I am so blessed to call Tran Bui a colleague, friend and peer role model.  Tran has truly brought to reality the American Dream.  A dream once only in the minds of her parents has come to fruition and flourished thru Tran.  Today, thousands of people have been blessed by her effort and determination to make Memphis a better place to live, work and play.   She was a focused and fearless television journalist.  Now, she’s a businesswoman who is using her television roots to help raise money for non-profit organizations.

Tran has spent most of her life on a voyage to better her life and the lives of others.  In 1975, then three years old, Tran’s parents escaped Saigon, (then Ho Chi Minh City ) by boat.  They were rescued by the U-S Navy and placed into refugee camps in the Phillipines, Guam, Wake Island and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas .   Tran eventually earned a degree in Business Administration.  However, she would spend the next 12 years as a television journalist.   Tran worked hard to give people who often suffer in silence a voice in their struggles.

During her tenure as a journalist, when the lights of the camera darkened at the end of the day, Tran’s desire to help in the community beamed.  She created the ABC24/UPN30 “Get Smart. Read” book drive.  Thousands of books were collected for children in low income schools.  She also helped organize storytelling events, recruit volunteers to sort and deliver books.   Tran also organized the first “Souper Party” for Youth Villages in Memphis .  This event has been a major annual fundraiser for Youth Villages.  Tran has been an active member and board member of MPACT Memphis.  She has served as a committee chair spearheading more than 20 hands-on projects with various organizations in Memphis .

Tran’s work has not stopped.  She ended her career in tv news in 2005.  Since then she has devoted her time and attention to the local office of COMEC, the Commission on Missing and Exploited Children.  She currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors.  She has dedicated her time and talent to raising thousands of dollars for the organization.  She has also brought awareness of the local COMEC chapter and its work to protect children.

Tran’s latest endeavor is called “TV Moms.”  She has taken her expertise in media and community relations to form a group of former television news women who raise money and awareness of issues facing Mid-Southerners.  Through “TV Moms,” Tran has spearheaded local discussions featuring women who are running for political offices.   This gave Mid-Southerners the opportunity to talk candidly with candidates.  It’s an opportunity many people don’t get often.  She has also created workshops on financial balancing in today’s tough economy.  Participants learn how to juggle financial commitments to kids, education, household needs and themselves.   All the money raised from the various “TV Moms” workshops has been earmarked for local non-profit organizations.

Tran has been named one of the Memphis Women’s Magazine’s “50 Women Who Make a Difference.”  She has also been voted one of the top three “best reporters” by Memphis Woman Magazine readers.  She is one of only 15 journalists across the country invited to participate in the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and United Nations Foundation fall workshop with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  Her list of honors and awards is extensive.

Amazingly, Tran does all of this and more, while balancing her role as wife to Scott Smith and mother to 16 month old Jackson.

Tran Bui deserves to be one of the 2006 Memphis Business Journals “40 Under 40.”  Most businesses can only focus on one product or a single goal.  However, Tran is a business that focuses on improving the lives of many.   Tran lived the American Dream.  Her mission is to make sure people in Memphis and the Mid-South, reap the benefits of her dream and get the resources to create their own.

Dee Griffin
News Anchor/Reporter, ABC24/UPN30 Eyewitness News
Top 40 Under 40, Memphis Business Journal 2006