Van S. Nguyen

      Van S. Nguyen credits his involvement in the labor movement to two key factors: the influence of his older sister Tam Nguyen and his participation in the APALA-Organizing Institute in Los Angeles in May 2008.Van is a union organizer for the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU, a housestaff union that represents over 13,000 interns and residents nationally. In this role he worked with residents to fight for improved working conditions and better quality of care provided to patients.

     He is currently a lead organizer at the Healthcare Equality Project, a campaign that works with national and community based coalition partners to ensure that issues of healthcare disparities among communities of color are integrated within healthcare reform. Previously, Van served as an Associate at the Greenlining Institute where he worked on issues of affordability, access, and inclusion at California public universities. Van holds a BA from UC Berkeley where he served as the first ever Vietnamese-American student body president.