ABOUT CEF

THE CEF TEAM

The Team

Linda Burn
Founding Director of Children's Education Foundation and In-Country Manager - Vietnam

Children's Education Foundation (CEF) spontaneously arose out of a need I saw in Vietnam to help girls receive an education and have the opportunity of tertiary education or vocational training. I wanted to see them have a life with choices, not the limited one I saw of poverty and the resultant grinding daily struggle with no obvious way out.
Poverty sometimes leads to parents taking desperate measures, consciously and sometimes not. Daughters are sold off for a tidy sum, into arranged marriages where they are abused.  Girls are tempted by well-paid job in China, and although promised a bright future, end up being a prostitute in a brothel or enslaved in a factory. A girl in school has less chance of this happening to her.
This desire to help females from impoverished or marginalized communities still exists for me today 20 years later, and maybe even more strongly than in the past, as I now have seen the difference an education makes here. We have the joy of seeing many complete school, and now we have 38 in university and 46 who have graduated from college or university. There is no turning back.

Stephen Jackel
CEO USA, In-Country Manager - USA

My involvement with Children's Education Foundation (CEF) started in 2005 when I met Linda Burn, CEF's founder. Learning about her work to help poor children stay in school, and seeing the passion - and tears - in her eyes as she spoke to friends at a fund raiser inspired me to help this then-fledgling charity. Children's Education Foundation - Vietnam was born to create the support needed. Soon I realized if we expected people in the USA to continue donating we needed to incorporate as a New York State not-for-profit corporation and then obtain IRS 501(c)(3) tax exemption, which we did. 
I have been visiting Vietnam annually, joining in on home visits to the sponsored children, an experience  that is both depressing and uplifting: such poverty and heartbreaking stories, but also meeting lovely children and their caregivers, who now have hope for improvement to their lives.  
It's exciting to see some of the children graduating from college and starting their adult lives.  And it will be even more exciting to see what they and the children following behind them accomplish in the future.

Staff ​in Vietnam  
Ngoc, Thuy Tran, Kim Chi, Lua and Dung

We are lucky to have hard-working compassionate staff.  

Ngoc Do has been working for nine years and came straight out of university into NGO work. She has taken on a lot of responsibility. She is also lovely with the children and has a ready smile and laugh. 
Kim Chi has been with CEF nine years and also came straight from university. She is passionate about helping children from poor families having an opportunity to be educated. She is very caring and has a creative mind that readily finds solutions for challenges we face.
Thuy Tran has been with our team for seven years.  She came with NGO experience and we are grateful for her knowledge and confidence that has come from that.  She is wonderful with the children, caring, gentle and sweet. 
​Lua has been with us for nearly three years.  She comes from tourism but has always wanted to help girls from poor farming communities, like hers,  to have the opportunity to be educated, as she knows the difference it makes.
Our newest staff member is Dung, who has always wanted to do NGO work, especially helping girls be educated. She received NGO support with her education and wants to give back. 
​They all work well together, have a good laugh often and care greatly about the children and their families.

Board of Directors

Stephen Jackel
Previous: Administrative Law Judge for the City of New York, journalist, attorney in private practice.
Current: Attorney in private practice helping disabled people obtain government benefits to which they're entitled.

Marsha Pierson
Not for Profit work with The Metropolitan Opera, the ASPCA and the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Foundation.
I have worked in the Development Department of these organizations doing planned giving. I have been responsible for marketing, and the cultivation and stewardship of donors.
Corporate work with Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi Trust and Banking, Fiduciary Trust Company and Bankers Trust.
My experience included:
• Investments – managed the equity portfolios of corporate pension, profit sharing and savings plans
• Relationship management – worked with corporate clients who had retirement plans with the organization
• Marketing IRAs
• Managing pension departments
Volunteer experience has been with SHARE – runs support programs for women diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer, and was a
Board member, Chair of the Development Committee, in the Finance and Audit Committee, and the Strategic Planning Committee.
New York Women’s Foundation- 1999-2004-funds programs for women and girls and served on the Development, Finance and Grants committees.
Congregation Beth Elohim, and was a former Board member, currently on the Development Committee

Robert Heinzman
​Robert has always been working on one cause or another. He began an environmental science career researching groundwater pollution in the desert Southwest. A logical, though perhaps not obvious, path led him to the Brazilian Amazon and the front lines of tropical forest conservation. This work resulted in the founding of US and international organizations and a key role in creating the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America. After years of bearing witness to the conflict endemic to the agricultural frontier in the forest tropics, Robert committed to a life of rigorous spiritual practice to figure out what real solutions to global problems are. In another pivot, Robert currently is a partner at the change leadership consulting firm of Growth River. He lives in Western Massachusetts in a small town with one traffic light, which is about right.

Manus Campbell
In  1966 I was drafted and I joined the Marines and served thirteen months in Quang Tri on the DMZ. After the war I worked as a New Jersey State Trooper for 19 years .  After that I worked with At risk children teaching alcohol and drug programs.
Vipassana meditation has had a great influence in my life. I was lucky enough to find meditation in 1977 and it has helped me recover parts of myself I lost during the war.
Photography is one of my passions and I love to tell the story of Viet Nam and it’s people through my eyes.
In 2006 I returned to Viet Nam for the first time after the war. On this visit I was introduced to The Beloved School in Hue , a school and orphanage for disabled children. It was founded by the Buddhist nuns from Long Tho Pagoda. I started to sponsor the school from 2007 . I revisited  Hue for one month in 2009 and that’s when I decided to live and work in Hue. January 2010 I moved to Hue and worked and supported the school for three years. I chose to leave Hue due to extreme weather conditions and contacting pneumonia twice.
In 2013 I moved to Hoi An and I met Linda Burn and started to support some of the girls in CEF program . Linda asked  me to join her on home visits and take photos of the children and their families. These visits gave me a better understanding of the the work of CEF.
My main focus when I returned to Viet Nam was to sponsor education for poor , orphan and disabled children. The work of Children’s Education Foundation has been inspirational to me. Linda and her staff have a hands on relationship with the children in the program. They love and care for the children as if they were family members. I am touched by that relationship when I meet with students I support and make home visits with Linda and staff. The children live in poverty and some with one or no parents. They are trying to be the first in the family to graduate from high school or University against all odds.
I am happy and excited to be invited to join the Board of Directors of CEF. Look forward to meeting everyone and working together to support CEF in Viet Nam.
​
Karen Chun
I worked for twenty five years in the Department of Education in Hawaii USA. I have taught from grade 1 - grade 12. My interest in International education was motivated by my work as a Global Studies teacher and as the coordinator for the International Baccalaureate program for my high school in Hawaii. Currently, I am co director of an English Language Center in Dien Ban, in a farming community outside of Hoi An. I also work for a non profit, Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, writing Global Studies curriculum for after school classes taught in Hawaii, USA.
I have been an admirer of Linda's work in Viet Nam and of this organization. I appreciate this opportunity to become more involved. I hope that any talents that I have will be useful to CEF and its work in Viet Nam. I live part time in Viet Nam and am happy to work with Linda on whatever she would need.