Hue Pham: :cited for business sense, compassion

Hue Pham has lived in two places: South Vietnam and Minnesota. This week, she flew from Minneapolis to her new home in Boston, preparing to take over as executive director for the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID) in Dorchester.

Pham, 53, brings business acumen and a compassionate core to the organization. She joins the initiative at a time of expansion on multiple fronts: The growth of after school and pre-school programs geared toward low-income youths, the launch of a Fields Corner community plan, and a continuing affordable development program. The group has recently taken on a $15 million, 35-unit affordable development in Four Corners.

“For 21 years, VietAID has collaboratively tackled some of the most complex issues of community life - especially the economy, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement,” Pham said in a prepared statement. “In times of national and local transition, it is easy to lose sight of our strengths and focus on the pain we experience. So I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Board of Directors and the Staff of VietAID for their commitment to excellence and innovation.”

Though the organization is established in the community, it is growing and developing its programs. The Fields Corner-based initiative needs new ideas, and Pham said she is entering the post with clear-eyed affection. Boston isn’t strange to her. She has visited the city, and Dorchester, many times. She is replacing her older brother, Nam Pham, as executive director after he moved to a post in the Baker administration.

“In order for VietAID to succeed, we need a very innovative director,” said Kim Thai, co-chair of the VietAID board of directors. The majority of the residents in their housing projects are not Vietnamese, Thai said, and a voice encouraging broad acceptance is key to maintaining the organization and community balance.

“She’s being brought in to give us new ideas,” Thai said. “How can we continue to reach out to the community?”

As an immigrant herself, Pham’s story is a familiar one. She and her family left Vietnam in 1975 when the North Vietnamese invaded. They were nine siblings, with two parents in their 40s, and Pham was the middle child. Her father had been a diplomat, often dealing with the United States. They moved to Minnesota for the siblings’ education and because her father had fallen in love with the land over multiple visits there, Pham said.

Five years after the move and still attached to her homeland, Pham became a United States citizen, a mixed experience for her. “We decided that to become a U.S. citizen was not a matter of fighting for freedom,” she said, slowly. “But I did feel free.”

She attended Augsburg Collage in Minnesota, studying accounting, finance, and economics. Tempering her business-mindedness, Pham’s father was a tremendous inspiration to her. “He was a very compassionate man,” she said. “He was always there for people.”

Pham inherits an organization central to many in Dorchester. The Vietnamese American Community Center, opened in 2002, was the nation’s first Vietnamese American center. It is a “focal point,” Thai said, hosting parties, educational events, children’s activities, ballroom dancing competitions, and more. Managing the weight of the community’s expectations will take ingenuity, Thai said.

The Dorchester Vietnamese community feels unique, Pham said, because at a time when immigrants and refugees were being persecuted, “Dorchester had taken steps to build acceptance of the Vietnamese and to treat Vietnamese residents and businesses as integral parts of the neighborhood,” she said.

Fields Corner was “revitalized by Vietnamese entrepreneurs,” she said, and the grit of those who dedicated themselves to cultural efforts is laudable. “It is the community of Dorchester that enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals,” she said.

Among the projects Pham is most eager to embrace are programs to empower young people, especially in conjunction with low-income assistance. Children need to grow up knowing that they can improve the communities that raised them, Pham said.

There was a presumed path to success when she was growing up, which she is happy to see turned on its ear. “Leadership happened after we finished college, got promoted, became a manager, then you got to be a leader,” Pham said. “Now, when we talk about youths, those are our future leaders.”

She wields a fair amount of past leadership roles in her favor. “She’s had a lot of experience in both the private sector and the public sector,” Thai said.

Before taking this post, Pham was executive director of the Center for Academics and Sports at the University of St. Thomas College of Education in Minneapolis. She also has worked in community outreach and resource development capacities, some specifically with Vietnamese Americans. Outside of the United States, Pham has also managed child welfare and adoption programs in Vietnam and Thailand.

Pham is hunting for a place to live in the neighborhood, to stay close to her new charge. It is her first week on the job, Pham notes, and it’s mostly been paperwork and introductions so far. VietAID’s many initiatives will sap most of her time, but she said she can already feel the spirit of the group, into which she cannot wait to dive.

“I feel that when everyone comes to work, they bring their hearts,” she said.