The following are the core VEF activities: (1) Fellowship Program, bringing Vietnamese nationals to the United States for graduate degree programs, funded through cost-sharing agreements with U.S. universities; (2) Visiting Scholar Program, funding Vietnamese nationals with a Ph.D. to develop their professional skills via studies, research, and/or observational activities at leading U.S. institutions; and (3) U.S. Faculty Scholar Program, providing grants to American professors to teach courses at Vietnamese institutions for one or two semesters, on-site in Vietnam or via interactive, real-time videoconferencing. VEF capacity-building efforts build the relationship between U.S. and Vietnamese institutions and government entities and strengthen the foundations in Vietnam for the return of VEF Fellows and Visiting Scholars to their home country.

Jeff Browne is president of Vietnomics, an advisor on building business relationships and cultural bridges between Vietnam and the US. He was formerly president of the Public Policy Forum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes good local government and studies regional issues in Milwaukee, WI, US.

Heather Marie Stur, associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi, is a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam, where she is spending the 2013-14 academic year as a visiting professor in the international relations department at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. She received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A. in history from Marquette. See her book in the box below.