Huong Ha

From a tiny village in central Vietnam, Hannah (she/her/hers) earned prestigious scholarships to attend high school and university, earning a degree in political philosophy. She became a reporter covering political and corporate corruption and received several awards, notably the Vietnam National Press Award for an investigation into the secret 1979-1989 war between Vietnam and China. This reporting led to veterans receiving benefits withheld for decades, widows receiving pensions, and her nation reckoning with its past. She became editor of the political division in one of the largest online news platforms in Southeast Asia, a contributor for BBC in London, and worked with the Government Accountability Project in Washington, DC.

Her education continued with a Humphrey Fellowship to study public policy at Syracuse University in the US, the Chevening Scholarship to earn a master’s degree in media at SOAS University of London in the UK, and she is now a doctoral student and teaching assistant at William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications in KU.

Publication of her book on Vietnam’s secret 1979-1989 war is pending. She loves cooking, doing yoga, hiking, and practices shinrin-yoku (forest bathing).