Staff

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Staff

Doua Thor is the Executive Director of Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). Ms. Thor has worked with national and grassroots Southeast Asian American organizations as well as other diverse refugee organizations for many years, formerly as a New Voices Fellow with Hmong National Development, Inc. (HND). Currently, she serves on the board of the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and is a member of the Nielsen Media Research Asian Pacific American Advisory Council.

Ms. Thor is Hmong American. She and her family immigrated from Laos to Detroit, Michigan in 1979. They were one of hundreds of thousands of Hmong families who became refugees after supporting and fighting on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War. She holds a graduate degree from the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work with a concentration in social policy and evaluation.

Phuong Do is a Consultant. She began her community work in Denver, Colorado in 1991, providing resettlement services to Vietnamese refugees. Shortly thereafter, she was hired by SEARAC (IRAC at the time) as Leadership Program Coordinator to address leadership and organizational capacity needs of Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations. She spent over six years working at the national level and with ethnically diverse immigrant groups addressing leadership development needs. Most recently, she was director of a national AmeriCorps program at the National Alliance for Vietnamese Americans (NAVASA), where she engaged young Vietnamese Americans in building community-based leadership skills through committing to a year of service at local community -based organizations.

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 exploring these issues through photography. Phuong is a committed artist and community activist. She holds a Masters in Social Work, a Masters in Photography, and is a recent Fulbright recipient to Vietnam.

Helly Lee is the Director of Policy for the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). Prior to joining SEARAC, Ms. Lee spent some time on Capitol Hill interning and later working in Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s DC office. She was also a Program Coordinator at Hmong National Development (HND) where she coordinated the annual Hmong National Conference, the HND annual scholarship and supervised interns among other roles. Ms. Lee has also worked for the Healthy Asian Americans Project at the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing, educating Asian American women about the importance of preventative women’s health and providing cultural and language appropriate services. During her graduate studies, Ms. Lee interned with the Legacies of War Project in New York which raises awareness about U.S. cluster munitions in Laos left over from the Vietnam War era that continue to maim and kill innocent children and villagers today. She also has an extensive background in child welfare and juvenile justice.

Ms. Lee received her Masters of Social Work with a concentration in Social Policy and Evaluation from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and her B.A. in Social Work and a concentration in Criminal Justice from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Eileen Morrison is the Director of Development & Operations for SEARAC. Prior to joining SEARAC, Eileen worked for the Touchstone Consulting Group on a project at the Office of Management and Budget. Eileen was an AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps volunteer in 2003 and an intern for the Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture during her study abroad in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Eileen is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where she was awarded a B.S. in Business Administration, with a double major in International Relations.

Fam SaeChao is the Operations Manager for SEARAC. She has been an organizer since she was 12, working on issues ranging from environmental and racial justice to immigration detention to LGBTQ issues. She was one of the original members of the Asian Youth Advocates in the Laotian Organization Project, an environmental justice organizing project of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. In 2003, Fam won a Public Allies fellowship to work at Khmer Girls in Action as the Program Coordinator for their leadership program. From 2004-2005, she served as the National Coordinator/Director for the Southeast Asian Freedom Network, a coalition working on Cambodian deportation issues. In 2000, Fam was recognized in Teen People magazine as one of 20 teens making a positive impact on the world. In addition, she is a published author and editor of Quietly Torn and Quietly Reborn, two literary journals that capture the history of Mien people in the United States. Fam and her family immigrated to San Francisco, CA from Chonburi, Thailand in 1985.

Monica Thammarath is the Education Advocate for SEARAC. Prior to joining SEARAC, Monica worked at Banteay Srei, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to providing the tools and support necessary for Southeast Asian women and girls to empower themselves. Monica’s involvement in the community began as a student around access to equitable and affordable education. She was heavily involved in REACH!, UC Berkeley’s A/PI Recruitment & Retention Center, and the Southeast Asian Student Coalition (SASC). Monica has also interned at UNESCO in Bangkok, Thailand and at the Rights Working Group in Washington, DC. Monica was born and raised in San Diego, California but her family arrived to the United States from Laos in 1980. Monica received a BA in Political Science, a BA in Social Welfare, and a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jonathan Tran is the California Policy Advocate for SEARAC. Prior to joining SEARAC, Jonathan worked in the California State Legislature, first as a Senate Fellow for State Senator Sheila Kuehl and then as a Legislative Aide for California State Assemblymember Mike Eng. During his time in the Legislature, Jonathan concentrated on policy issues related to K-12 education, higher education, health and human services, transportation and the state budget. In addition to his experience working in the Legislature, Jonathan has also served as an OCA intern with APIAVote, an advisor for the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project, and Vice President of the Asian Pacific Islander Capitol Association.

He holds a B.A. in Asian American Studies and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. During his undergraduate studies, Jonathan was actively involved in the Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA. Jonathan was one of the original conveners of the Count Me In! Campaign—a successful movement to disaggregate Asian American and Pacific Islander statistics gathered by the UC system.

The son of Teo-Chew refugees from Vietnam, Jonathan was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.

Nenick Vu is SEARAC's Field Organizer in California. He graduated with a B.A. in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Davis. He began his involvement with the Southeast Asian American community as a college student, participating in various college organizations such as the Hmong Student Inter-Collegiate Coalition. After college, he became a coordinator with the Hmong Women's and Men Circle. From that experience, he began specializing in advocacy and development, beginning with youth and young adults, but with hopes to expand to other community members such as elders and the disabled. In his spare time, he volunteers with a youth led television program that promotes positive art and culture in the community.