Staff and Board

Our Home Office Team

Our Field Staff

• Suranto, Indonesia Field Representative
• Tyler Watts, Vietnam Field Representative
• Shannon Davidson, China Field Representative

Our Board of Directors

Doug Aden, Board Member
	Doug's first volunteered with VIA in Hong Kong, and then was part of our first group in Indonesia. He has been a member of the board since 2001 and recently moved back to the U.S. after living and working in China.

Ruth Brousseau, Board Member
	Bio coming soon

Nathan Camp, Indonesia Program Director

Born and raised outside Philadelphia, Nathan took his first trip to Asia when he was 11 years old and has been finding ways to learn about, visit and help others explore the region ever since. His experience in Indonesia began on a study abroad program while working toward a BA at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He spent two years helping arrange travel for EF Educational Tours before receiving a fellowship from the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i to pursue Southeast Asian Studies. With his MA from the University of Hawai'i in the books, Nathan continues to find ways to nurture interest in Indonesia.

Dwight Clark, Founder

Dwight, while serving as Stanford’s Dean of Freshmen Men, took 23 Stanford students to Hong Kong volunteer assignments in the summer of 1963. That experience led to the formation of Volunteers in Asia (now VIA). He served as VIA’s president during its first forty years, a period which saw the organization expand its volunteer work and, beginning in 1977, offer short-term, focused study programs bringing Asian students to the United States. Now semi-retired, he divides his time between California and Asia. In addition to remaining an advisor to VIA, Dwight leads two Learning Across Borders study programs for Asian students each year: a February program from Japan to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and a September program from Japan and Taiwan to Burma (Myanmar)

Tim Clark, Board Member

Tim and his wife Mia served as VIA volunteers in Indonesia in 1972-74. Currently, Tim is a partner in the Silicon Valley market research and consulting firm The FactPoint Group. Prior to FactPoint, Tim was senior analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix's B2B commerce service. Before becoming an analyst, Tim was a reporter and editor for 24 years, working as senior editor and e-commerce columnist for CNET's News.com and Interactive Week. He also covered interactive marketing for Advertising Age and has been an editor at San Jose Mercury-News, San Francisco Business Times and Palo Alto Weekly.

Andy Cohen, Board Member

Andy was a VIA volunteer in Tainan, Taiwan in 1984. He graduated from Stanford in 1986 and, after working for an international consulting firm, received an MBA from Northwestern in 1990. Since then, Andy has held a number of marketing positions at large and small companies in Silicon Valley.

Karin Cotterman, Board Member

In the late 1990's Karin lived and worked as a volunteer teacher at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and more recently, she has been an International Service-Learning Course Facilitator through an international summer service-learning program. Karin's teaching experience includes lecturing in creative writing, English composition and service-learning courses in classrooms from Monterey Bay to West Africa. As the Service-Learning program director at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford, Karin provides leadership, direction and strategy for service-learning activities related to courses and community-based research. Karin lives in San Francisco and enjoys spending her free time outdoors with her husband, son and two dogs.

Shannon Davidson, China Field Representative

Shannon's involvement with VIA began when she was awarded a CJ Huang Teaching Fellowship to work at a rural middle school in Hunan Province.  Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, Shannon has a Master's Degree in International and Comparative Education from Stanford University, where she wrote her thesis on children's educational aspirations in rural Gansu Province.  Shannon has worked as a teacher and educational administrator in the US, and enjoys reading, traveling and playing outside.

Kate Dunham, Board Member

Kate, a social scientist at SPR, was a volunteer with VIA in Taiwan before serving as China and Taiwan program director. She has worked as a consultant in Hanoi, Vietnam for Oxfam Hong Kon and Action Aid. Kate earned her Master in Public Policy from UC Berkeley and her B. A. in Politics and Economics from UC Santa Cruz. She is an avid traveler and has traveled around the world from Beijing to Los Angeles by train.

Galen Flint, Board Member

Galen first joined the VIA staff as a Trans-Pacific Exchange (now Stanford Programs) program director. She then served as fundraising director before transitioning to a position on the board.

Lillian Forsyth, Vietnam Program Director

Lillian has long been interested in cross-cultural experiences and education, but her relationship with Vietnam began when she spent a semester studying in Ho Chi Minh City as a sophomore in college. After five months studying and volunteering at a shelter for street children in Vietnam, she knew she wanted to return upon graduation. Lillian joined VIA as a volunteer in 2006 after completing a B.A. in Southeast Asian Studies at Barnard College in New York City, and worked at An Giang University until 2008. Outside of her work, Lillian enjoys the outdoors, cooking with friends and family, singing karaoke, and getting "a little bit lost" in new places.

June Gordon, Board Member

June has been teaching at UCSC since her doctorate at the University of Washington. Her work on schooling of marginalized communities has focused on Japan and the U.K. with related visits to China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and India. It all began with a VIA stint in Taiwan in 1970 on her way to the first East Asian Studies undergraduate degree at Stanford.

Wujing Harrison, Board Member

Born and raised in China, Wujing has been an enthusiastic explorer of the U.S. nonprofit and service sector since her first visit to the U.S. in 1995. VIA was her found treasure in 2005. She is dedicated to helping create opportunities in international service-learning for college volunteer students in China. She is the Executive Director of the Zigen Fund, mobilizing various resources to nurture grassroots efforts for sustainable rural development in China and adapting the U.S. nonprofit best practices into suitable practices in China. Prior to Zigen Fund her work included improving China's labor conditions at Verite in Massachusetts, leading the finance department at George Mark Children's Fund in the Bay Area, and participating in community services at various community NGO's. She has a Master degree in economics from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. degree in engineering from China Academy of Sciences. She lives with her husband Kevin, a loving middle school teacher, and daughter, Swee. They like hiking and camping.

Kazutoh Ishida, Senior Stanford Program Director

Kazutoh was a participant in the 1991 ALC program and also in the 1992 Southeast Asia program, which greatly broadened his perspective on various issues in the United States and Asia. As Senior Stanford Program Director at VIA, he specializes in cross-cultural and foreign language education. His personal interests include watching movies, hiking and traveling. In addition to his fondness of Asia, he loved traveling to Tanzania and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Tom Lo, Board Member

Tom spent two years with VIA in China after graduating from Stanford University. Tom also graduated from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and currently works in marketing at eBay. Tom has served on the VIA board since 2000.

Stephan McNeil, Board Member

Stephen is Assistant Regional Director for Peacebuilding, Relief, and Youth Work with American Friends Service Committee, a non-sectarian Quaker organization that received the Nobel Pecae Prize in 1947. Stephen is co-chair of the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, DC with a special concern for Native Americans. He served as chair of the Japan US Community Education and Exchange as well as a fellow in exchanges with NPO Network Center in Hamamatsu and Shanti Volunteer Association in Tokyo, Japan.

Abby McDaniel, Stanford Programs Director

Abby recently graduated from Stanford University, where she received a B.A. with honors in Human Biology. Following graduation, she spent a year in rural China teaching English and doing community service work through VIA and the C.J. Huang Teaching Fellowship. During that year she became particularly interested in how discussions about health care and bioethics in America can benefit from an international perspective. These interests led her to her current position as a Stanford Programs Director. She will be leading VIA's Exploring Health Care program and one session of VIA's American Language and Culture program. On a more personal note, Abby loves to travel, listen to live music, eat good food, and enjoy the outdoors, ideally on a snowboard or sailboat.

Anjali Mutucumarana, China Program Director

Although the mystique of China had been capturing Anjali’s interest from a very young age, her fascination with the country took off after spending her junior year of college in Beijing. Before joining VIA in her current role as China Program Director, she served as a VIA volunteer in Nanjing, China from 2005-2007. She also worked in Washington DC for more than four years in the non-profit sector and two years in the business sector, making more than ten trips to China during that time. Anjali received her MA in International Relations with a concentration in Chinese Studies from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.  

Diane Nguyen, Outreach Coordinator

Diane made the switch to non-profit after 5 years in the enterprise software sales industry. Her history with VIA began when she took a one-year hiatus from her corporate job to volunteer in Hanoi, Vietnam. Now, Diane enjoys capitalizing on her practical experience to recruit the best candidates for VIA and increase VIA's visibility, while working with an organization that is dear to her heart. She earned her BA degree in International Relations at UC Davis. You might find Diane hiking on Mt. Tam, windsurfing at Shoreline Lake, or meandering in some foreign country.

Suranto, Indonesia Field Representative

Suranto was born in Bintan Island, Riau archipelago (about 1.5 hours from Singapore). He obtained a bachelors degree in English from the Teacher Training Faculty of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, Central Java and wrote a thesis on American Swear Words. Suranto enjoys watching movies especially American movies/cartoons where he can learn English and American culture at the same time. Cooking is also something that he enjoys doing, mostly experimenting. But his interest since the fall of 2004 has been watching his son laugh and grow.

Gwen Smith, Board Chair

Gwen became active with VIA while serving as interim Executive Director from August to December 2002. For the past 15 years, Gwen has worked in the field of international development in Latin America and South Asia and is currently immersed in reproductive health programs in Central America. When not working on social justice issues, Gwen loves to explore the outdoors, whitewater kayak, and snowshoe. Flamenco music and dance inspire her.

Kevin Smith, Board Member

Kevin Smith oversees worldwide partner and training efforts for Google's Enterprise division, having launched and grown the Google Enterprise Professional partner program to approximately 150 partners since joining Google in 2005. Kevin was previously a project manager and technical lead at Trilogy Software, running projects at Fortune 500 companies, as well as a senior member of the technical staff at Cycorp, an Artificial Intelligence research organization. During his Stanford days, Kevin was a host for 6 VIA Stanford programs, and after graduation spent two years teaching high school English in Japan on the JET Program.

Tom S. Tseng, Board Member

Born and raised in Taiwan but having lived in the US since 1979, Tom joined Stanford's Office of Asian Relations in 1998 as associate director of development.  He held similar positions at Harvard and Cornell Universities.  Before becoming a higher educational fundraiser, Tom worked in college admissions at Cornell, his alma mater.  He has a bachelor's and a master's degrees from Cornell's College of Engineering.  While his work for Stanford takes him to Asia several times each year, Tom and his wife, Rebecca, regularly escape to Paris, where they enjoy fine dining, arts and architecture, strolls in the parks, and being spectators on Champs Elysees on the final day of le Tour de France. They and their Maine Coon cat, Madeleine, reside in Menlo Park, CA. Tom joined VIA's board in 2005.

Brad Spielman, Board Chair

Brad is a graduate of UC Berkeley and earned his MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management with majors in finance and not for profit management. He served as a volunteer in Indonesia for two years and then as the Indonesia field coordinator. He then helped to open the VIA Laos program and worked in the home office. Brad is currently a VP with Goldman Sachs, Municipal Finance.

Scott Sugiura, Executive Director

Scott has been the executive director of VIA since 2002. Prior to joining VIA, Scott was the managing director at Japan-U.S. Community Education & Exchange (JUCEE) where he coordinated programs that bring U.S. and Japanese nonprofit organizations together to collaborate on issues of common concern. He studied and worked in Japan for three years after receiving a BA in International Relations from Occidental college.

Kirsten Walsh, Finance and Administrative Director

After graduating from St Louis University with a B. S. in physical therapy, Kirsten worked in various clinics around the country as a physical therapist for almost 8 years. When she decided it was time for a change in careers, she ran off to China with her younger sister, where she fell in love with Asian culture and cross-cultural exchange. Upon her return to the US, she was excited to join the VIA team and help others embark on life changing journeys. When she is not hard at work, Kirsten enjoys rock climbing, biking and a good book.

Tyler Watts, Vietnam Field Representative

Tyler taught English and American Literature courses at An Giang University from 2005-2007 through VIA and continued his volunteer experience at the Friends of Hue shelter the following year. Graduating from California Baptist University in 2004 with a BA in English, he was eager to return to Viet Nam after two summer programs doing research on ethnic minorities in the central highlands of the country. In his free time, Tyler enjoys absorbing all he can about Vietnamese history and jaunting through the countryside on his motorbike.

Bina Zaitsu, Stanford Programs Director

Bina is a native to San Francisco who received her bachelor’s degree in Japanese from the University of California at Berkeley. Shortly after her graduation, she spent 2 years teaching English in Japan on the JET Program. Once she returned from Japan, she moved to Washington, DC where she managed the JET Program Office at the Embassy of Japan. During her free time, Bina likes to travel, dance, dive, snowboard, and catch up with friends.