Theary C. Seng is currently writing her second book, the founder and board president of the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation, and the founding director of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education, recently registered with the Ministry of Interior and expected to be in operation mid-2010.  After a 2-year stint as a commercial lawyer, Theary, in March 2006, joined the Center for Social Development, a local human rights organization based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as its executive director until her removal in July 2009 by a politically-motivated court injunctive order.

Theary was born in Phnom Penh in January 1971. Under the Khmer Rouge, she lived in Svay Rieng province bordering Vietnam, where the killings were most intense and where she spent five months in prison. The Khmer Rouge killed both her parents. She and her surviving family trekked across the border for Thailand in Nov. 1979 and emigrated to the U.S. one year later.