White House Appoints New Board Members to The Vietnam Education Foundation

WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is proud to announce that The White House confirmed on February 26, 2010, two new Presidential appointees to the Board of Directors of VEF, Mr. David Duong and Ms. Marjorie Margolies.

David Duong is the President and CEO of California Waste Solutions.  Mr. Duong also manages Vietnam Waste Solutions, the company's overseas operation. He founded CoGiDo Recycling Company in Oakland, California, shortly after immigrating to the United States in 1979. After selling CoGiDo and prior to establishing California Waste Solutions, Mr. Duong served as the General Manager and then Marketing Manager for a major American solid waste and recycling firm. He has served as a Commissioner on the Oakland Waste Reduction and Recycling Commission, a Commissioner on the Oakland International Trade Commission, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Vietnamese American Entrepreneur Association, a Director on the Board of Directors for the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and a Member of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Duong is very active in local charities and job development programs.

Ms. Marjorie Margolies is the founder and President of Women's Campaign International, providing advocacy training for women throughout the world, and a Senior Fellow at the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as the Director of the United States delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, and was an elected Member of Congress from Pennsylvania's 13th district. Ms. Margolies is currently a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and was previously a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania as part of their Institute for Public Service. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a CBS News Foundation Fellow at Columbia University.

Dr. Stephen Maxner, VEF Executive Director, stated, "It is my pleasure to have Mr. Duong and Ms. Margolies join our very active and dedicated Board. With their great effort and strong commitment, as well as that of the other Board members and of the remarkable VEF staff in our U.S. and Hanoi offices, we will continue our important work in providing educational exchange programs for Americans to teach at Vietnamese universities and for Vietnamese to study or to do professional development work at universities throughout the United States in the fields of science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology.  VEF continues to work closely with the U.S. Embassy, Vietnamese Government Ministries, and other organizations in Vietnam to help improve capacity in these fields throughout Vietnam."

VEF is a special initiative by the U.S. Congress to bring the United States and Vietnam closer through educational exchanges related to science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology. The Foundation is in its seventh year of operations and incorporates assistance from the U.S. National Academies in developing and executing VEF programs. As its flagship activity, the VEF Fellowship program has placed 306 Fellows at 70 top U.S. graduate research institutions, mostly for doctoral degrees. The two other major VEF activities are the Visiting Scholar Program for Vietnamese to pursue post-doctoral programs at U.S. universities for up to 12 months and the U.S. Faculty Scholar Grant Program for American professors to teach at Vietnamese universities for one or two terms via videoconferencing or onsite in Vietnam. VEF Fellows and Visiting Scholars are required to return to Vietnam after completing their academic programs in the United States.

For additional information on VEF, please visit our website at: www.vef.gov.

SOURCE Vietnam Education Foundation