Thien-Nhien Luong

Thien-Nhien Luong is the CEO of Design Capital Asia, a non-profit and non-governmental organization based in the USA and Vietnam whose mission is to eradicate poverty through youth empowerment. She is a member of the board of directors of Vietnamese American Non-Governmental Organization Network (VANGO) and a member of Vietnamese Reach for Health Coalition (VRHC). 

Ms. Luong obtained her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from UCSB and MPH in Epidemiology from UCLA. 

On her work in Vietnam...
My commitment to helping Vietnam stems from my experience working on the HIV/AIDS project in Vietnam to estimate the HIV infection rate among commercial sex workers in 1997.   I witnessed firsthand how poverty plays an integral part in dangerous risk-taking behaviors in an individual, tearing apart a family, breaking a community, and weakening a society and its culture.  I was the first to introduce saliva testing for HIV infection in Vietnam.  Later I was involved in the efforts to introduce Anonymous Testing Services (ATS) for high-risk populations in Saigon, advocated for MSM to be added as an at-risk group to surveillance, and championed for methadone clinics for injection drug users also in Saigon. 

Because of my familiarity with Vietnam when working on these projects, I was approached by several non-profit organizations to consult on health-related projects to serve the poor population.  I have also worked with many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on their charitable projects (corrective surgery program, mobile health program, scholarship program) for Vietnam. 

In 1999, I co-founded the Friends of Hue Foundation (FHF) with Mr. Nguyen Dinh Huu and others to assist Thua Thien, Hue to get back to normalcy after the deadliest flood in a 100 years.  It wasn't until I became FHF's Executive Director in 2008 did I learn about the band-aid approach that many charitable NGOs have embarked on for years.  It took me roughly two years to draw on needs data, as well as on my research, public health, and community development experiences to create development vision and programs for Vietnam.  One program called Healthy Initiatives through Peer Education (HIPE) has been focusing on youths from orphanages/children shelters, at-risk communities, and poor schools to empower and train them to become Peer Health Educators (PHEs), who are then given education scholarships and placed back in their schools and communities to lead health workshops on sanitation, environmental protection, tobacco control and prevention, and sexual reproductive health.  To date, our PHEs have provided needed health education to 35,000 children and have directly reduced hygiene preventable diseases such as parasitic and eye infection diseases.  The second development tract is about social entrepreneur development through capital investment and business capacity training on business development, operation, marketing/sales to labor laws and work place safety to name a few to qualified social entrepreneurs who in return create job, provide job training, and participate in annual giving to the poor people and communities.  Since 2010, our 67 social entrepreneurs have trained 379 students, added 311 full-time jobs and 42 part-time jobs, and have enjoyed roughly 45.5% in business growth on an average.         

On being a full-time mom to her three children and children around the world...
I resigned from the job that I absolutely loved at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department to be a full-time mom to my three wonderful children ten years ago.  However, I am still devoted to working with amazing people to address public health needs locally and in Vietnam.  In the past,  I was motivated by the need to prevent children and youths from having to go through what I went through living under the communist regime and as a refugee.  But now that I have my own children, all children have become my inspiration, my today, and my tomorrow.  I'd like very much to see them feel that they are cared for, loved, and have a supportive network beyond parents to help them grow productively and meaningfully.  My morning begins with my children and my day ends with my children, but in between, other children are always within my thoughts and actions.  I am so very grateful to have found incredible moms and women joining my calls and causes to help children in need.

On joining PIVOT..
To me, the hardest part of being a woman is being both a parent and an educator to not only my children, but children in need everywhere.  The professional accomplishments and accolades are means to allow us to be good parents and educators to children and youths around us.  Among the people in PIVOT, I understand that the one compelling shared reason for us to join the organization was to ensure the security our children's future.

Thuy Thi Nguyen

Photo Credit:  Foothill College

Thuy Thi Nguyen is the president of Foothill College, making her the first Vietnamese American community college president in California.  She received her bachelor's degree in philosophy from Yale University and her law degree from UCLA.  

Ms. Nguyen recently spoke with PIVOT for Women's History Month.

On her education career path...
Passion and expertise led her to where she is today.  From early age, Ms. Nguyen realized how critical a good education was to the individual and community.  It was through education that she was able to move forward, from a social mobility standpoint, and she is passionate about helping others do the same.  Her expertise comes from training and simply from her life.  From being an immigrant to going through the public school system, she has seen firsthand the social injustice that the "have-nots" have had to endure and wants to correct it.

On being an immigrant... 
When asked how being an immigrant influences who she is at work, Ms. Nguyen says that is like asking "how does it feel to breathe air?"  Being an immigrant is a part of her identity that she cannot separate from her everyday life.  She feels that her past allows her to easily connect with students and parents of all nationalities. 

On finding a balance among work, family, and community involvement...
She concedes that she and her husband, Judge Thang Nguyen Barrett, are in a constant state of balancing and are never 100% balanced.  Her advice is to find someone who supports and understands not just your career ambitions, but your values as well.  Judge Barrett is a product of and very grateful to the community college system so he is extremely supportive of what she does in terms of the cause around the mission of community colleges. 

On the Trump administration...
Ms. Nguyen says that we are challenged as a country and have to remember the conversation around nationalism that the President is putting forth.  For her, nationalism is about understanding the value of immigrants because we are a land of immigrants. This means appreciating all immigrants - whether they are long-term lineage immigrants, those who were forced here by slavery, or refugees such as herself.  Her hope is that we will have a stronger sense of patriotism since our history is what distinguishes us from other countries.

According to Ms. Nguyen, we also need to change the current dialogue.  That is why she signed on with many other college and university presidents in a letter to the Trump administration in support of undocumented students.  In fact, on Trump's Inauguration Day, she commissioned the DREAMers Mural at Foothill College.  While not complete, it is already a beautiful work of art done by DREAMers who are artists and students at the school.  She believes it was cathartic and allows everyone time to reflect.

Ms. Nguyen ended the interview with a message to PIVOT, particularly to the younger PIVOTers:  
"You cannot be successful if those around you are struggling.  Gandhi said, 'The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.'  We should help those around us so the entire community - both the Vietnamese American community and community at-large - is successful too.  With that said, I am hopeful for the younger generation and have enormous admiration and respect for them.  I've seen so many students come together to support each other in the wake of recent events."  

Ms. Nguyen commissioned a mural by artists and students who are DREAMers at Foothill College. 

Leyna Nguyen

Photo Credit:  www.loveacrosstheocean.org

Leyna Nguyen is a television anchor and reporter in Southern California.  Having won three Emmy Awards, she currently anchors the weeknight news on a Los Angeles CBS affiliate. 

Ms. Nguyen has appeared in numberous television shows and movies such as NCIS: Los Angeles, Dexter, The Day After Tomorrow, and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Besides appearing on the big and television screens, Ms. Nguyen's other passion is humanitarian work.  She founded and is the president of Love Across the Ocean (LATO), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families in Vietnam and America.  Her work with LATO earned her the 2011 CA State Legislature Woman of the Year Award.  Among other activities, Ms. Nguyen has also hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA telethons and Summer Special Olympics.  

Chloe Dao

Photo Credit: www.chloedao.com

Chloe Dao is a fashion designer, entrepreneur, and television personality.  She was the winner of the second season of Project Runway.

Ms. Dao believes in giving back to the community.  She serves on the fashion advisory boards at Houston Community College and The Art Institute.  She also makes an annual contribution of limited edition silk scarves to Zeta Tau Alpha sorority’s Think Pink Foundation to promote breast cancer awareness.  Ms. Dao also hosts events at her Houston store and provides her services to many nonprofit organizations.

Ms. Dao's pieces were featured in the Smithsonian Museum's "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon" exhibit in 2007.

Monique Truong

A novelist, essayist, and librettist based in Brooklyn, Monique Truong was born in Saigon in 1968 and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1975. Ms. Truong's novels include the national bestseller The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), the award-winning Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010), and The Sweetest Fruits, forthcoming from Viking Books. Translated into thirteen languages, her novels have garnered an American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN America/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Bard Fiction Prize, among others. Ms. Truong's essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Saveur, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Marie Claire, and upcoming May issue of O magazine. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship, and Princeton University's Hodder Fellowship, she was most recently the Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College (CUNY) in 2016. Ms. Truong is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School. 

Also a member of PIVOT, Ms. Truong says, "For us refugees, who came to the U.S. seeking freedom, democracy, and a country governed by the rule of law, the current administration is a slap in the face. We cannot remain silent as this administration day by day, executive order by executive order, tweet by tweet dismantles the very foundation and values of our nation."