OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MEET THE TEAM
The Immigrant Hall of Honor exists to celebrate and promote immigrant contributions to the world. Learn more about our Core Principles and our plans for a bricks-and-mortar museum.
SARA PUIG LAAS, FOUNDER
Sara is the original visionary and a founding director of the Immigrant Hall of Honor. Civic involvement has always been a priority; a graduate of the University of Texas, Laas has served as an officer on many arts-related boards, including the Writers League of Texas in Austin, where the Laredo native now lives. Her long career includes Human Resources Management for a bank, interviewing prominent authors and other guests on television, and small business owner. In retirement, her non-fiction and poetry have been published in anthologies and other media. Learn more about Sara on her website, sarapuiglaas.com.
PHILIP OCHOA, FOUNDER
Philip is co-founder and President of Federal Defense Industries, supporting the diverse needs of the US Military foreign partner support logistics channel since 2000. As President of FDI, he has helped create multiple innovative database tools and led the company to sales of more than $450MM. Ochoa earned a BBA from Texas Tech University with an emphasis in marketing. Ochoa’s years of community service include roles as president of his college fraternity, Past President of the Laredo Rotary Club, former member of the Santa Barbara Rotary Club, a Paul Harris Fellow, and current member of the San Marcos Academy Alumni Council. He now resides in Boerne, Texas.
KEN KOSKAY, DIRECTOR
Ken is the former head of global sales at Becker Professional Education and was senior vice president and general manager of Learning Solutions for Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting. At Becker, he launched many successful product lines, growing revenues by a compound annual rate of over 10 percent. During his 22 years at Thomson Reuters, Ken’s team created the largest for-profit CPE provider in the United States, as well as the leading online training platform for CPAs. Ken earned a BS in Accounting from Eastern Michigan University. He is a CPA and Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and received global executive training at both Dartmouth College and the I.E. School of Business in Spain.
JAMES WITTE, FOUNDER
James is the recently retired founding director of the Institute for Immigration Research and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at George Mason University. He previously held faculty positions at Clemson University and Northwestern University, and earlier served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center and a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. James has published widely in leading academic journals and is the author of three books, including The Normal Bar, a New York Times bestseller.
He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Major projects have included founding the Institute for Immigration Research, the NSF-funded AI and Peer Review project, and international partnerships focused on immigration research with an emphasis on South Asia.