Key Staff
President/ CEO
President/ CEO Chaosarn S. Chao is a well-respected leader both in the refugee and broader community. Mr. Chao is highly regarded in private and public funding entities for his program and organizational management experience. He is one of the founders of Lao Family and prior to becoming President/ CEO in 2006, had been Executive Director. His leadership expertise also stems from his service as an Army Commander and Financial Officer of the Royal Lao Army in Laos from 1968 to 1973. He has served on a number of Boards and Councils including the State Advisory Council of the State of California Department of Social Services, Commission Member for the City of Oakland Health and Human Services, and the Board of Directors for the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation. He is currently an advisory Board Member of the Iu Mien-American National Coalition and President of the Lao-Mien Veterans Association. Additionally, he is a founding committee member of the National Coalition for the Asian Pacific American Community Development.
Executive Director
Ms. Chao Rothberg is the Executive Director at Lao Family Community Development (LFCD). She is responsible for overall management and operations of the LFCD organization. The agency has 40 staff members and operates a diverse menu of core programs (affordable housing-neighborhood economic development, asset development-financial education, employment services, family strengthening, and youth leadership & employment) serving over 10,000 clients annually. The agency specializes in serving refugees, diverse immigrant, and low-income at risk and hard to serve clients helping them to achieve self-sufficiency in Northern and Southern California.
Ms. Chao Rothberg’s career background spans 10 years in the affordable housing and community development field. She has served as a volunteer for more than 20 years at various non-profit and community organizations throughout the greater Bay Area.
Prior to joining the Lao Family agency, Ms. Chao Rothberg was on staff at the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation and First Community Housing in the Real Estate Development Divisions, in the roles of Senior Project Manager and Project Manager respectively. She is multi-lingual in Mien, English, and French.
Ms. Chao Rothberg pursued her graduate work at the Executive MBA Program at Golden Gate University’s Ageno School of Business in San Francisco from 2004 to 2005 and received her BA from UC Berkeley in 1994.
Ms. Chao Rothberg was recently accepted to participate in the 2009 Sierra Health Foundation-University of Southern California’s Health Leadership Program. She currently sits on the following local boards: Oakland City Workforce Development Board, Oakland Youth Council, Oakland Central City East Project Area Committee, and Richmond City Youth Council.
Accounting Manager
After coming to the U.S. from Thailand as a Lao refugee in 1983, Ms. Rattanasith attended and graduated from Richmond High School. After graduating in 1985, she joined Lao Family and has been with the organization ever since, serving in various capacities. As the Accounting Manager at Lao Family for the past 19 years, Ms. Rattanasith has worked closely with the Executive Director, President/ CEO, the Senior Management Team, and the Board of Directors to ensure the solid fiscal management of the organization. She administers the agency’s accounting and payroll services, works on the annual agency budget, oversees individual program budgets, and coordinates financial audits and site monitoring. With Ms. Rattanasith’s help, Lao Family has maintained an excellent and well proven history of successful financial management of federal, state, county, city, and private foundation grants for agency services.
Employment Director
Lao Family’s Employment Department Director since 2004, Ms. Quach oversees the organization’s largest department. Joining the agency in 1994, Ms. Quach has held a variety of roles including Employment Counselor and Employment Site Manager. She also manages Lao Family’s Individual Development Account (IDA) Program and is leading the agency’s transition to an integrated model of service delivery for low-income families in the San Antonio neighborhood of East Oakland. She holds a certificate from Working Ahead – The National Workforce & Career Development Curriculum of The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers as well as certification as a Global Career Development Facilitator. She is multilingual in Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Mandarin and has extensive experience providing culturally appropriate services to populations with diverse needs.
Youth Coordinator
For the past 6 years, Ms. Sundara has coordinated Lao Family’s year-round Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Youth Leadership-Employment Program which serves 14-21 year-olds from at-risk, low-income communities. The program provides employment, education, and leadership opportunities to ensure that participating youth graduate from high school and transition to a productive adulthood. In the past, Ms. Sundara also oversaw the WIA Youth and International Community School After-School Tutoring Program, a collaboration of the Cesar Chavez Education Center in Oakland. Currently she is manages the Oakland Summer Youth Employment program. Ms. Sundara completed her Associate Degree in Science at Contra Costa College and has extensive experience working with diverse populations. With the agency since 1992, Ms. Sundara has also served as Lao Family’s Special Crime Victim Assistance Program Director and Domestic Violence Prevention Educator. She is bilingual in Lao and English.
CCC Health & Well Being Program Director
Ms. Lieu joined Lao Family in 2006 as the Program Director for the Even Start Family Literacy Program, and later served as the Program Director for the Contra Costa County Asian Family Outreach Project and the Hand-to-Hand/ Home Visit Program for new mothers where she closely with other community-based organizations in Contra Costa County to decrease the rate of Asian children in the foster care and child welfare systems, and to help reduce the risk factors for pregnant families and families with infants. In 2010, she became the program director for LFCD's new CCC Health and Wellbeing program. Ms. Lieu holds a MA in education, emphasis in equity and social justice from San Francisco State University, a BA in Psychology and a minor in Social Work from San Jose State University, possesses two associate degrees. Ms. Lieu is bilingual in Cantonese and English, has been trained to provide culturally competent services to a diverse population, and has much experience and is passionate on working with non-profit agencies that serve immigrant and refugee individuals and families.
Income Support and Crime Victim Coordinator
Since joining Lao Family in 1994, Teresa has utilized her personal experiences to assist fellow refugees and immigrants in the Oakland community. She received her degree in teaching at a university in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Teresa arrived in the United States to Denver, Colorado as a refugee in 1993 and moved to Oakland the following year. While taking an “English as a Second Language” course at the Laney Community College, she began instructing the ESL class to the refugees at Lao Family. As she taught the ESL class, Teresa also provided employment counseling and job development services to the agency’s clientele. She obtained her current dual role at Lao Family as the Social Adjustment & Citizenship Coordinator in 1997 and Crime Victim Coordinator in 1999. Teresa enjoys helping other people and contributing to the lives of those in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood and overseas back home in Vietnam.