Creating a brighter future for the Vietnamese community at home and abroad

Kyle Witzigman ’16

Policy Manager, Amazon

Major: Political Scirence

Minors: Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Studies

A transracial and international adoptee, Kyle Witzigman ’16 is building a life that engages both parts of his American and Vietnamese identity. Growing up in Springdale, Arkansas, Witzigman has navigated his Vietnamese heritage and southern Razorback roots.

Since he was an undergraduate at Notre Dame, Witzigman has sought opportunities to understand more about his birth country, working at his adoption agency headquarters, working with Agent Orange victims, and interning at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. After graduating in 2016, Witzigman spent a year teaching in Tuyen Quang, Vietnam on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. He later joined the founding team of Fulbright University Vietnam, the country’s first liberal arts university. The first graduating class of undergraduates received their degrees this past June 2023.

In 2019, Witzigman returned to the States to enroll in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, earning his master in public policy while serving as a board member of Harvard’s Asian American and LGBTQ+ student groups. Upon graduation, he moved to Washington, D.C.

Outside of his day job as a policy manager at Amazon Advertising, Witzigman is an active member of the Viet Place Collective, a community organization that advocates on behalf of over 100 Vietnamese-owned businesses in Falls Church, VA—a landing ground for Vietnamese immigrants since the 1980s. When the city made plans to develop a large shopping plaza this past fall, the Viet Place Collective mobilized and promoted Vietnamese voices as an active part of the city’s development plans, advocating for anti-displacement measures including business protections, language specialists, and the inclusion of cultural arts that celebrate Vietnamese heritage.

Witzigman’s dedication to discerning his identity and using it to be of service to others has led him to transform his local Vietnamese community. His hope for a brighter future includes a vision in which ethnicity, citizenship status, and race do not define one’s ability to transform the world for good. Witzigman resides in D.C. with his partner, David.