Staff and Board
Our Home Office Team
Our Field Staff
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.
 After earning a B.A. at the University of California at Berkeley, Amy Louise completed her TESOL certification. She spent
the next four years teaching in public schools with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. Her experiences in Japan deepened her interest in the program designs, and she finished her master's coursework in International
Education at SIT Graduate Institute. Amy Louise joined VIA's Stanford Programs in May of 2009.
 Michael comes to VIA with nearly 40 years of experience in international management and program work throughout Asia. Since 1970, he has been working on behalf of building stronger ties
across the Pacific, primarily in Southeast and South Asia. From the
challenges of his first days as a volunteer in a rural area of the
Philippines, he has grown to firmly believe that through understanding
the cultural differences that separate us, we will build stronger
understanding of how we all share common dreams and can build common
solutions.
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Jeanne Blamey, Board Member
Bio coming soon!
Ruth Brousseau, Board Member
Bio coming soon!
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).
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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.
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.
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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. She volunteered at An Giang University until 2008 when she joined VIA as a staff member. Outside of her work, Lillian enjoys the outdoors, cooking with friends and family, playing guitar, and getting 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.
Kazutoh Ishida, Senior Stanford Program Director
 Kazutoh was a participant in the 1991 American Language & Culture (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 Programs 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.
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Tim Leahy, Vietnam In Country Representative
Picture and Bio coming soon!
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.
Daniel Mandell, Myanmar Laos Thailand Cambodia Program Director
Daniel first learned about VIA while living across the street from the Haas Center for Public Service as an undergrad at Stanford. With no previous experience in Asia, he jumped into a two-year Transpacific Exchange program in Hokkaido, Japan. Teaching English and moonlighting as a radio personality kick-started his Asian career: After Japan, he canvassed most of Asia as an adventure tour leader for Intrepid Travel. His overseas experiences led to graduate study in cultural anthropology, and another stint with VIA as a volunteer at the Institute of Anthropology in Hanoi, Vietnam. After spending a year at Colgate University's Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education, Daniel rejoined VIA to found the Chiang Mai field office.
David Manning, Development & Administrative Assistant
 David graduated from Bard College in 2007 and spend two years working for a foreign policy non-profit in New York City before packing up and moving across the country to San Francisco. In New York David became involved with Bard's Globalization and International Affairs Program and is a member of the Alumni Advisory Board. He first traveled to Asia in 1999 for a six week program in Thailand, and went again in the summer of 2009 visiting both Japan and Vietnam.
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Stephen 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.
Jennie Mollica, Board Member
 Jennie Mollica was a VIA volunteer in Hue, Vietnam from 1994 to 1996 and in
Houai Xay, Laos from 1996 to 1998. Her VIA experiences launched her work
in refugee communities in California, where she was Associate Director of Lao
Family Community Development in Oakland from 1998 to 2005. She currently
works for the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections Oakland initiative,
is a volunteer with Refugee Transitions, and serves on the Board of VIA as well
as The English Center.
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.
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Jon Palmer , Indonesia Program Director
 Bio coming soon!
Kirsten Pfleger, 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.
Sugiyanto, Indonesia Country Representative
Sugiyanto was born in a small town of Central Java. He gained his Bachelors degree in English Literature from Gadjah Mada University. From 2001 through 2005, he volunteered at a local NGO focusing on environmental education for children. He assisted the organization in designing educational materials and translating texts. Since 2005, he has worked as an Indonesian language instructor for foreigners in Jogjakarta. One of his interests is learning photography from books and other sources.
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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.
Brad Spielman, Board Member
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.
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Ben Strong, Stanford Programs Director
 Ben spent two fantastic years from 2006 - 2008 as a VIA volunteer teaching in China at the Guangzhou English Training Center for the Handicapped. While teaching there, he became especially interested in engaging students in service-related programs to outreach and give back to the local community. He's very excited to join the Stanford side of VIA, and continue exploring the area of service-learning for students from Asia with the AUSL and SAC programs.
Alan Teo, Board Member
 Alan has been active in VIA since his freshman year at Stanford
University in 1998. He twice acted as a program assistant for the
Exploring Healthcare Program as an undergraduate and served in a
yearlong VIA teaching post at Ehime University School of Medicine in
Japan. Alan is a physician, currently training in psychiatry at UCSF,
and interested in global health issues. He joined the VIA Board in
2009.
Donna Youngberg, Board Member
Bio and picture coming soon!
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