Theary C. Seng is currently writing her second book and the founder and board president of the Center for Justice & Reconciliation. In March 2006, Theary 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.