Black Bonsai LLC

Dan Tran graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston and is currently working as a tax associate at Andersen Tax. She considers herself as a caring individual with a desire to contribute to society. Dan has been involved in various community projects in various countries such as Vietnam, Singapore and India. She coincidentally came across LeaDBP (Leadership Development Bonfire Passion) during her first year since she moved to Houston. After attending Camp Lên Đường, she wants to promote and pass on Vietnamese culture to young Vietnamese Americans who have never had chances to learn about their heritage. She believes that with the passion she puts into all of her community involvements and now currently serving as an officer for LeaDBP, she will be able to fulfill her desire: contribute to society.

Mr. Jeff Watkins is currently the Vice-President of Global Initiatives leading the YMCA of Greater Houston’s work with refugees, victims of human trafficking and other vulnerable newcomer populations. Mr. Watkins has extensive experience in the delivery of community and social services over his 25 year career with the YMCA and 3 years as Operations Director for Serve Houston Youth Corps, an AmeriCorps funded program providing community based services by engaging full-time young adults in year-long volunteer assignments.

In his current position as the VP for Global Initiatives, Mr. Watkins overseas the South Texas Office for Refugees, an administrative entity that funds all refugee serving agencies in the Houston area as well as YMCA International Services’ programs and initiatives including; Refugee Resettlement, Employment Services, Educational Services, Trafficked Persons Assistance Project, Immigration Legal Services, Community Outreach and International Initiatives, including a project to build elementary schools in Vietnạm.

David–Toàn Nguyen is a current undergraduate student at the University of Houston. He has a strong passion for serving the local Vietnamese community and wants to see the community thrive in unity. For the past 6 years, he has been conducting Vietnam human rights advocacy in Washington DC as a volunteer for BPSOS. David has been involved in VCSA since his first Lên Đường Camp in May 2018 and has helped organize the reYÊUnion for Lên Đường campers in July 2018, volunteered for VVDV in August 2018 as the public relations lead and was on the core team for the Mid-Autumn Festival at the Children’s Museum in September 2018. He is the pioneer behind “Việt Fest Houston” to be delivered in Fall 2019.  As a member on the executive board, he aspires to recruit more young individuals around his age to become more active with the community.

Ann Ngoc La is an alumna of the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She has a background with working in immigration law, specializing in the naturalization process. Ann has assisted hundreds of clients in the Vietnamese community with their N-400 applications and walking individuals and families through the path to their U.S. Citizenship. Moving forward, Ann is extending her legal experience in immigration law at Foster LLP, filing petitions for the EB-5 Visa process for foreign investor clients. Ann became involved with VCSA when she co-chaired for VVDV and was a team lead for TOPS in the summer of 2017. As the current general secretary on the VCSA Executive Board, she hopes to strengthen the bonds between members through volunteerism for the community.

Vinh Pham Xuan Ngo graduated with a bachelor’s Degree in fine arts at the University of Houston and is currently teaching art at Alief Elsik High School. Vinh is passionately active in several art fields such as drawing, painting, photography and pottery. Besides that, Vinh dedicates his time as a volunteer for the Vietnamese community of Houston, especially for VCSA and LeaDBP. Vinh founded LeaDBP (Leadership Development Bonfire Passion) in 2011 after attending Lên Đường Camp. He wishes to be the bridge between VCSA and LeaDBP in connecting the two organizations together. Vinh wants to also strengthen VCSA’s summer programs such as TOPS, VVDV, and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Dr. Thien Cao holds a Doctorate degree in Pharmacy from the Texas Southern University. He has been working as a clinical pharmacist at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Medical Center since 2013, specialized in Pediatric Surgery and Chemotherapy Medications. His daily activities include rounding with physicians, making drug therapy recommendations, and monitoring patient progress as well as medication reconciliation. Thien has been involved in VCSA since 2006 after his first camp Lên Đường in Triangle, Virginia. During his undergraduate years, he additionally served as an intern for VCSA Houston from 2007 to late 2008

Dr. Binh Tran, PharmD, MS., MBA, is cofounder and Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Health Foundation, a non- profit organization in San Diego, California, dedicated to education, screening for hepatitis B, and linkage to care for persons who test positive.

A pharmacist from Viet Nam who came to the US in 1975, she obtained a MS in Microbiology from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and a PharmD from Saint Louis College of Pharmacy, Missouri, thus understands the disease processes in Viet Nam and the US. She also completed a MBA from Webster University. She has worked on hepatitis B prevention and screening in San Diego for the past 13 years.

Dr. Binh Tran is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCSD School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, where she precepts first- year students in their Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience. She also has upper class students working on Hepatitis and Osteoporosis research projects. She is also a Regional Director – Southwest region of the National Task Force on Hepatitis B with Focus on Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and a member of the Hep B United Coalition, where she obtained a mini-grant to expand Hepatitis B awareness and screening for lesser reached Asian populations in San Diego County.

Since 2007, Dr. Binh Tran is a member of the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association, and for the past terms, Co-President and President of the San Diego Chapter. She is also a Board member of the Asian Heritage Society with participation in the “Make It in America” conference on November 19-22, 2014 and the annual Asian Heritage Awards.

Ms. Hoang is a business professional with 10 years of grants and contracts management experience running the gamut from writing community grassroots grants to administratively managing large-scale multi-institutional collaborative projects.  She is presently Clinical Protocol Administration Manager at MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Number 1 ranked Best Hospital in Cancer Care according to U.S. News & World Report. She holds a MBA and BS degree in Psychology from the University of Houston.

Ms. Hoang was a founding officer of the Vietnamese Studies Organization, a student organization at the University of Houston that led the establishment of the Vietnamese Studies Program in 2005.  She won a Vietnamese Culture and Science Association (VCSA) scholarship in 2006 to attend Len Duong Camp and returned every year after to serve as staff.  In 2007, as President of the Vietnamese Student Association at the University of Houston, she led efforts to fundraise $15,000 for Sunflower Mission and was awarded the Sunflower Mission scholarship to build two schoolhouses in Vietnam with the YMCA.

In 2011, she served as Len Duong Camp Master with the year’s theme of “Be the Change” and wrote the New Moon Foundation’s “Be the Change” grant program, which awarded $5,000 in seed funding for small community projects.  That year, a group of campers formed Len Duong Bonfire Passion and was awarded a seed grant to conduct a project embodying NMF’s GRACE values.  Bao Huong was elected to serve as External Vice President in the VCSA Executive Board from 2012 – 2014.  She spends her free time exercising just enough to balance eating as much as humanly possible.  She resides in Houston, Texas.

In 1990, Mr.Vu immigrated to the state of Iowa at the age of 9 from Vietnam. After living in Iowa for a few years, his family moved to Bloomington, Minnesota. In Bloomington, he completed his high school education (top one percent of the class and with two years of college credits). Post high school, Mr.Vu went to the University of Minnesota to study chemistry and Chemical Engineering. After a few years of working, Mr.Vu went back to school at the Univ. of MN to become a science teacher. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master of Science degree in Education(M. Ed).

In the past eight years Mr.Vu has taught science in a very diverse school, there he co-chaired the Diversity Committee for two years. During those eight years, Mr.Vu also have taught Catechism for his Vietnamese Catholic church. Along with working with students to understand diversity better, Mr.Vu was also the co-facilitator for SEED III (Seeking Educational Equality and Diversity) and SEED IV classes for teachers from fall 2009 to spring 2011.

Outside of his teaching work, Mr.Vu volunteers with various community events to help preserve and promote Vietnamese culture. He helped judge the Minnesota community Tet’s scholarship contest for two years and was also a pageant judge for two years. For several years, he also helped design and construct the stages for his church’s Tet and Christmas celebration, his community’s Tet Trung Thu celebration at the Mall of America, and his Vietnamese students’ Tet Trung Thu and Tet event at the high school.Those events were open to several hundred community members.

Mr.Vu was a Len Duong camper in 2007. In 2008 he joined as a staff and have been a staff since. In 2009, he co-founded the MN chapter with Mr. Hung Phung and in 2012 he served as the Camp Master of Len Duong Camp held in Minnesota.

A lifelong volunteer for youth and local communities, Mr.Luong has been involved in many volunteer activities including leading Boy Scout troops, teaching at Vietnamese schools, volunteering with VCSA, and other organizations.

Mr.Luong was an active member of VCSA from 1996-2000 and a VCSA board member from 1998-2000. Mr.Luong was the Trưởng Ban Sinh Hoạt (Activity Program Leader) for the first two Len Duong camps and the event chair for the first VVDV event.  He has been involved in other VCSA events over the years.

Mr.Luong devotes most of his life to volunteering work with the Boy Scouts and with Vietnamese Language Schools.  He started two scout groups and was the Scoutmaster for the Boy Scout and Varsity Scout troops. He was the camp chief of the 2002 Thẳng Tiến 7 Scout Jamboree that was held in Houston with over 2000 scouts in attendance. Mr.Luong received the North Star Medal (Bắc Đẩu Huân Chương), the highest medal of Vietnamese Scouting, by the International Central Committee of Vietnamese Scouting (ICCVS) in 2010.  At Our Lady of LaVang Vietnamese school, Mr.Luong held the position of Principal for 4 years. For the past 15 years at the school, he has been teaching Vietnamese History and Culture to hundreds of students.

In his professional capacity, Mr.Luong has 30 years of project management and business development experience in the computer industry.  Most of his professional career has been with HP & Foxconn Corporations. At HP, he was a member of the engineering team that created the first industry-standard server.  At Foxconn, he led the establishment of the R&D and manufacturing operation in Houston, Taipei and China. This operation is now a multibillion-dollar business. Also an entrepreneur, Mr.Luong has established three businesses.

Mr.Luong holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) and an MBA.

Mr.Luong is passionate in working with youth groups and community organizations and is dedicated to promoting education through all aspects of life.

Mrs. Elena Tran is a business professional with experience in organizational change and transformation, capability development, and workforce planning and deployment.  She is presently Senior Manager at Enaxis Consulting, an advisory services (consulting) firm. She holds an MS in Organization Development from Pepperdine University and BSBA degrees in Business Management and Marketing from Rockhurst University. Elena has held multi-year Board positions in a number of organizations, including the Association for Information Technology Professionals (AITP), Association for Women in Computing (AWC), Sunflower Mission, and Women in Technology International (WITI).

She co-founded Sunflower Mission and served as President for the first 10 years.  She became the President of VCSA in July 2015. Elena is a proud mother of four children. Elena and family reside in Sugar Land, Texas.

Dr. Kim Yen Vu Nguyen is a life-long educator and school administrator.  She earned a doctor of education degree and two master of education degrees in educational professional leadership, school administration, and guidance and counseling, respectively from the University of Houston, Texas.  She has 28 years of experience in K-12 American public educational system, including 19 years in school leadership roles and other roles including instructional assistant, teacher, and counselor. In particular, she served as an assistant principal for two years and as a principal for eight years of public schools in Houston.  Besides numerous recognitions for her academic and leadership achievements, she was awarded the Student Teacher of the Year Award in 1991 and also the Principal of the Year Award for her District in 2010.

Dr. Nguyen was one of the very first Vietnamese American school principals in the United States.  During her tenure as school principal, she established the first Vietnamese-English and Chinese-English Immersion Dual Language Program in the state of Texas and has been a strong proponent for early childhood education. She advocated and implemented one of the 1st full day Pre-K programs in Texas public schools and led an under-performing school from Missed Adequately Yearly Progress to Distinction Awards in Math and Science.  She has a passion for international and global studies. During her career, she coordinated an exchange program for students with schools in Japan, participated in the Principal Bridge Delegation to China, presented workshops for teachers in Vietnam, and most recently, took a sabbatical to study and research on the teacher preparation programs in Vietnam.

Dr. Mylène (“Mee-lenn”) Huynh (“Winn”) is board certified in Family Practice and Preventive Medicine with over 20 years experience in integrative health and medical acupuncture. Dr. Huynh’s passion is health and healing with a life mission to promote healthier communities. She is a functional medicine practitioner with special interest and training in clinical nutrition, lifestyle medicine, mindfulness meditation and evidence-based approaches to reversing chronic diseases.

Dr. Huynh obtained both her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  She completed a 21-year US Air Force career as a flight surgeon, family medicine academic faculty, clinic director, consultant to the USAF Surgeon General on preventive medicine and global health.  In addition to TruPoint Health, she serves as an integrative health physician at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.  Dr. Huynh holds appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD.

Jenny Le is a management consultant at A.T. Kearney and specializes in the Communications, Media & Technology practice. At A.T. Kearney, she serves as the Texas Women’s Network Lead (Dallas & Houston Offices) led undergraduate recruiting as part of the Dallas Recruiting Team. Outside of work, she serves as the VP-College for the Harvard Club of Dallas Board, helping to interview and represent Harvard for more than 500 students in the DFW area. She has previously represented General Mills as a Board Member for VSA-MN to represent people with disabilities in Minnesota. She is passionate about public speaking, Vietnamese youth leadership, and college admissions advising. For her community service efforts, she has received accolades such as the President’s Service Award, Houston’s Hope Initiative Scholarship, and VCSA’s Be the Change Scholarship. In VCSA, she has served many positions including Program Manager and Workshop LEad Co-Chair for VVDV in 2011.She holds a BA from Harvard College and is will be attending Columbia Business School for her MBA in the fall..

Dr. Nguyen currently works as the Director of Development and Marketing for the Institute for Civic Education in Vietnam, an US based non-profit organization specialized in civic education and humanity science for the students in Vietnam and worldwide. She has been a community activist and an educator all her life. Dr. Nguyen believes the future is in the hands of the young. Her accomplishments include the establishment of the Vietnamese Youth Center of Toronto, Canada; the National Youth Leadership Development Camp “Len Duong” for young community activists from across USA and Canada; and the hosting of numerous community programs aimed at helping and developing Vietnamese-American youths. Nguyen’s passion has inspired her to lead numerous humanitarian efforts for the hurricane and flood victims in Central America and in Vietnam.

Dr. Nguyen is currently the co-Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Vietnamese Culture and Science Association. She was also a Presidential Appointee under President Obama administration to serve on the Vietnam Education Foundation and elected as the board chair for the term 2014-2016. Dr. Nguyen has received numerous awards and recognitions including “Top 30 Influential Women of Houston” award by DMAR Communication in 2017; Americanism Medal awarded by the Honor Society of Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) in 2017; “Texas Women’s Leadership Empowerment” by Texas Women Empowerment Foundation in 2011; and “Asian American Heritage Award in Science and Technology” in 2013. Dr. Nguyen graduated Summa-Cum-Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science in 1989 and received a master’s in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1993.

She attained her Doctoral Degree in Business Administration specialized in Project Management and Emotional Intelligence from Northcentral University in 2015. She is a life-long learner and continue to follow her passion in education through ICEVN and VCSA work. She is currently a certified Professional Life Coach (ICF ACC credential). Her vision for VCSA is to become one of the most effective and prestigious Vietnamese American organizations across United States and North America.VCSA will play a key role in contributing to build a strong Vietnamese overseas community whose main mission is to serve the community in the areas of leadership, culture, education and civic involvement.