Lifelong Learning (LLL) Payap is pleased to announce that, as of March 17, 2025, we will have a full-time Managing Director to oversee all aspects of the program. Chris Cusano has lived and worked in Thailand and Southeast Asia for thirty years and brings both the experience and knowledge needed to lead LLL into the future.
Chris first came to Chiang Mai in 1990 as an exchange student at Payap. After earning a degree in the study of Buddhism at the University of Rochester, in New York, he volunteered with refugee communities in Tak for six years. In 2000, he began a twenty-year career with Ashoka, a global network investing in founders of citizen-led movements for public health, education, environmental protection, human rights, peace, and well-being for people and planet.
In 2005, after managing Ashoka’s global search-and-selection program from Washington DC, Chris returned to Asia to develop Ashoka in the region. Chris has met and interviewed hundreds of candidates for Ashoka Fellowships in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Later, Chris started a program in Singapore linking philanthropists to changemakers in Asia.
More recently, Chris was a founding director of Ashoka’s New Longevity program, drawing together social entrepreneurs and innovations for a planet with more and more people over fifty years old. Then he started Sunbird, which collects life-stories of veteran social visionaries and activists for interdisciplinary research.
Chris lives in Mae Rim with his wife, Piyaporn, an award-winning language instructor who has taught for numerous government, educational, and private institutions in both Thailand and the United States. Their son started school in Chiang Mai and is now working overseas. In his free time, Chris enjoys mountain biking and playing disc golf.
Chris is returning to Chiang Mai after several years attending to aging parents back home. He is as delighted to be able to return to Chiang Mai as we are to have him join us at Lifelong Learning Payap. We look forward to welcoming him to LLL in March and to working with him to fulfill our vision of enriching life for residents o northern Thailand by providing high quality educational opportunities in English within a multicultural community.
