Against the backdrop of the waves.

10 September 2025

It’s been over a month since we moved to Thailand for my sabbatical, and it’s taken about that long for me to catch up on everything that got away from me during a hectic spring and summer. My term as the Associate Director of the School of Leadership and Human Resource Development ended this summer, which was a humbling learning experience. While I have some of the ingredients of an administrator (a modicum of social skill and a desire to serve others), I learned just how little administrative skill I possess, and how hard and time-consuming it is. My boss-for-a-year, Dr. Ed Holton, re-retired this summer. In our last meeting, I told him how I will always look back on this year with gratitude for his mentorship.

We took advantage of our proximity to beaches and drove to Florida during spring break for Khai to speak at a Friends of Thai Daughters event. Aden and Alice love their Grandma Jane and Grandma Patty, and they’ve been a faithful and supportive presence in our lives. I know a lot of ink has been spilled on the reflective power of the ocean, but I’ll add that I love seeing little humans playing on the vast shore. Or perhaps it’s the contrast of youth amidst the timeless sands. We have but a short time on this blue dot.

Lots happened in Baton Rouge this spring. A new local library opened less than a mile from our house. We attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade again, which was an absolute blast with the kids and friends. I volunteered at the giant LSU Book Bazaar – and even made the newspaper. Of course, it was all a guise to get a good look at the selection before opening day. We dyed Easter eggs, attended the Baton Rouge Asian Food Festival, and hosted a group of 25 young leaders from all 11 Southeast Asian countries at our home for a Louisiana lunch as part of the YSEALI program. Aden discovered a love of “games,” meaning board games, and cutely (but incessantly) nagged us to learn new games for a period of about 2 months.

For Mother’s Day, Aden was happy to get Khai a board game (Ticket to Ride), which she somehow hadn’t played yet, and we played about 50 games before the flowers began to wilt. Unfortunately, we’re both too competitive for our own good… ha!

My uncle Hi, whom I exclusively refer to as “Motorcycle Hi”, came to visit as well, which allowed us both to fulfill a dream of riding motorcycles with a family member! We took several day trips during his visit, including our first time visiting the Tabasco distillery on Avery Island. We also happened to be in St. Francisville on the exact day of the Angola Prison rodeo, which I had read about in How the Word Is Passed and couldn’t pass up seeing with my own eyes. I love my uncle so much, and I’m so glad we were able to ride through Louisiana together. I can’t wait for our next ride!

Aden and Alice finished up the year at their Montessori school, which was bittersweet. Aden spent three years with Miss Erin and Miss Kendall, who both loved him so much. Alice’s teachers, too — even though she was only there one year. Alice grew so attached to Miss Keisha and Miss Kristen. We’ve loved having my mom so close, too. She’s been a faithful member of our family. When her car pulls up to the house, our dog Brown would bark excitedly, and the kids would yell, “Mimsy!!!!” I miss those times being in Bangkok now. When my mom would visit, after playing with the kids, we would sit down over dinner or drinks and chat about life, politics, work, books, and everything in between.

After visiting Fiji last year for the first time, I led a study abroad trip there in late May/early June along with a professor from the Department of Oceanography at LSU. The program was called Coastal Sustainability and Indigenous Leadership in Fiji. We had seven brilliant but very different LSU students, and we shared the island with another group of students from Auburn University. One of the highlights was that the author of one of our readings about Indigenous leadership in the Pacific serendipitously came to the little island of Vorovoro on a research trip, and we got to meet her and talk with her. Island magic.

When I got back, it was a mad rush to finalize preparations for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, where we welcomed 24 young leaders from 18 different Sub-Saharan African countries to campus for a six-week leadership institute. I was elevated to the position of Administrative Director when last year’s admin director left LSU. It was a challenge being short-staffed, but very rewarding, and yet another opportunity for me to hone my administrative skills. The Fellows were all talented, experienced, and passionate leaders from a variety of industries. I’m proud of the institute that we offered them this year, and I’m excited to follow their journeys. They also made the paper.

One notable highlight for me was when we took the Fellows to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center through the Louisiana Parole Project to spend 3 hours talking in small groups with the incarcerated folks there. It awoke something inside of me (that experience, along with visiting a wrongfully detained international phd student in a Louisiana detention center twice this summer — more on that later). I’m starting to feel like this is an area I could make a contribution to. I was shocked to find that LSU doesn’t do much with incarcerated people in terms of workforce readiness, etc. I drove to Chicago in November 2024 and met up with an old mentor, Matt Puffer, who is doing work with incarcerated individuals, which is really what started it all. More on this later, though.

The morning after we said goodbye to the Fellows at the closing ceremony, Khai, the kids, and I were on a plane out of Baton Rouge for the year. We spent a week at the Delaware shore with my dad for his 70th birthday (a great place to reflect on a long life), and then left directly on a plane from Philly to the Land of Smiles. I’ll stop there for now.

Onward.