President and Co-Founder of the US-Vietnam Trade Council, a project of the International Center, and of its education affiliate, the US-Vietnam Trade Council Education Forum, and President and Partner of Vietnam Partners LLC, a private investment bank dedicated to Vietnam.

In 1989, Ginny Foote ’73 co-founded the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council as a nonprofit membership organization working to build a new relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam. Working closely with the governments of and companies in both countries, she put together a team of trade experts that brokered a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam. She also led the efforts to help Vietnam gain admission to the World Trade Organization. And, she participated in and coordinated the first delegation of Veterans Groups (the American Legion and the VFW) to Vietnam. In March 2007 she assumed the role of President and

Partner of Vietnam Partners LLC, a private investment bank dedicated to Vietnam.

“No one has worked more tirelessly on United States and Vietnam relations,” notes Robert Schiffer, CEO of the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council, a sentiment shared by others in the foreign affairs community including former Ambassador William Sullivan. “Ginny and her organization have led to the mentoring of many young people and professionals in Vietnam. She has been a role model to many professional women, both Americans and Vietnamese,” adds Schiffer.

In 1999 she received the US Ambassador’s Award for Citizen Diplomacy and in July 2007 she received the Vietnamese President’s Medal of Friendship of Vietnam presented by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Foreign Affairs for her contribution to the promotion of reconciliation and relations between the two countries.

After graduating from Laurel in 1973, Ginny obtained a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The US-Vietnam Trade Council has offices in Washington, D.C. and Hanoi.

2009 Young Alumna of Distinction

Camilla Taylor ’89

Senior Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal Defense Midwest Regional Office

Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest legal organization dedicated to advancing the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV. She represents her clients on a wide variety of matters including family law, employment discrimination, criminal law and advocacy.

Camilla made national headlines when she won Varnum v. Brien, Lambda Legal’s lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry in Iowa for same-sex couples. She is the lead attorney handling the appeal in that case. She herself has noted that she “has dedicated my legal career to fighting for the legal rights of the poor and disenfranchised.”

“In the last ten years of work for Lambda Legal,

Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Camilla worked as an appellate public defender for the Legal Aid Society in New York City and as a litigation associate at a NY law firm where she represented a Texas death row inmate and a person with AIDS who was not receiving AIDS-related medical care in prison.

After graduating from Laurel in 1989, Camilla received her B.A. from Yale and her J.D from Columbia Law School. She resides in Chicago.