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About NCVA
Founded in 1986, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community advocacy organization working to advance the cause of Vietnamese Americans in a plural but united America – e pluribus unum – by participating actively and fully as civic minded citizens engaged in the areas of education, culture and civil liberties.


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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Subject to the provisions of the Corporation Act, the Articles of Incorporation, and the Bylaws, the business and affairs of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans shall be managed, and all corporate powers shall be exercised by or under the direction of the National Board of Directors.

* Serves on the Executive Committee

Dao Thi Hoi

Born June 12, 1935, in Hanoi, Dao Thi Hoi received her early training in Vietnam.  She obtained a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Saigon in 1960.  Her graduate work was done at Columbia University in New York where she received a M.A. in Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in 1961, her Professional Diploma in 1962 and her Ed. D. (Doctorate in Education) in the same field from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1965.

Dr. Hoi—as she is professionally known—retired in June 2000 after 46 years of teaching (high school, college and university levels).  Her last function before retirement was ESL Chairperson at Edison High School in Fairfax, VA.  Before then, she taught Vietnamese Culture and Civilization in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), was a bilingual teacher trainer at Trinity College (Washington, DC), in various Teacher Corps projects and in the School of Languages and Linguistics (SLL), Georgetown University.

Dr. Hoi has been an educator all her life, having taught Vietnamese and English Literature in high school (Trung Vuong H.S. for Girls, Saigon) from 1955 to 1960; been in charge of teacher training for the Vietnamese American Association (VAA, Saigon) from 1965 to 1968, during which time she also cumulated the functions of Chairperson, Language Department, University of Saigon Faculty of Medicine, and Lecturer at various universities in South Vietnam (Saigon Faculty of Letters and Faculty of Pedagogy, and Van Hanh Buddhist University).  In 1967-68, she represented Vietnam on the Southeast Asian Regional English Language Center (RELC) Coordinating Committee and was concurrently Rapporteur for SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization)-RELC Coordinating Committee (Singapore).  From 1969 till May 1971, she was with WIT (World Instruction and Translation, Inc., Arlington, VA) where she was first Senior Linguist and Chairman of the Vietnamese Department (41 teacher staff), then Academic Coordinator for the entire school (which taught 71 languages on Defense Department contracts).  From August 1972 to April 1975, she assumed both functions of Dean of Studies and Secretary-General at Mekong University (Saigon, Vietnam).  Since coming back to the States, she has been a Counselor in Camp Management, Ft. Indian-town Gap Refugee Arrival Center (1975), Bilingual Assistant to the ESOL Program Coordinator, Arlington Public Schools (Arlington, VA), 1976-77, and College On-site Coordinator for the Arlington-Trinity College Teach Corps Project in Bilingual-Multicultural Education (Elisabeth Maxwell, Director).

Dr. Hoi is one of the founding members of NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education) in which she served as one of the original Vice Presidents, from 1979 to 1989.  This association used to gather Vietnamese and American educators who are concerned with all educational issues and aspects affecting Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian students in the U.S.  As a founding member of NCVA (National Congress of Vietnamese in America) since 1986, Dr. Hoi has also been a long-time member of NCVA’s Board of Directors, where she serves as General Administrator.

In terms of management, Dr. Hoi has been Academic Coordinator in charge of teacher training at the Vietnamese American Association (1966-68) in Saigon and WIT in Arlington, VA (1969-71), and a teacher trainer at Trinity College, 1978-80, and GU-BESC (Georgetown University Bilingual Education Service Center), 1986-89.  She was also the founder and first Chairperson of the Language School attached to Saigon University Medical School (1965-68), SEAMEO-RELC Coordinator and Rapporteur in Singapore (representing Vietnam), Dean of Studies and Secretary-General in charge of Management at Mekong University in Saigon (1972-75).  In most of these functions she was the first person on the job and therefore had to develop full programs of studies for these institutions.

Dr. Hoi is often called upon to lecture widely across the United States on Vietnamese education, contrastive analysis of Vietnamese and English, Vietnamese-American cultural differences, ESOL methodology and curriculum development.  She is also a consummate workshop organizer, an expert on in-service and teacher training.

Dr. Hoi is the author and/or co-author of a number of educational materials, including a famous sound-slide presentation (1/2 hour long) entitled Vietnamese Culture and Language (1975) and a very well-known paper on the history of the Vietnamese language, which she co-authored with Nguyen Ngoc Bich, “Linguistic Strata in the History of the Vietnamese Language” (published by The Indochina Institute, George Mason University, 1983).  Her doctoral dissertation deal with “Representation of Time and Time-Relationships in English and Vietnamese,” a comparative analysis (1965).
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Lu Anh Thu

Lu AnhThu arrived in the United States in 1975 at Camp Pendleton, CA.  In 1976, her family moved to Falls Church, Virginia.  She graduated from the George Washington University in 1982 and received her advance degree from Strayer University in 1994.

AnhThu has worked for Computer Sciences Corporation since 1987.  In 1998 and 1999, she joined the Da Hieu Youth Alliance and the Vietnamese American Youth Movement, respectively. She currently serves as a member of the Fairfax County (VA) Consumer Protection Commission.

Her hobbies include traveling, sports, movies and lobbying.
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Hoang Quoc Tuan

Nguyen Quoc Tuan arrived in the United States in 1981.  He resettled in Olympia, Washington as a boat people refugee.  He attended and graduated from the University of Washington (1984-1989). He worked 9 months in Rochester, MN as an intern for IBM during his senior year of college. He was actively involved with the Vietnamese Students Association (VSA) and the communities in Seattle and Rochester.  He was elected vice-president and president of VSA during his sophomore and junior years, respectively.

In 1989, Tuan joined the United States Navy and served in the Persian Gulf to enforce the No-Fly Zones over Iraq after the Persian Gulf War.  He attained the rank of Lieutenant.  After his military service, Tuan began his MBA and graduate studies at UC Irvine and the San Diego State University.  From 1994-2000, he worked for the Navy as a civilian electrical engineer/project manager.  He currently works for the US Department of State as project executive/construction manager.

His hobbies include sports, music, travel, reading.  He is a registered professional Electrical Engineer in California and Virginia.
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Huynh Si Nghi

Nghi Si Huynh, Asian American PressNghi Huynh is the Founder and CEO of the Asian Business & Community Publishing, Inc. (ABC Publishing), which is composed of two distinct branches. The publishing group produces the Asian American Press, a weekly newspaper, and the Asian Business & Community Directory, an annual phonebook. The second branch of ABC Publishing, Inc. is ABC Consulting Services, a business development agency.

A very active member of the community, Mr. Huynh is currently serving as President of the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. A past member of the National Board of Directors of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), Mr. Huynh also held the position of Vice President of the Minnesota chapter of AAJA.

Mr. Huynh arrived in the United States in 1975 as a refugee and began a new life in Minnesota. Although he had journalistic training and experience in his native Vietnam, upon his arrival in Minnesota, Mr. Huynh returned to school to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. Before his graduation from the University of Minnesota in 1980, Mr. Huynh served as Student Representative for the university’s Senate, and founded and directed an Asian American Cultural Center. He also received the university’s student leadership and service award each of his four years studying.

Along with his full-time job as Publisher and Editor for the Asian American Press and ABC Directory, Mr. Huynh also manages ABC Consulting Services. He also devotes his time to many community projects, particularly in real estate and media developments.

At a recent Asian Appreciation Banquet, Mr. Huynh was recognized with an award for his outstanding service and involvement, both within and beyond the Asian community.
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Nguyen Ngoc Bich

Nguyen Ngoc Bich is a former Director of the Vietnamese Service at Radio Free Asia (RFA). Born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and educated in Saigon, the United States, Japan and Europe, Mr. Bich is fluent in seven languages. He came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship as an undergraduate student and received his B.A. from Princeton University (Political Science, 1958). He did graduate work in Asian studies at Columbia University (1959-65), Japanese literature at Kyoto University (1962-63), bilingual education and theoretical linguistics at Georgetown University (1980-85).

As an educator, Nguyen Ngoc Bich has taught at university level both in Vietnam and in the United States. Since coming to the U.S. in 1975, he has taught adult education, elementary school and high school in Arlington, Virginia, then at the university level at Trinity College, George Mason University (where he taught Vietnamese Literature and Vietnamese Culture and Civilization), and Georgetown University (where he was a teacher trainer in Bilingual and Multicultural Education). Together with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi, a linguist and ESL specialist, he was one of a group of educators who in 1979 founded NAVAE (National Association for Vietnamese American Education), the ancestor of NAFEA (National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans). Mr. Bich was the third president of NAVAE, which he headed from 1984 to 1986. Widely recognized for his work in education, he was appointed by President Bush to the post of Deputy Director, Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs (aka OBEMLA), at the U.S. Department of Education, where he served under Secretary Lamar Alexander from 1991 to 1993.

Mr. Bich is Chairman, Board of Directors, of Boat People S.O.S., Inc. a community service organization located in Falls Church, VA. He was also the founder of National News Service, which provides news of interest to readers of Vietnamese language newspapers worldwide, and one of the founding members of NCVA (National Congress of Vietnamese in America, formed in 1986). He is the author of a number of publications on Vietnam, including An Annotated Atlas of the Republic of Vietnam (1972), North Vietnam: Backtracking on Socialism (1971) and Literature Under Communism in Vietnam (under press). But he is best known as a translator and writer on the arts. The author of The Poetry of Vietnam (Asia Society of New York, 1969), A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry (Knopf, 1975), he also edited War and Exile: A Vietnamese Anthology (Vietnamese PEN, 1989) and translated two collections of poetry coming from the pen of Nguyen Chi Thien, Hoa Dia Nguc / The Flowers of Hell and Hat Mau Tho / Blood Seeds Become Poetry (both published in 1996).

In the field of art and music, he co-authored (with his wife, Dr. Dao Thi Hoi) a bilingual collection of Christmas carols (1975) and translated a book on Vietnamese Architecture (1972). More recently, he has translated Truong Anh Thuy’s Truong Ca Loi Me Ru / A Mother’s Lullaby (1989); had a hand in doing a photography book by Tran Cao Linh, Vietnam, My Country Forever (Aide à l’Enfance du Vietnam, 1988), the catalogue of a traveling exhibition of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American paintings, An Ocean Apart (Smithsonian, 1996), the book Thai Tuan: Selected Paintings and Essays (VAALA, 1996); and has completed a comprehensive history on Seven Thousand Years of Vietnamese Ceramics (under press). His edition of the complete works of the poetess Ho Xuan Huong (ca. 1770-1835) was published in 2000 to wide acclaim. His most recent publication (2002) is Omar Khayyam – Rubaiyat: Tho va Doi, a study of the famous eleventh-century Persian poet-astronomer-philosopher and his world-renowned poetry collection made famous by Edward Fitzgerald’s English translation.

Prior to joining RFA (in January 1997), Mr. Bich has worked for 13 years as a Vietnamese-language Program Director for WHFS 103.4 FM and WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC. Because of his varied background and mastery of many aspects of Vietnamese culture, he is a much sought-after lecturer nationwide, on college campuses, at national and international conferences.

As a world-renowned translator from and into Vietnamese, Mr. Bich is also often asked to do simultaneous translation for international conferences and in public courts of law.
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Nguyen Quoc Hung

Hung Quoc Nguyen has been a community activist and has over 20 years of hands-on community experience. He works in the high-tech industry and serves as the President/Chief Executive Officer of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and former Chair of its signature leadership program, the Vietnamese American Youth Leadership Conference. His community involvements include leadership roles in the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL), the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia (CAPAVA), the Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG) and the Smithsonian Institution's Vietnamese American Heritage Project. Additionally, Mr. Nguyen serves on the Virginia Asian Advisory Board, Governor's Commission on Community and Volunteer Service, Virginia 2007 Community Citizen Planning Committee, Fairfax County (VA) Consumer Protection Commission and the President's Advisory Board of the NAACP - San José Chapter. Previously, he served as Director of Public Relations for the Vietnamese Nationalist Community of Austin, an organizational recipient of the Austin Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raiser Executives’ 1999 Philanthropic Organization of the Year Award and the Executive Committee of the California State Conference of the NAACP.

Mr. Nguyen has been quoted in the Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Fairfax Times, Los Angeles Times, Reuter, San José Mercury News, Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, NPR's Marketplace and Talk of the Nation, XM's The Bob Edwards Show, BBC, Radio Australia, Radio Free Asia and many other community newspapers, and has appeared on television and radio programs to inform and educate the public on issues affecting the communities of interest. He is committed to developing partnerships for and strengthening the infrastructure of the communities of interest with which he works. Mr. Nguyen has worked on community and legislative issues relating to at-risk youth, youth leadership development, economic self-sufficiency, redistricting, human rights, cultural identity, and voter education and empowerment. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts and currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
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