National Partners

Building the New American Community: National Partners

The Building the New American Community project has five national partners based in Washington DC. The lead agency is the National Conference of State Legislatures with the assistance of consultant Diana Bui. The research and analysis team is the Urban Institute and the Migration Policy Institute. The training and technical assistance team is the Southeast Asian Resource and Action Center and the National Immigration Forum.

Ann Morse, Program Manager

Ann Morse is the Program Director for the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The project was created in 1992 to research and analyze the effects of immigrants on state and local government, and the programs and policies created to assist with their integration. Ann has authored articles and issue papers on immigrants and TANF, SCHIP, food stamps, citizenship, and language access. She is also the program manager for the "Building the New American Community" project, providing coordination for the project and focusing on the perspective of policymakers.

Ms. Morse has worked for NCSL since 1987. She is a graduate of The George Washington University, receiving a Master of Arts in Science, Technology, and Public Policy, and a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies, with a concentration in Chinese.

Diana D. Bui, Project Consultant

Diana D. Bui is a nationally known expert in refugee issues with over twenty years of professional experience in the refugee program, primarily in the areas of direct service provision, program and policy development, and advocacy. Ms. Bui spent 18 years at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, first as researcher, then Senior Associate, and later as Deputy Director/Acting Director. In recent years, she is perhaps most well known for her coordination and facilitation of the annual ORR National Conferences. As a consultant to a variety of multi-ethnic organizations, Ms. Bui continues to pursue her interests in research and advocacy with refugees and immigrants.

Currently, Ms. Bui serves on the Board of Asian American LEAD, a refugee service provider in Washington DC's multi-cultural Adams Morgan neighborhood and as Advisor to the Atlanta-based Refugee Women's Network. She has had professional affiliations with a number of organizations including the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (board member, 1990-1997) and Episcopal Migration Ministries (Advisory Committee, 1987-1994).

Ms. Bui authored a 1979 MAA paper that called attention to the potential of Mutual Assistance Associations in refugee resettlement - and ensured that the paper's forward-looking set of 13 recommendations were implemented. In addition, Bui authored and was instrumental in passage of the 1990 "Refugee Women and Children's Protection Act," now permanently incorporated into the State Department's refugee assistance authorization language.

Much of Diana's knowledge springs from her personal experience of living in a bi-racial marriage, and raising two bicultural, bilingual children. In her volunteer capacity, Ms. Bui has served as PTA President, teaching assistant (poetry for first graders), and coordinator of the children's education program at church. Her first job after graduation from Sarah Lawrence College was English Teacher/Community Development Worker with International Voluntary Services in Ban-me-thuot, South Vietnam.

Research Team - Brian Ray

Brian Ray's work at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) focuses on immigrant settlement, integration and public policy in North American cities. His research projects have included immigrant housing and employment conditions, the social networks of immigrant women, segregation, and the construction of 'race' and racist practices. Other research areas include civil risk and social justice, the socio-cultural means of neighborhood spaces for marginalized groups, gender, and urban planning. Prior to joining MPI in March 2002, Dr. Ray worked for the Canadian government as a Senior Analyst with the Metropolis Project and the Strategic Planning, Policy and Research Division of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. From 1992 to 2000 Dr. Ray was a faculty member at McGill University in Montréal. Dr. Ray holds a PhD in Geography from Queen's University (Kingston) and for his dissertation examined immigration, racism and public policy in post-World War II Toronto.

Research Team - Katherine Lotspeich

Katherine Lotspeich is a Research Associate at the Urban Institute's Immigrant Studies programs. Her areas of focus include immigrant integration, immigrants and public benefits, workforce development for immigrant workers, and immigrant civic participation. Ms. Lotspeich has a background in Russian area studies and spent four years in the former Soviet Union managing a U.S. government funded student exchange program. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from George Washington University and a M.P.P. from Johns Hopkins University.

Training and Technical Assistance Team - Handel Mlilo

Handel Mlilo is Coordinator at the Center for the New American Community at the National Immigration Forum. He is responsible for the Forum's activities in the BNAC project. Handel is also one of the trainers in the Forum's Strategic Communication Initiative. A refugee himself, he has over 16 years of experience in the communications, media relations, and public information field. Prior to joining the Forum in early 1999, Dr. Mlilo was the Program Coordinator of the African Resource Network at the Ethiopian Community Development Council, and was a senior policy advisor for the Ministry of Citizenship in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Mlilo is originally from Zimbabwe and holds a PhD in Mass Communications from the University of Iowa.

Training and Technical Assistance Team - Max Niedzwiecki

W.R. "Max" Niedzwiecki, PhD, is Director of Programs and Resource Development at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), the national organization for Americans from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. He has helped develop, manage, and implement most of SEARAC's programs since 1999, including the following: (1) Building the New American Community (BNAC), a project to promote, document, and examine "integration" in three demonstration sites including Lowell, MA, Nashville, TN, and Portland, OR; (2) Successful New American Project (SNAP), a project to strengthen MAAs and document progress towards integration and self-sufficiency among Southeast Asian Americans since 1975 - publication forthcoming; and (3) the Values, Empowerment, Resources, and Betterment (VERB) project, the first national project funded by the Federal government to specifically focus on strengthening the capacity of refugee/immigrant faith-based organizations (FBOs) and MAAs to provide social services.