She currently serves on the board or in a leadership position in a number of organizations and coalitions, including the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and the executive committee of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA). Additionally, through her leadership, SEARAC is a core work group member of the Diverse Elders Coalition (DEC), an initiative supported through Atlantic Philanthropies to improve the lives of vulnerable elders. Doua was selected as a New Voices Fellow in 2002, an American Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2008, and an Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute (APAWLI) Fellow in 2009.

She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and her Bachelor of Arts from Wayne State University.

Quyen Dinh

Director of Education Policy

Quyen Dinh is the Director of Education Policy for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). In this role, Quyen focuses on implementing SEARAC’s Southeast Asian American Action and Visibility in Education (SAVE) program. Prior to joining SEARAC, Quyen served as Senior Program Manager of the International Children Assistance Network (ICAN) in San Jose, CA. At ICAN, she oversaw an early childhood education campaign that serves Vietnamese immigrant families through community education channels ranging from parenting workshops, to weekly radio programs and community forums.

Quyen holds a Master of Public Policy from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs with a focus in education policy and research methods. At UCLA, Quyen spent her summer internship with Education Pioneers, a national human capital organization building the pipeline of talent to address the urban education crisis. With Education Pioneers, she worked with the Silicon Valley Education Foundation on Lessonopoly, an online open-source consortium of lesson plans. Quyen also co-founded a graduate student organization called Policy Professionals for Diversity & Equity with the mission to provide a forum for students and alumni toadvocate for diversity and equity within the Masters of Public Policy program at UCLA. Upon graduation, she was honored with awards for MPP Student of the Year, Outstanding Academic Achievement, and Academic Leadership. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Quyen grew up in both Orange County, CA and San Jose, CA, homes to the two largest Vietnamese American communities in the United States.

Phuong Do

Director of Training and Technical Assistance

Phuong Do is the Director of Technical Assistance and Training for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). At SEARAC, Phuong’s work is focused on strengthening organizational structure of local community based organizations so that they can increase their capacity to better serve and represent their communities. Phuong began her community work in Denver, Colorado in 1991, providing resettlement services to Vietnamese refugees. Shortly thereafter, she was hired by SEARAC as Leadership Program Coordinator to address leadership and organizational capacity needs of Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations (MAAs). She spent over six years working at the national level with ethnically diverse immigrant groups addressing leadership development needs. Phuong has also directed a national AmeriCorps program that engaged young Vietnamese Americans in building community-based leadership skills through committing to a year of service at local community-based organizations.

Currently, Phuong is working with refugee self-help groups from Bhutan and Burma, providing individualized technical assistance and training to community leaders as they organize to create their own voice and gain greater access to services and resources for their community members.

Phuong has extensive experience and knowledge in leadership development and capacity building specific to refugee and immigrant-led organizations. Her work with immigrants and refugees has also inspired her to examine ethnic/cultural identity, national allegiance and homeland issues through visual representation, and she has devoted the past 10 years to exploring these issues through photography. She holds a Master of Social Work degree, and a Master of Photography degree.

Eric Nguyen

Development & Operations Coordinator

Eric Nguyen is the Development & Operations Coordinator of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). In this role, Eric will be focusing on the financial and budget management of SEARAC. Eric graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nonprofit Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining SEARAC, Eric was with the Catalyst Foundation, an NGO that focuses on community development in Vietnam and identity development for Vietnamese-American adoptees. He is also very active in the Vietnamese American community and currently serves on the Council of Regional Representatives from the Midwest for the Union of North American Vietnamese Student's Association (UNAVSA), as well as Chair of the Civic engagement committee for UNAVSA. His mother and father both escaped from Vietnam separately after the fall of Saigon and met each other in the states."

Riamsalio (Kao) Phetchareun

Research & Special Projects Manager

Riamsalio (Kao) Phetchareun is the Research & Special Projects Manager for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). At SEARAC, Kao’s program work focuses on coordinating SEARAC’s annual Leadership and Advocacy Training and assisting with training and technical assistance to local community-based organizations. His policy work centers on economic development and census related issues.

Kao graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and a certificate in Asian American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a Master of International Public Affairs degree with an emphasis on policy analysis from the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining SEARAC, Kao was actively involved with student organizations and multicultural initiatives both as an undergraduate and graduate student. Kao is Laotian American. His family emigrated from Laos in 1988 and relocated to the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area.