Staff

Minh Nguyen – Founder and Executive Director

Minh Nguyen is the founder and executive director of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO), a youth-led community-based organization dedicated to youth organizing and youth empowerment.

As a second generation Vietnamese American, born and raised as in New Orleans, Minh has dedicated his life to giving voice to the Asian American community in the Gulf Coast region. His long-term advocacy and organizing efforts have invigorated the political energy of the Vietnamese youth in New Orleans to unite, fight, and protect their communities from government-inflicted environmental injustices, such as negligible flood protections planning, water contamination, and the conversion of their largely African American and Vietnamese American community into a toxic dumpsite. His collaboration with youth organizers in education has blocked English-only policy initiatives from passing in Terrebonne Parish High School. Through his tenacious leadership, the first youth center in Village de l’Est opened in 2007, which currently serves as a hub for youth-focused leadership development and youth-led community organizing activities in this still under-resourced area of New Orleans. In 2008, Minh engaged college and high school students in electoral politics through his coordination of a voter mobilization drive that aimed to enfranchise the Vietnamese American vote in the critical November election cycle.

Minh graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a double major in management and marketing. His leadership as a student includes his services as the External Vice President of the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Association (UNAVSA) and the Executive Director of the UNAVSA Fourth Annual North American Vietnamese Student Conference.

Jacob Cohen – Assistant Director
Raise Your Hand Campaign

Jacob Cohen is the assistant director of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association (VAYLA) of New Orleans and a co-founder of the Raise Your Hand Campaign, a youth organizing initiative that focuses on education equity within New Orleans public high schools.

A graduate of Pomona College, he is the inaugural recipient of the Napier Initiative Creative Leadership Award, as well as the Davis Projects for Peace Award and the Donald Strauss Award. His senior thesis Privatization, Antidemocratic Governance and the “New Orleans Miracle,” received Edward Sait prize in American Politics, and examines post-Katrina education reform and youth participatory action research.

Dianna Hong Nguyen – Administrative Director
General Education Development (GED) Program
English Second Language (ESL) Program

Dianna Hong Nguyen has lived in New Orleans for the last 36 years. Her family was one of the first Vietnamese families to reside in New Orleans in 1975 after the Vietnam War.  After she was very effective as an administrative assistance at a local elementary school in New Orleans east, she joined VAYLA-NO as an administrator.

After a year of reflection and given an opportunity with hands-on experience with tutoring the GED to people ranging from 18 to 50, Dianna is an advocate of the GED program. She urges people to never give up on themselves. Her dedication and genuine love for education will guide the young adults to achieve their dreams.

Her goal is not only to be a dedicated staff member overseeing the administrative area of VAYLA-NO but also to tutor and prepare people for the GED test. She encourages all the people, who for whatever reason during their adolescent life have dropped out of high school to come to VAYLA-NO to prepare them to receive the GED certificate.

MK Nguyen – Deputy Director
Civic Engagement Program
Environmental Justice Program

MK Nguyen joined VAYLA in October 2011 as the new Deputy Director.

Her purpose at VAYLA is to strengthen VAYLA’s advocacy and organizing frameworks and to new create new opportunities for community engagement and leadership cultivation in the areas of health, environmental justice, and open and participatory governance.

Her interest is to work with others to improve the conditions of poor and working class people of color and immigrant communities in New Orleans, through shifting the resources and mindset of the city towards securing the rights of all people to have access to quality education, good jobs with living wages, quality and affordable healthcare, community-based planning and political self-determination within open and democratic city governance, affordable and quality public transportation, healthy and sustainable neighborhoods, and to safe and affordable housing in their city.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Critical Studies of Race and Ethnicity from Saint Catherine University, in St. Paul, Minnesota and a Master of Arts in Equity and Social Justice in Education from San Francisco State University.

Huong Nguyen – Outreach and Program Coordinator
Young Women’s Leadership Program

Huong T. Nguyen became an active member of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) in 2006 and became a staff in 2009. She was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is currently a student at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans, La, where she is majoring in Business Marketing.

She is the founder and Program Coordinator of the Young Women’s Leadership Program (YWLP). She empowered female to start playing flag football in her community and was able to encourage VAYLA Annual Social Sports Tournament to establish the first ever female sport that was male-dominated.At VAYLA, Huong facilitates bi-weekly general meetings for members as well as create the bi-weekly vlog and newsletters.Huong was awarded the 2009 Service Leader/Youth Ally Change Maker Award from the Gulfsouth Youth Action Corps and she was also the 2nd Runner Up in the 2009 ASPIRE Outstanding Woman of the Year Award.

Her goals are to create a safe space for women of the community as well as empower young women into leaders.

Sean Nguyen – Health Program Coordinator
Family Circle Program

Sean D. T. Nguyen grew up in Houma, Louisiana for fourteen years. He has been highly involved with many organizations like church choir and Student Council and created different events such as the first Youth Relay for Life in Terrebonne Parish. After moving to New Orleans in 2007, Sean is a senior studying in Psychology with a focus on Counseling and Social Work and minoring in Biology and Chemistry at the University of New Orleans. He was the Treasurer of the UNO’s Vietnamese American Student Association (UNO-VASA) and is currently the Senior Advisor for the organization.

Following his time with Louisiana Spirit Hurricane/Costal Recovery Crisis Counseling Program, he joined Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) as a Program Coordinator of the Family Circle program and the Mentorship program in 2010. He focuses on creating an environment for on-going support for both immediate and long-term psychological well being of young people, while simultaneously helping young people developing life-long skills for emotional expression and stability.

His goal is to maintain a stable and warm environment for youths to be able to express their feelings and give them the support to become a stronger person.

Tuyet Ngo – Health Program Coordinator
VAYLA’s Happy Hour
Recreational Program

Tuyet Ngo joined VAYLA in early September 2011. She is a second generation Vietnamese American who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and lived there for most of her life. She graduated from Oberlin College, a small liberal arts college in Northeast Ohio, in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Comparative American Studies. Tuyet is currently a full-time student, earning her Master’s in Public Health at Tulane University. She expects to graduate in May 2013.

Tuyet works at VAYLA part-time, promoting the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of youth during Kick Back Night.

She also focuses on health-related advocacy and networking, improving the relationships among young people and the elders of the Vietnamese community in New Orleans East and the Westbank through a partnership with the Southeast Asia Resource Center.

Eliana Bronstein – Education Program Coordinator
ESL Program
ACT Prep Program
Raise Your Hand Campaign

Eliana Bronstein joined VAYLA in September 2011 as the Education Program Coordinator.

She grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying Fine Arts and Literature with a focus in Picture Book Art.  Eliana loves has devoted her time and talent to the youth since high school when she tutored kids at a local Hebrew school.  Eliana moved to New Orleans in August 2011 to participate in AVODAH Jewish Service Corps, a year long program working at VAYLA and living in an intentional community with nine people who also work at local non-profit organizations.

At VAYLA, Eliana is here to support and tutor students preparing for college – whether it’s for college applications, scholarships, financial aid, personal statements or studying for the ACT.

Come out to set up an appointment for one-on-one tutoring sessions or you can stop by VAYLA during her drop-in hours on Monday afternoons from 4-7pm. She is also working with Jacob Cohen on the Raise Your Hand Campaign (RYHC), a youth-led campaign on education equity issues. Eliana works closely on the art projects and supports the RYHC adult and youth staff on all project planning and implementation. She also co-teaches the adult ESL class with Dianna Hong.

Eliana is so happy to be working with such a talented group of youth!