Doua Thor

Doua Thor is the Director, English Learner Initiative.  Since 2017, as Senior Program Officer, she successfully managed our work in English Learner policy and as Director, she will oversee the English Learner policy work as a separate focus area of our philanthropy, continuing to work with nonprofits and local and state leaders to advance change in the education system for English Learners in California.

Previously, she served as an advisor to the Asian American and Pacific Islander Civic Engagement Fund and most recently was a political appointee in the Obama Administration as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan and her B.A. from Wayne State University. Doua and her family were resettled in Detroit and are among the many thousands of Hmong refugees who were resettled in the United States after supporting and fighting alongside the U.S. during the Vietnam War.