Interviewee

Dennis Grace

Interviewer

Paul Hillmer, Tzianeng Vang

Document Type

Oral History

Date of Interview

7-25-2006

Abstract

Serving at the time of the interview as Special Assistant to the President for Administrative Reforms in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Mr. Dennis Grace has a long and distinguished career in refugee affairs. After serving in the Air Force from 1965 to 1969, Grace spent four years working in Vientiane, Laos as an English teacher and translator. He later completed his BA at the University of Colorado and an MA in East Asian Regional Affairs at Harvard University. Returning to Bangkok, he spent 15 years in Bangkok as the representative of the International Rescue Committee’s Joint Voluntary Agency, part of a network of private organizations that helped bring half a million Vietnamese, Khmer, Hmong, and Lao refugees to the United States. He has subsequently served as Vice President of Refugees International, Executive Director of the US-Thailand Business Council. In 1971, he founded an English language school in Vientiane, Laos.

Mr. Grace spoke to us as a private citizen, not as a member of the Bush Administration. Our discussion focused on his past experiences, especially those related to his work with the Hmong.

Copyright

Some rights reserved. Others may copy, distribute, display, or perform verbatim copies of this work with attribution to the author and original source information cited. No modification, remixing, or adaptation of this work may be created without the written permission of Dr. Paul Hillmer, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Concordia University, St. Paul or the Concordia University Library and Archives.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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