Fulbright Grantee. Advocate. Storyteller.

Katie Hoang is a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, a former pageant titleholder, and the founder of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Dare to LEAD. A TCU Horned Frog with a finance degree from the M.J. Neeley School of Business, she is currently teaching English in Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam, ahead of a private equity analyst role with Alpine Investors in Austin this fall.

The Fulbright placement carries personal weight for Katie, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who grew up hearing stories about the country at her family’s kitchen table. Teaching in Đà Nẵng has given her the chance to stand inside those stories rather than just hear them.

In 2021, Katie was crowned Miss Teen International and used the title to advocate for sexual assault survivors and at-risk youth. That same platform led her to found Dare to LEAD, a nonprofit whose volunteer community has since equipped and fed more than 500 families experiencing homelessness.

At TCU, Katie served as Chief Operating Officer of the Educational Investment Fund, the nation’s first student-managed investment portfolio and today a roughly $2.2 million fund, and interned at Satori Capital, J.P. Morgan Private Bank, the Adera Foundation in Ethiopia, and the City of Fort Worth’s Strategy and Innovation Office, work that continues to shape her interest in long-term, people-centered investing.

Katie picked up her first camera at fourteen and later built a photography business shooting seniors and families across Dallas-Fort Worth. Finance, advocacy, and photography are different paths, but for Katie they share the same root: paying attention to people, and investing in them for the long run. Outside of work, she’s usually cooking, reviewing a new restaurant, exploring a national park, or working toward her private pilot’s license.