Staff member profile featured in the autumn 2024 issue of the department’s equity, diversity, and inclusion newsletter.
Tell us about yourself including your nationality, ethnicity, and culture.
I am Vietnamese. I was born in Saigon, Viet Nam. During the Viet Nam war, my family fled the country to a refugee camp in Guam, where we waited to be sponsored to the United States. We were there for about six months before a Christian Reform Church sponsored our family to Lynden, Wash. If you don’t know where Lynden is, it is a small farming town in north Washington near the Canadian border. Lynden has a large Dutch population, and its city center consists of a two-mile street filled restaurants and small stores. My family did not acclimate well to Lynden! We lived there for about 6 months and then moved to Bellingham. My father spoke English well and got a job at Mobile Refinery, which afforded us the luxury of buying a home in Bellingham.
During this time there was a lot of VN hate, because of the war and all the refugees coming to the US. Because of this my parents raised us to not speak Vietnamese. They spoke Vietnamese to one another, but only English to us. They wanted us to be “American.” I can understand Vietnamese, but I never learned how to read or write it until I was older, and my conversational skills aren’t great. Now that I am older, I’m trying to relearn my Vietnamese language and culture.
How did you come to be associated with the Department of Biostatistics?
The year prior to coming to the department I worked for the UW School of Pharmacy. My kids were super active, and I was missing a lot of their activities because of work or having to support my husband’s engagements. We decided that I should leave my job and find a part-time role. I became a paraeducator at my son’s elementary school. Three months in and COVID happened. Everything shut down and my role was suspended. For six months I was with my kiddos 24/7. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my kids, but I realized that I needed go back to work for my own mental health and theirs. I was casually looking for a part-time job when I saw the “Capstone Program Manager” role for the Department of Biostatistics. I applied for it and Lurdes emailed me a couple of days later. It was like an entire interview over email. She arranged for me to meet with others in the department and voila, here I am. I should state that I have managed other programs within the UW. I managed the capstone program for the MHA program, and I was the Associate Director for Experiential Education for the School of Pharmacy. I didn’t just apply for a role that I wasn’t qualified to do. 😊
Tell us something we’d be surprised to know about? Hidden talent? Superpower?
I’m a former gymnast and am very comfortable upside down and on my hands. I can handstand walk about 25 feet before coming down and shaking out my arms to go back up again. Is that a hidden talent? I’m not sure.
What motivates you?
My family motivates me. I want to be a better mom, wife, friend, sister, and human. They’re so wonderful and precious, it’s hard not to want to be the best for them. They are also very good a calling me out for things and have really helped me to grow in all areas of my life.
Who/what has inspired you the most and why?
This is a difficult question. My inspiration changes depending on the time in my life. Currently my inspiration is my husband, Jason Owens. His life story is UNBELIEVABLE, from his upbringing in inner city Washington DC, to being a project manager for the Hubble Spacecraft as a teenager, to being a first responder for Department of Defense during 911, to being one of the first black chief information officers (CIO) in Washington state. His perseverance and lived experiences are a testament to his character and strength, yet he always tells me that he reflects me and wants to make me proud. What a guy!
What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Strong, resilient, and thoughtful.