Mai Kou Xiong was born in Long Cheng, Laos, during the height of the Vietnam War.  Her family escaped to Thailand in 1975 and settled in the United States in 1978.

Dao Yang, generally known as Dr. Yang Dao, is a Hmong gentleman from Laos. He received his Ph.D. in social science from the Sorbonne, University of Paris, France, in 1972.

Mrs. Kitamura is the daughter of first generation Japanese American parents from Hawaii and California.  Her father attended school until the eighth grade while her mother finished high school

Bonnie Witt was born in Korea, adopted and raised in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and has a B.A. in Psychology from Southwest Minnesota State University.

Henry Wang is originally from China mainland. His hometown is a beautiful city named Suzhou (苏州市) a gardenlike city which has a 2500-year-history.

Abdimalik Askar’s odyssey from Somalia to Minnesota and back to Somalia took 15 years and many stops along the way. When civil war erupted in Somalia in1991, the Askar family fled to Kenya where they spent two years in a refugee camp.

Ph. D. –   University of Minnesota
Mechanical Engineering, 1975

Jugal is a senior executive at an engineering firm in the Twin Cities. He is the India leader and project leader for Binapani School for Blind and Deaf.

Ms. Yasukawa has more than twenty five years of experience in the fields of architecture, planning and education. She has worked as an architectural designer and project manager in both Argentina and in the U.S.

Tadesse Woldemariam is currently a manager at Ethiopian Coffee Forest Forum (ECFF), an NGO engaged in biodiversity conservation research, education and communication.

Ram Krishnan is a 1967 graduate of IIT Madras. When the campus decided to take an extended summer vacation due to severe water shortage, he arrived in the campus 4 days after hearing about the water crisis.

Joseph Barrett is a leader in non-profit management, consulting and training with a career built upon long-standing service relationships with Global Fortune 500 companies.