Mai Zong Vue currently works for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Mai Zong is also a cultural trainer and folklore performer, including Hmong poetry song and story teller since 1997. She is an alumni of UW-Madison.
Mai Zong has been a tireless advocate for the poor for the past 35 years, especially the Hmong people and refugees. She began to advocate for her family, extended family, and then the Hmong community in the 1980’s. Mai Zong’s advocacy and grass-root activism led to the development of Hmong and refugee women non-profit agencies in Wisconsin and Georgia to provide human service; health and women’s empowerment and leadership services for refugee women; Refugee Family Strengthening Program (a domestic abuse program) in Wisconsin; the Hmong studies position at UW-Madison; the Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program; and the Hmong Institute.
Nationally, Mai Zong served on a variety of boards that help improved the lives of others. Internationally, she volunteered as a delegate to global gatherings that aim to advance the status of woman and children, including the State Department’s Hmong-Lao Oversea Delegation to Laos in 2011 and Hmong American Delegation to Napho refugee camp in 1996, and United Nation’s 4th Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
Mai Zong received numerous awards and honors for her tireless effort in serving the poor, including the YWCA of Dane County’s Women of Distinction, Authentic Hmong Leaders and Trailblazer.