U.S. Campaign for Burma is governed by a board of directors. The board includes five elected members, elected from the organization’s membership annually, and five appointed members, chosen by earlier boards. The first election was held in May, 2004.

Current Board Members

Simon Billenness (appointed)
Simon founded and led the New England Burma Roundtable from 1994 to 2005. He organized the successful grassroots lobbying for the passage of the Massachusetts Burma Law and spurred groups throughout the country to enact 20 similar municipal Burma laws. He has also led efforts put shareholder pressure on corporations in Burma through shareholder resolutions and action at corporate annual shareholder meetings. Simon worked for 10 years as a Senior Analyst at Trillium Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm, and 4 years as a Senior Policy Advisor for Corporate Engagement at Oxfam America. He currently works at the AFL-CIO Office of Investment as a Senior Advisor for Special Projects and Shareholder Advocacy.

Larry Dohrs (elected)
Larry Dohrs’s first visit to Burma was in 1982. In 1985 he completed an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from University of Michigan, with a particular focus on the agricultural economies of Thailand and Burma. Throughout the 1980s he wrote economic updates on mainland Southeast Asia for the journal Southeast Asia Business. He travels to Southeast Asia every year, and has had the privilege of meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the democracy movement. He leads the Seattle Burma Roundtable in his hometown of Seattle, Washington State on a monthly basis for more than 10 years. He is currently an adjunct Professor for Economics at Antioch University in Seattle and Vice President of Newground Social Investment, also in Seattle.

Stephen Dun (elected)
Stephen Dun, an ethnic Karen from Burma, has many years of experiences in working with the Karen people and maintains good relations with other ethnic nationalities, such as the Karenni, Kachin, and Shan. He has helped establish better communications by setting up radio data networks for Burma. He has testified on numerous occasions before the US House International Relations Committee and Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Sam Gregory (elected)
Sam Gregory is a video producer, trainer, and human rights advocate, and is currently the Program Director of WITNESS, the non-governmental organization that uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. He has been an activist on Burma for the past decade, and over the past five years has worked extensively with the grassroots organization, Burma Issues to support their work documenting and advocating around the situation in eastern Burma, including supporting the production and distribution of the videos “Shoot on Sight’, ‘Season of Fear’ and ‘Always on the Run’ to audiences worldwide. In 2005 he was the lead editor on Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press), and he has conducted trainings on how to use video in campaigns for groups worldwide.

Veronika Martin (appointed)
Veronika Martin is a Senior Program Manager for Protection and Refugee Affairs at InterAction. During her seven years in Southeast Asia, Veronika directed Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment (WEAVE), was the Director of Southeast Asian Programs for EarthRights International and directed the EarthRights School. Back in Washington, Veronika was an advocate for Refugees International and conducted humanitarian and human rights assessment missions to such diverse countries as Afghanistan, Angola, Thailand, and Tanzania. After ending her three years there as the Director of Human Rights, she was a Policy Analyst for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and most recently, a Senior Program Officer at the Initiative for Inclusive Security.

Andrew Samet, Esq. (appointed)
Andrew James Samet is a Principal in Sorini, Samet & Associates, an international trade consulting firm. He served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor and as U.S. representative to the International Labor Organization. Mr Samet also worked as legislative director to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.

U Tin Maung Thaw (appointed)
Tin Maung Thaw is a founding member and General Secretary of the Committee for Restoration of Democracy in Burma. Born in Rangoon, Burma, he graduated from Methodist High School in Rangoon and obtained his degree from the University of Rangoon, Institute of Economics after narrowly avoiding expulsion for participating in student protests against the military regime. He is a former staff member of the U.S. Congress.

Dorcus Moo (Elected)

Nickie Sekera (Elected)

Sophia Lwin (Elected)

Khin Phyu Htway (Elected)