May 28, 2009: Boat People SOS is excited to have Danielle Bolks on board as director of our Emergency Response and Recovery Program. Based in BPSOS’ Houston branch, Danielle will oversee various disaster recovery projects around Texas. This includes the FEMA-funded Hurricane Ike recovery case management program, which is expected to be larger that the Katrina Aid Today project.

“We’re very pleased to have someone of Danielle’s talents and commitment working with us in such a key position,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of BPSOS.

During her six years as program director for refugee resettlement at Catholic Charities, Danielle worked extensively with many immigrant communities, including Vietnamese refugees. She administered, developed, and oversaw the day-to-day operations of the entire refugee resettlement department, including monitoring programmatic compliance and outcome measurements for 14 funded grants.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Danielle was also part of the team at Catholic Charities that partnered with BPSOS to assist thousands of Vietnamese refugees arriving in Houston from the Gulf Coast.

She most recently worked with the International Catholic Migration Commission as a consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the Kebribeyah Refugee Camp in Ethiopia.

She is a Licensed Master of Social Work in Texas, where she received a BA in English from the University of Texas in Austin and her MSW from the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work. She has a basic knowledge of Spanish and Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia.

Starting with her service after undergraduate studies as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, Danielle has spent the majority of her professional career advocating for refugees.