We begin the year with a conversation with NBF board member Doua Thor. As a former funder and long-time supporter of New Breath, Doua discusses what drew her to NBF, what sets it apart within the philanthropy sector, and how we can respond to this moment with intention.
From Lived Experience to Lifelong Advocacy
I came to this country as a refugee when I was two years old, resettling from Laos to Detroit with my family. As a child, I often translated for my parents in hospitals. I attended schools with metal detectors and barred windows, where young people navigated trauma and often sought support in places outside of the home. Later, when I moved to the suburbs and attended schools without those barriers, the contrast was stark. It taught me early lessons about race and class. It gave me an early look at the disparities in our social structures, making it clear that not everyone is afforded the same sense of safety and freedom.
In college, I worked for a community-based organization and saw the same issues: families needing language access, courts and hospitals lacking translators, and systems repeatedly failing people. It became clear that these issues weren’t isolated, but structural. That realization eventually led me to Washington, D.C., where an internship turned into a lifelong commitment to public service and advocacy. I went on to lead a national organization focused on Southeast Asian refugees, many of whom were directly impacted by deportation, detention, and criminalization rooted in the 1996 immigration laws. My own life experiences kept me very close to this work and the people we served.
How New Breath Exposes the Gap Between Myth and Reality
When I first met Eddy and New Breath Foundation through this work, I was moved by the way his commitment to restoring visibility for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities harmed by incarceration and deportation was inseparable from his grounding in cross-racial solidarity. His approach addressed a gap I had long felt but rarely seen addressed.
Criminalized people are easy scapegoats in this country, while the pervasive myth remains that AANHPI communities are untouched by these systems, shielded by stereotypes of success and silence. Eddy and New Breath have never shied away from facing these realities and advancing the narrative.
Having spent years both raising money from philanthropy and working within it, I’ve rarely seen a foundation so well connected to the people most impacted by the issues it seeks to address. New Breath is distinct in this way. It is led by people with lived experience across its staff and board, and the depth of its community relationships cannot be overstated. It is uniquely positioned to engage philanthropy, media, legal advocates, and storytellers in meaningful ways while also moving resources to organizations on the ground doing essential, sometimes unseen, community work.
What continues to inspire me as a board member is the foundation’s authenticity: relationships built on trust and accountability that draw people across sectors and foster deep goodwill with the community. This work is not always easy to fund, but when people understand the stories and the stakes, they show up with sustained commitment.
In These Moments
We are living in a moment of profound urgency. Hard-won rights built over generations are being stripped away at an alarming rate. We are facing immense loss and brokenness in immigrant communities. Families are being torn apart through deportation, detention, self-deportation, or through painful decisions to separate in order to protect children. The ability of communities to heal and remain whole is at risk, along with the immeasurable harm to families and generations who are being separated from their loved ones.
Yet, I remain hopeful because I come from people who have survived war, displacement, and loss. Our resilience is real. Supporting New Breath right now means recognizing that every contribution matters–whether it’s funding, time, expertise, or simply bearing witness. Our communities aren’t asking for extravagance. They are asking to be seen, heard, and not forgotten. In this moment, every action we take to uplift and protect these stories carries real and lasting meaning.
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Doua Thor is an independent consultant and currently serves as the Board Chair of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) and on the Board of the New Breath Foundation. Her work is shaped by her family’s history as Hmong refugees resettled in Detroit after the Vietnam War, a background that has driven her to invest in community advocacy and public service. Doua previously served as the Vice President of Strategy and Influence at Sobrato Philanthropies and was a political appointee in the Obama Administration, where she led the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She also spent over a decade as the Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) in Washington, DC. Doua spends her free time with her partner and two little girls, swimming, eating good food, and sharing time with their loved ones.