Candidate for
Coordinator,
Southern Regional

Suteera Nagavajara is Research Director with over 25 years of experience in international development. She has extensive experience managing complex and large-scale quantitative and qualitative research including studies related to child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. Suteera is an expert in managing research and evaluation activities in difficult environments in international settings, finding creative solutions to address technical, people's and cultural challenges. She is results-oriented, client-focused, and entrepreneurial. She has worked in multiple countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa with diverse stakeholders and partners including the U.S. and foreign government entities, civil society organizations, NGOs, and the private sector. She currently manages an International Labor and Migration team with 28 staff at a research and management consulting firm ICF in the Washington DC area and runs several research programs with an overall budget of over 34M$. Suteera received her B.A. from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand with a major in English Literature and a minor in Theatre Arts, and M.A. in International Studies from the University of Oregon. She speaks Thai, English and Spanish.  

​

In addition to research work, Suteera is an artistic director of the Somapa Thai Dance Company (www.somapadance.org) based in the Washington DC area and has given numerous Thai classical dance workshops and performances at embassies, theaters, museums, universities, as well as giving dance workshops for choreographers and cast of Broadway productions such as the King and I at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2015 and other productions including the most recent musical theater “Waterfall” featured in October 2023 at Rachadalai Theater in Bangkok. She has collaborated with many other international performing artists including Indian, Indonesian, and American modern dancers. She has performed throughout the DC area, other states in the U.S. as well as in Thailand, Mexico, and Chile.  

​

In addition to Thai classical dance, Suteera is also well-versed in a Thai classical music instrument Saw U (two-stringed fiddle). Suteera is a recipient of the Maryland Traditions 2017-2018 Apprenticeship Award to study Cambodian classical music Kong Touch (small round gongs) with the National Endowment of the Arts fellowship recipient, Master Chum Ngek. She is currently on the Advisory Committee for the Regional Folklife Center at Sandy Spring Museum in Maryland.  

​

Suteera’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suteera-nagavajara-3941615/