by Pitchanuch Supavanich | August 26, 2020
Pitchanuch Supavanich is regional program manager at The Asia Foundation in Bangkok. She manages Southeast Asia regional programs which focus on security cooperation, cross-sectoral response to trafficking in persons, and development cooperation. These programs are designed to support and promote leadership of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in addressing common challenges and promoting shared interests.
Before joining The Asia Foundation in March 2020, Pitchanuch was a senior officer at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, where she supported regional cooperation among 10 ASEAN Member States on labor and civil service. In her early years at the ASEAN Secretariat, she also supported ASEAN cooperation on rights of women and children, gender equality, social welfare, rural development and poverty eradication. She was involved in the development, implementation and monitoring of several ASEAN Declarations, work plans and other key ASEAN documents, such as ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Regional Framework and Action Plan to Implement ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection.
Between 2008 and 2014, Pitchanuch worked for the then Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) in Thailand where she managed human security programs addressing trafficking in persons, child sex tourism and exploitation of migrant workers in Southeast Asia and Greater Mekong Subregion. She also worked for International Rescue Committee in Thailand and for a joint investigative unit of the Royal Thai Police’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau and United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration.
Education: Pitchanuch graduated from the Erasmus Mundus Joint European Master Program in International Migration and Social Cohesion and received degrees from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, University of Deusto, Spain, and University of Osnabrück, Germany. She also holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Thammasat University, Thailand, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science (International Relations) from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
by Hannah Najar | August 21, 2020
Hannah Najar is regional program manager for Go Digital ASEAN, based in The Asia Foundation’s Malaysia office. She supports the strategic vision and oversees the implementation of Go Digital ASEAN, a regional initiative designed to equip up to 200,000 micro and small enterprises and underemployed youth across all 10 ASEAN member states.
Hannah joined the Foundation in 2019. She previously served as operations director for Ponheary Ly Foundation (PLF), an organization promoting access to quality education for children and youth across Northern Cambodia. Together with her Cambodian colleagues, Hannah built a mentorship program and formalized a teacher training program, and led the shift from program management by foreign staff members to local staff members and teachers.
Hannah serves as a board member for the Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organization (KVAO), a non-governmental organization easing the integration into society of people who were admitted to the United States as refugees and are deported to Cambodia.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Union College (NY)
by Phyllis C. Tien | August 6, 2020
Phyllis C. Tien, MD is professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Chief of the Infectious Diseases division at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. She is a native of Berkeley, California, and completed her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, medical degree at UCSD, medical residency and fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford University and a second fellowship in AIDS Prevention Studies at UCSF. Since joining the faculty at UCSF, she has been engaged in clinical translational research examining the contribution of viral infections and inflammation to metabolic perturbations and organ injury including the liver, heart and bone. She has served as chair of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study Section, member of the Department of Health and Human Services Antiretroviral Guidelines Panel, and is currently a member of the NIH COVID-19 Management Guidelines. She also serves as co-chair of the Executive Committee of the largest and longest running NIH-funded cohort of men and women with and at risk for HIV in the United States.
by Benjamin Zawacki | August 3, 2020
Benjamin Zawacki has been a senior program specialist at The Asia Foundation since March 2020, following several years in a consultancy role. He helps manage programs on regional maritime and cyber security, ASEAN, the Mekong River, and the US-Thailand relationship.
Zawacki is the author of Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the US and a Rising China (Bloomsbury), which was translated into Chinese and whose second edition was released in December 2021. He was a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations through 2016 and a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program in 2014-2015. He served as a policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter and two other members of the Elders in Myanmar in 2013 and was Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia researcher for five years through 2012. He has also worked for several UN agencies. A regular contributor to the media in Southeast Asia, he has published over 50 articles, reports, and opinion editorials. He is a member of the New York State Bar and a graduate of the George Washington University Law School and the College of the Holy Cross. He has lived in Thailand for 19 years.
Education: The George Washington University Law School and the College of the Holy Cross.
by Ted Osius | February 27, 2020
Former ambassador Ted Osius is President & CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council. A diplomat for thirty years, Ambassador Osius served from 2014 to 2017 as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. Leading a team of 900, he devised and implemented strategies to deepen economic, security and cultural ties between the two countries. In October 2021, Osius published his most recent book, Nothing Is Impossible: America’s Reconciliation with Vietnam, covering the two countries’ 25-year journey from adversaries to friends and partners.
After his departure from government, Osius joined Google Asia-Pacific as vice president for Government Affairs and Public Policy, covering 19 Asian nations from Google’s Singapore headquarters. Earlier, he was a senior advisor at the Albright-Stonebridge Group and the first Vice President of Fulbright University Vietnam. Osius was associate professor at the National War College and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As a diplomat, Osius served as deputy chief of mission in Jakarta, Indonesia, and political minister-counselor in New Delhi, India. Osius also served as deputy director of the Office of Korean Affairs at the State Department, regional environment officer for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and senior advisor on Asia and trade to Vice President Al Gore. He also served in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, and at the United Nations.
Ambassador Osius has authored numerous articles on Foreign Service tradecraft and U.S.-Asia policy. He wrote The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance: Why It Matters and How To Strengthen It as a fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs. While at CSIS, he published “Global Swing States: Deepening Partnerships with India and Indonesia” (Asia Policy, January 2014), Enhancing India-ASEAN Connectivity, and A US-Indonesia Partnership for 2020.
Ambassador Osius earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and an Honorary Doctorate from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education. He was the first U.S. ambassador to receive the Order of Friendship from the president of Vietnam. He serves on the Asia Foundation’s Board of Trustees and numerous advisory boards.
Ambassador Osius speaks Vietnamese, French, and Italian, and a bit of Japanese, Indonesian, Hindi, Thai, Tagalog, and Greek. He and his husband, Clayton Bond, have a son and daughter.
by Debra Knopman | February 27, 2020
Dr. Debra Knopman is an adjunct staff at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She served as vice president and director of RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment, later called Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment, from 2004 to 2014.
Knopman’s expertise is in hydrology, environmental and natural resources policy, systems analysis and operations research, and public administration. Her project work at RAND spans a range of topics including the adaptation of urban regions in the United States and China to a changing climate, integrated water management, energy assurance for the U.S. Air Force, policy options for disposition of nuclear waste, and the design of a National Research Fund for Qatar. She is a member of the Henry Luce Foundation (and co-chair as of June 2022) and Asia Foundation boards.
She served for six years (1997–2003) as a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and chaired the board’s Site Characterization Panel. She was director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Innovation and the Environment from 1995 to 2000. From 1993 to 1995, Knopman was the deputy assistant secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior. She had previously been a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and later chief of the Branch of Systems Analysis in the USGS’s Water Resources Division. From 1979 to 1983, she served first as a legislative assistant for energy and environmental issues to Senator Daniel P. Moynihan and then as a professional staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Knopman earned her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, master’s degree in civil engineering from MIT, and doctoral degree in geography and environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.
by Frank Lavin | February 27, 2020
Frank Lavin is the CEO and founder of Export Now, a U.S. firm that operates e-commerce stores in China for international brands. Established in 2010, Export Now is the largest off-shore operator of China e-commerce stores, helping brands from around the world in strategy and operations.
In Government, Lavin served as under secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce 2005-2007. In that capacity, Lavin served as lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was the senior policy official in the Department responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe. Lavin was U.S. Ambassador to Singapore from 2001-05, where his duties included helping negotiate the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
In the private sector, Lavin served in senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Edelman, Bank of America, and Citibank.
Previously, Lavin served in the George H.W. Bush and Reagan administrations, working in the Department of Commerce, Department of State, National Security Council, and White House. Lavin served as Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs 1987-89.
Lavin earned a bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service (Georgetown); a master’s degree in Chinese Language and History (Georgetown); a master’s degree in International Relations and International Economics from the School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins); and a master’s degree in Finance at the Wharton School (Pennsylvania).
He is a columnist for Forbes.com and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and other periodicals. Lavin is the co-author of Export Now, (Wiley) on market entry strategies. He also authored a World War II history book, Home Front to Battlefront (Ohio University Press).
Lavin serves as a trustee of The Asia Foundation and as chairman of the International Council of the National University of Singapore School of Medicine He also serves on the Board of Directors of Advanced MedTech Holdings, a medical technologies company, and of SC Health Corp (NYSE). He is a fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors and on the Advisory Board of ECIPE, a Brussels think-tank. Lavin previously served as steering committee chairman of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion. Lavin served as a Lt Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves.
by Melanie Arroyave | February 25, 2020
A participant of the U.S. Coast Guard College Pre-Commissioning Initiative, Melanie Arroyave is an active-duty servicewoman and a full-time student. Born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, she is a proud Colombian-American, the first of her family to attend college. She expects to graduate in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Labor Studies & Employment Relations and a minor in Public Health and Women and Gender Studies from Rutgers University, having transferred from American University in 2017. During her time in Washington D.C., she interned for U.S. Congressman Albio Sires (NJ-8). At Rutgers, she is an Institute for Women’s Leadership Scholar and a recipient of the Equal Opportunity Fund and the Hispanic Fund Scholarships. As a 2018-2019 Lloyd C. Gardner Fellow, Melanie conducted a comparative analysis on the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York and New Jersey. In the Spring of 2019, she worked pro bono as a Federal Mediation Associate for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in New York.
Most recently, Melanie was awarded the 2019 Student Upstander Award, and shared with her community how interviewing a Holocaust survivor has helped her come to terms with her own family’s struggles as Andean natives of Colombia, and how it shaped her future. After her Luce Scholar year, she will attend Coast Guard Officer Candidate School to train to be an officer. She plans to earn a J.D. degree and pursue a career as a Judge Advocate in the military while also defending domestic worker rights. During her free time, Melanie volunteers at her local Girl Scouts and enjoys podcasting, kayaking, hiking, and high interval training.
by Jackson Brook | February 25, 2020
Jack Brook is a journalist and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University. Fascinated by the ways narratives are produced and contested, and how that informs our present, he studied for a degree in history. At Brown, he developed a passion for environmental histories, learning to analyze human societies through their relationship to the natural world, energy production and other life forms. Growing up in Palo Alto with his mother, Jack was inspired by her accounts of her job as a social worker and rehabilitation officer in a Santa Clara jail. He volunteered as a teacher in the Rhode Island prison system throughout his undergraduate career. Through his reporting, he has tried to deconstruct and illuminate the structures, policies and values that perpetuate racism, poverty and the prison industrial complex. He wrote for the Brown Daily Herald, was an editor at The Indy magazine, and spent a year on a team investigating elder abuse for The Providence Journal. He has sought out international reporting experiences, covering unrest in the West Bank for the Jerusalem Post and environmental challenges in Chile for the Santiago Times, for which he was awarded an Overseas Press Club Scholarship.
After graduation, he interned at The Miami Herald and The Marshall Project, an outlet investigating the criminal justice system, and continues to serve as a contributing editor for the Brown Alumni Magazine. An aspiring long-form narrative journalist, Jack hopes to confront the exploitative forces that perpetuate both mass incarceration and the climate crisis. Sponsored by a grant from the Pulitzer Center, he is currently reporting the story of South America’s largest toxic waste tailings dam and the Chilean village that fought against it for decades. He has also produced a range of documentary and fictional films, including a mockumentary on a competitive eating prodigy, “The Voracious Appetite of Chowhound Chambers.” In his spare time, he enjoys journaling, hiking and getting lost in new places.
by Gavin Brehm | February 25, 2020
Gavin Brehm is a multi-disciplinary designer, musician, and researcher. He will graduate in June 2020 from Northwestern University with a triple major in music performance, cognitive neuroscience, and human-centered product design and development. Currently a member of the Multisensory Lab, Gavin conducts research on audio-tactile perception and human-computer interaction, and works with applying generative artificial intelligence and emerging manufacturing technologies to traditional musical instrument design. Outside Northwestern, Gavin has worked with Steven Haulenbeek Studio, Impossible Objects 3D Printing, and Conn-Selmer Music.
While in high school, he founded a company to build custom brass instrument components for local musicians. Gavin maintains an active performing schedule as a trumpet player in the Chicago area. Often using performances as a testing ground for his instrument designs, he can be seen playing in works ranging from film score to musical theatre: Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, Ein Heldenleben, and The Pines of Rome, to cite a few recent examples. Gavin grew up Minneapolis where he spent his childhood exploring the lakes and forests of central Minnesota. An avid cook and fermenter in his free time, he can be found concocting anything and everything under the sun for his friends and family.
