STAFF

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 (NCVA) shall be managed, and all corporate powers shall be exercised by or under the direction of the National Board of Directors.  In carrying out its mission and programs, NCVA works with subject matter experts to ensure the highest quality of performance.

• Board of Directors
• Advisory Board
• Staff
  • Hung Quoc Nguyen
• Interns
  • Ly LaHong
  • Phuong Mai Nguyen
  • Trinh Tran
  • Christina Wadhwani
• Consultants
  • Raul Catangui
  • Patricia Hughes
  • Christine Hyland, CFRE
  • Vu H. Pham

Hung Quoc Nguyen
President / Chief Executive Officer

Hung Quoc Nguyen has been a community activist and has over 18 years of hands-on community and social service experience. He works in the high-tech industry and currently serves as the President/Chief Executive Officer of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and Chair of the Vietnamese American Youth Leadership Conference. His community involvements include leadership roles in the Conference of Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL), the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans of Virginia (CAPAVA) and the Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG). Additionally, Mr. Nguyen serves on the Virginia Asian Advisory Board, 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's current goal with NCVA is to raise funds for NCVA's $1 Million Endowment Fund to create an office with full-time paid staff that will continually advocate for issues on behalf of Vietnamese Americans and to train young Vietnamese Americans to have greater leadership roles in their respective communities.

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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LaHong Ly
2005 Summer Intern

Bio to be updated.

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Trinh Tran
2005 Summer Intern

Trinh is a resident of Rosemead, California. She currently attends the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She is majoring in International Affairs with concentrations on developmental studies and global health and minors in Anthropology. Trinh recently returned from a semester abroad in Kenya where she completed a research project and studied development and health.

Trinh is committed to community service and leadership. She completed 600 hours of community service as a two year Jumpstart Americorp member which is a program that partners college students with a head-start child to build literacy, language and social development. She also led an alternative spring break community service trip to Natchez, Mississippi.

Trinh has shown her commitment to the Asian American population through her involvement at her school and community. She has served as an executive officer in the Asian Student Alliance and Vietnamese Student Association at her school, has spent time tutoring Vietnamese youth at Boat People, S.O.S. in Columbia Heights and is a 2003 Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) scholar. Trinh was the summer 2003 intern for community development and strengthening at the National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA). She is currently a chair on the East Coast Asian American (ECAASU) Conference Board at the George Washington University who will host the conference in 2006.

This summer, Trinh is conducting a research project on Vietnamese women in the nail salon industry through a grant from the George Washington University Anthropology Department and the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans (NCVA).

Research Project - Vietnamese Women in the Nail Salon Industry

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Phuong Mai Nguyen
2006 Summer Intern

Phuong Mai Nguyen is a 4th year undergraduate at the University of Virginia. Phuong Mai will be graduating in May of 2007 with a BA in Government with a concentration in American Government as well as with a BA in Religious Studies, concentration in Buddhism. Having served on the executive board of the Vietnamese Student Association at UVA over the past two years, Phuong Mai is currently holding the office of President through the Spring of 2007.

The Vietnamese Student Association has opened doorways for Phuong Mai to partake in sharing the Vietnamese culture throughout the Charlottesville community through choreographing dances and coordinating major culture shows. She has also utilized her organizational skills to accomplish the two most successful PhởFests ever held at UVA. With no phở restaurants in Charlottesville, UVA students of all backgrounds eagerly await the annual dinner in which money is raised for charity. The past two years saw hundreds of dollars raised for Madison House Holiday sharing, wherein a local family was sponsored for the holiday season, as well as for the Vietnam Children’s Fund, which helps build schools throughout Vietnam.

Phuong Mai has attended Gia Đình Phật Tử for the last six years and over time has become not only a committed member, but also a leader among her peers as well as younger children attending the youth group. Through GĐPT she has regularly participated and organized fundraisers for Chùa Hoa Nghiêm, as well as others in the area. GDPT has also been a means through which Phuong Mai has frequently contributed to community outreach.

Following graduation in May of 2007, Phuong Mai plans to attend a law school.

Funded by Citigroup Foundation.

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Christina Wadhwani
2006 Summer Intern

Christina D. Wadhwani is an undergraduate student at the George Washington University. She plans to graduate in the Spring of 2008 with her Bachelors in Public Health and a concentration in Global Public Policy. Christina is currently the Vice President of the Vietnamese Student Association at her University, and will serve as the Association's President for the 2006-2007 school year.

As an active member in the Asian Pacific Islander American Community, Christina helped plan a one day Seminar for High School Students. The College Preparation Seminar on January 28, 2006 with funding support from the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans helped Vietnamese and Vietnamese American High School Students and their parents answer any questions they had on financial aid, college life, and extra curricular activities. Christina led a workshop which allowed the students to face issues and generalizations on their Vietnamese identity. The Seminar also comprised of a Leadership workshop which was led by the Organization of Chinese Americans to help high school students develop their leadership skills. Christina also served as a panelist on a Financial Aid panel to help students and parents explore different ways to fund college.

Christina also served on the Programming Committee for the East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference (ECAASU). The Conference took place during President's Day weekend, February 17-19, 2006, and had over 1,000 delegates attending from the East Coast. As a member on the Programming Committee, Christina invited workshop facilitators, panelists, and speakers while she arranged workshop topics and panel discussions for the conference.

For spring break, Christina led a group of three girls to New Orleans though funding from the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans and the Freddie Mac Corporation. The one-week alternative spring break trip was spent at a Vietnamese Church where Christina and her fellow members of VSA helped rebuild homes, restore churches, and organize donated goods.

Christina is dedicated to benefiting the Vietnamese Community as well as promote public health awareness not only in America, but overseas as well. She hopes to study abroad in Africa while helping the women, children, and elderly in need of proper health care.

Funded by the American Dream Team Program, a partnership of National CAPACD and Fannie Mae Corporation.

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