After finishing her undergraduate studies in sociology at the USSH at Vietnam National University, Hong spent three years at the Center for Poverty Reduction as lead researcher and coordinator. There Hong was involved in carrying out large scale surveys for the World Bank and CIDA, focused on the social-economic livelihoods of Vietnamese people whose lives are affected by the developing processes throughout the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City. She won the prestigious Ford Foundation scholarship to study her M.A. in Anthropology at Cornell University. Her research focuses on social safety nets and coping mechanisms of people who live in Saigon’s slum areas. Hong spent a year and a half in Tan Hoa – Lo Gom canal in District 8 in Ho Chi Minh City, conducting her ethnographic field work where she interviewed local residents about their lives before and after being relocated to resettlement housing sites. While at Cornell, Hong won the ACLS scholarship and Cornell scholarship to fund her Ph.D. candidacy. Hong is well vested in community services and overseas study programs for international students, and has also taught undergraduate level courses at Cornell University and University of Oregon as a graduate teaching assistant and adjunct lecturer. Hong is fluent in Vietnamese and English, and conversational in French. Her maternal family is from Quang Ngai province so she is able to speak and understand their local dialect. Hong has previously led Putney’s Service Vietnam program.