Story Archive

Sam Stratman joined RFA’s board in February 2025. A Capitol Hill veteran and strategist, he brings more than 25 years’ experience in communications and policy development for the Republican side in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure, served in senior roles at the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, advancing the agendas of their respective Chairmen and House leadership amid crucial debates on many fronts, including China policy. His background and expertise include oversight of U.S. broadcasting services, such as Radio Free Asia. He lectures and teaches on public policy issues, including as adjunct faculty at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. He earned a Master’s in Education from Wilmington College and a B.A. in History from University of Cincinnati.

As Executive Editor, Rosa oversees RFA’s editorial division, including news production and strategy. Prior to joining RFA in October 2024, Hwang worked from 2011-2023 at CTV News, a division of CTV - Canada’s largest private broadcaster - where she held key roles including executive producer and senior producer of National News and Network Specials. During her 12-year tenure she oversaw the production of Canada’s most-watched national newscast, maintaining its position in a competitive field. She promoted a transformational ‘digital first’ strategy within the national newsroom, leading a team that included all foreign and national correspondents, producers and writers. Hwang began her career at CBC News where she held a number of editorial positions in Calgary, Toronto and Washington. In 2005, she was among the first international journalists allowed access to the U.S. detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She earned her Bachelor of Applied Communications in Journalism at Mount Royal University in Calgary, and her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Calgary

As Chief Operating Officer, Kevin oversees the day-to-day operations of RFA’s human resources, finance, technology, and security teams. A member of RFA’s leadership team, he leads efforts to develop and bolster the organization’s overall efficiency as it expands its journalistic operations and capacity, in addition to enhancing the organization’s technology capabilities and operational footprint. Before joining RFA in September 2023, Kevin has more than 25 years of public, private, and NGO sector experience in the United States and abroad, focusing on issues ranging from education, and public health to agriculture, food security and economic development. He was the Chief of Operations for the Africa region at the Peace Corps, a position he held since 2019. Throughout his tenure with the Peace Corps, which began in 2015, he served in a number of managerial positions, including Acting Regional Director for the Africa region, and the Country Director of Peace Corps Liberia and Peace Corps Namibia. Prior to the Peace Corps, Kevin served as the Interim Executive Managing Director for Last Mile Health, during which he oversaw the organization's rapid scale-up during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. Before that he served as Chief of Staff and Strategy at the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship and SVP, Global Field Operations for Operation HOPE, Inc., nonprofits focused on providing entrepreneurship, and financial literacy opportunities for youth and adults in the United States, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He also worked as Country Relations Manager for Teach For All/Teach South Africa, Senior Project Manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Peace Corps Agriculture Volunteer in Lesotho, Teach For America Corps member in Los Angeles, California, and as Operations Manager at Keller Environmental Inc., in Columbus, Ohio. Kevin earned his bachelor's degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and his master's degree in Management and Public Policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. In his spare time, he loves to play tennis and keep up with his three nieces and nephew.

As President, Bay provides Radio Free Asia with leadership, vision, and mission-based strategic and operational direction. She first came to RFA as Managing Director for East Asia, overseeing the management and editorial content of RFA’s five East Asian language services. She went on to become RFA’s Executive Editor, supervising coverage across all of Asia. Prior to RFA, she began her 20-plus year career in journalism as the Beijing Bureau Chief for US News and World Report, where she won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her story "China's Stolen Wives." She went on to cover the wars in Afghanistan (2001-2002) and Iraq (2003-2004) for US News, and then became the Diplomatic Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Also before coming to RFA, Bay previously served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, overseeing public diplomacy and public affairs for Europe and Eurasia. Bay earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and was a visiting fellow at Oxford University and a Fulbright scholar in Hong Kong. She trained as a French chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and holds a brown belt in kung fu.

Carolyn Bartholomew joined RFA’s Board of Directors in September 2021, bringing almost two decades of experience on nonprofit and corporate boards, in addition to a lifetime career of foreign policy expertise in RFA’s region and markets. Most recently, she served as a Commissioner on the Congressionally-appointed U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), for which she served as Chair five times and as Vice Chair six times. Prior to her service on the USCC, she held senior-level positions in Congress, including on key committees overseeing Asia foreign policy and funding foreign aid, and congressional leadership, as a long-time counsel, legislative director, and chief of staff. She has particular expertise in U.S.-China trade relations, security issues, and human rights, and has led efforts on the promotion of human rights and strengthening civil society in countries around the world. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Duke University, and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of the State Bar of California.

Mike Green joined RFA’s Board of Directors in September 2021 and is currently serving as chief executive officer at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Previously, he served as senior vice president for Asia, Japan Chair, and Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of Asian Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He also served on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2001 through 2005, as director for Asian affairs and as special assistant to the President for national security affairs and senior director for Asia.

Michael Kempner has been on RFA’s Board of Directors since 2014. He is the Founder, President and CEO of MikeWorldWide (MWW), a public relations firm he founded in 1986. From 2010-2012 he served on the White House Council for Community Solutions. He is currently a board member of Goodwill Industries International and a Founding Board Member of ConnectOne Bancorp.

Shanthi Kalathil joined RFA’s board in July 2022. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., a Senior Fellow at USC’s Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and founder and principal at MDO Advisors. Previously, Kalathil served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights at the National Security Council, where she oversaw the organization of the inaugural Summit for Democracy and the development of the first U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption, among other initiatives. She has also served as the senior director of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies, a leading think tank exploring cross-cutting challenges to democracy like digital authoritarianism, foreign interference, information manipulation and kleptocracy. Throughout her career, she has focused on the intersection of technology, good governance, and international affairs, at organizations including the US Agency for International Development, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the World Bank. A former Hong Kong-based reporter for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Kalathil has authored and edited numerous policy and scholarly publications including Diplomacy, Development and Security in the Information Age (Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, 2013); Developing Independent Media as an Institution of Accountable Governance (The World Bank, 2011); and (with Taylor C. Boas) Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003), which was cited by Foreign Policy as one of “Ten Books To Learn How Technology Shapes the World.”

Keith Richburg joined RFA’s Board of Directors in September 2021. From 2016-2023 he was the director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. While serving as bureau chief in Beijing and Hong Kong for the Washington Post, he reported on the 1997 Hong Kong handover and the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress in Beijing in 2012. Additionally, from 2021-2023, he served as President of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club.

Allison Hooker joined RFA’s board in July 2022. She currently serves as senior vice president at American Global Strategies. Previously she held senior positions within the White House, serving as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the NSC and as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Korean Peninsula. Previously, she was a senior analyst for North Korea in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 2001 to 2014 and was the 2013-2014 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in South Korea.