He later moved to the United States and received his PhD in international relations from the University of Colorado Denver with a focus on world politics and Asian security, refugee and human rights issues.
[2] Vang founded and served as the first president and executive director of the non-governmental organization Lao Human Rights Council.
[citation needed] In the 1980s and 1990s, Vang worked with Philip Smith and The Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C., to research and obtain additional evidence of human rights violations in Laos as well as the forced repatriation of Laotian and Hmong refugees from Thailand back to the communist regime in Laos they fled.
Vang frequently traveled to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, and Washington, D.C., to conduct research and public policy advocacy—and to meet with policymakers and Members of the U.S.
[4][5] This information was often shared with key members of the U.S. Congress and policymakers in Washington, D.C., who eventually worked to try and halted, and reverse, the forced repatriation of Lao and Hmong refugees from Thailand back to Laos, including the thousands of Hmong refugees who fled to the Buddhist Temple of Wat Tham Krabok.