Jampa Tsering was the Founder of Lha Charitable Trust. He also co-founded LHA (Louisiana Himalaya Association) shortly after he arrived in India from Tibet as a refugee in 1997. He served as managing director of LHA’s India Social Work Activities until he founded Lha Charitable Trust in 2005. With the formation of Lha Charitable Trust, Louisiana Himalaya Association t urned over full management of the LHA Social Service Center and School in Dharamsala to Jampa and the Tibetan staff. Jampa managed the Trust for another year until he was confident that the staff and newly appointed general manager, Tashi Dorjee, would be able to manage the organization in his absence. Jampa has since remained as a very active Advisor to the organization a nd has returned to India regularly to assist with further development. Jampa, his wife Flo and their two lovely children now live in Northern Canada where they work with the Native American population.

Neil Guidry ACSW LCSW 

Professor Guidry is president of the Louisiana Himalaya Association (LHA) which he co-founded in 1997. LHA was the mother organization from which Lha Charitable Trust originated. Since 1997 he has served as President of LHA and has returned to India for 6 months of each year to serve as Consultant/Advisor to Lha Charitable Trust. At home in New Orleans he teaches Introduction to Buddhism and Global Social Work at the Tulane University School of Social Work. The mission of Louisiana Himalaya Association (www.lhainfo.org) is to continue to create a cross cultural bridge – bringing volunteers and resources to the Tibetan Refugee Community in the Himalayas of Northern India while bringing the vast wisdom and profound culture of the Tibetan People back to the world.

Tashi Dorjee

Tashi served as a staff member of the organization from 2003 until he accepted the position of Chairman and Director of the Trust in May 2006. He served in this position until receiving a scholarship to study abroad in Australia. During his time as Director of Lha Charitable Trust, with the organization’s purchase of Ahimsha House, it crossed the milestone of becoming self sufficient and sustainable. During this time Tashi also became a member of Rotary International and was able broaden the organizations international visibility and greatly increase the number of volunteers. Currently Tashi remains as an active Advisor to the organization. He lives and works in Sydney, Australia where he continues to serve the Tibetan community by organizing cultural events.

Laura Manley

Laura is also the Co-Founder for the Center for Open Data Enterprise in Washington DC, where she leads partnerships and programs. She is also a Consultant with the World Bank’s Transport and ICT Global Practice. Laura specializes in data for economic growth, working with governments from low- and middle-income countries. As a great supporter of Tibet, she has worked with TCHRD (Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy) and Common Grounds Project in addition to Lha.

In addition to her work on data for development, Laura has over a decade of strategic planning experience with multiple international agencies including the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF, the National Endowment for Democracy, and MasterCard Foundation.

Dukthen Kyi

Dukthen Kyi has served as the General Secretary of Lha Charitable Trust for more than two years until she received a scholarship to pursue further studies in 2015. She graduated from South India from the University of Madras, Ethiraj College where she studied English and Communication Skills. She joined Lha in 2013 as the editor for Contact magazine, a monthly magazine published by Lha. Before joining Lha, Dukthen had the opportunity and the experience of working with other organizations.