Refugee Resettlement Panel: Successes and Challenges in the Past

  In this panel, individuals who have experienced displacement and practitioners who work in refugee resettlement and integration highlighted the strengths and shortcomings of the historic U.S. refugee resettlement program.

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Inspired by her first teacher at the refugee camp, Hanh Bui pursued a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education and taught second grade. Hanh’s commitment to celebrating her heritage includes giving presentations at school visits about her refugee experience to children studying immigration as part of their school curriculum. She serves as co-chair of the Equity and Inclusion Team for the Mid-Atlantic region of SCBWI(Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators). She is a member of Diverse Verse and has been featured in Highlights For Children magazine and Next Avenue. She is the author of The Yellow Áo Dài, April 2023 and Ánh's New Word, 2024 (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan).

Kimberly LeBlanc started working with refugees in 2007 as an eligibility caseworker for the local North Carolina social services office. During that time, she learned about who refugees were, where they were coming from, and fully understood the support that they needed coming to a new country. When the opportunity arose, Kim became the lead case manager at the local Greensboro Church World Service (CWS) affiliate. It was there that she became fully involved in her work and learned as much as she could about the refugee admissions program. While at CWS, Kim was promoted to operations manager. She oversaw the major programs and also represented the organization at city events and panel discussions. After moving to Northern Virginia, Kim took a job with a local Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) field office in Silver Spring, MD. After her stint at ECDC, Kim was hired to work as a program officer at USCRI’s national office in Arlington, Virginia. It was there, that Kim fully immersed herself in the program by learning and understanding the overseas processing of refugees and special immigrant visa holders. Kim handled all pre-arrival processing and managed the processing team, focusing on getting refugees to the United States. When the Afghan crisis began, Kim was considered the expert in all things related to refugee resettlement. Because of this, Kim became responsible for running the entire Reception and Placement (R&P) program for a national resettlement agency. Kim oversaw arrival numbers and projections for 36 affiliate and field offices. She was responsible for managing pipelines, allocation meetings, and the distribution of reimbursement funds, and even though her focus was on pre-arrival, she did a lot of work, assisting affiliate and field offices in their post-arrival work. Currently, Kim serves as the Director of Resettlement and Integration Services at the Fairfax Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area site, serving newly arrived refugees and immigrants. Kim enjoys mentoring staff, listening to stories and life experiences from staff and clients, and enjoys tasting good food from all over the world.

Salimah Shamsuddin is a humanitarian assistance professional with a strong focus on domestic and international refugee program implementation, capacity development and emergency response. Salimah currently serves as the Director of Resettlement and Integration at Lutheran Social Services National Capital Area (LSSNCA). Within her role as Site Director, she oversees domestic resettlement services within Virginia. Prior to joining LSSNCA,  Salimah worked at the International Organization for Migration (IOM-UN Migration) and supported the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in coordinating the Afghan resettlement emergency operations in Doha, Qatar and Amman, Jordan. Throughout the years, Salimah has worked with various refugee resettlement agencies including U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants (USCRI) and YMCA International Services in Texas. Within her role at USCRI, Salimah provided coordination for a newly formed refugee mental health and wellness initiative where she promoted and delivered trauma-informed care training for interagency community partners within Texas. Within her role at YMCA International Services, she supervised the Refugee Social Services program and provided case management, technical guidance, logistical and administrative support for coordinating and implementing refugee social adjustment services.  Salimah holds a Master of Arts in International Migration from the University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies. She is fluent in English, Urdu, and Hindi, and is certified in Trauma-Informed Cross-Cultural Psychoeducation Training, Mental Health First Aid USA, and Child Abuse Prevention.