Newsroom Archive

Doua Thor

Executive Director, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)

Doua Thor is the Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). She and her family were 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. The Thor family was resettled in Detroit, Michigan in 1979 where Doua spent much of her youth volunteering and working with Southeast Asian American communities. Over the years, Doua has gained a wealth of experience working with national and grassroots Southeast Asian American and refugee serving organizations.

Doua was appointed by President Obama to the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2010. She currently serves on the board or in a leadership position in a number of organizations and coalitions, including the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), the Red Cross National Diversity Advisory Council, and the executive committee of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA). Additionally, through her leadership, SEARAC is a core work group member of the Diverse Elders Coalition (DEC), an initiative supported through Atlantic Philanthropies to improve the lives of vulnerable elders. Doua was selected as a New Voices Fellow in 2002, an American Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2008, and an Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute (APAWLI) Fellow in 2009.

She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and her Bachelor of Arts from Wayne State University.