Experts on countries of origin by country

Dr. Baird is a Professor of Geography and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also the coordinator of the Hmong Studies Consortium at UW-Madison, and the PI for the Lao American Archive Project at UW-Madison. Dr Baird was previously the Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UW-Madison, and remains on the Center's Steering Committee. He is also affiliated with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison.

Dr. Baird has been living, working and conducting research in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia since the late 1980s. He’s lived in Laos for 15 years, and in Thailand for 10 years. He remains active in conducting research in all three countries. Dr. Baird’s areas of interest include, but are not limited to, environmental issues, Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities, politics, development studies, marginalization, poverty, cross-border issues, insurgency, social services, and immigration.

Joshua Kurlantzick is Senior Fellow for South Asia and Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he studies South Asian and Southeast Asian politics and economics, with a particular focus on democracy, authoritarianism, human rights, and political transitions. Experienced country of origin expert for all nationals from Southeast Asia and China; specialist from one of the leading think-tanks in the world. Have provided expert witness reports for fifteen years for asylum cases in the UK, Europe, and US for nationals from across South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia – related to political issues, trafficking, slavery, gangs, religion, and many other issues. Also have provided expert witness reports for non-asylum immigration cases for nationals from South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia.

The Expert is an academic researcher and independent consultant whose expertise ranges from the study of Vietnamese and South East Asian socio-political issues to global labour exploitation and migrant workers' rights.

Leah Zani, Ph.D. (she, ze, they) is a public anthropologist, author, and poet. Zani earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine, where she studied the effects of air warfare in Laos. She trained as a researcher with the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Nobel prize-winning Mines Advisory Group. She has presented her research in Laos to the United States Congress. Recently, she held the Human Rights Seat of the American Anthropological Association, where she advised leadership on global issues of academic freedom. Zani currently serves as a Scholar Rescue Fund Ambassador, assisting displaced scholars as they seek asylum in the United States. She has written for Cultural Anthropology, Kenyon Review, Consequence, and SAPIENS, among others. She is the author of Strike Patterns, winner of the 2023 IPPY Gold Prize for Creative Nonfiction.