About

Lan Nguyen is an educator and community-centered multimedia storyteller. She is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, was raised in Long Beach, California, and now proudly calls San José home.

As an educator, Lan has taught high school Ethnic Studies and U.S. History classes, with an emphasis in working with newly-arrived immigrant/refugee students who are multilingual learners. She also teaches Asian American Studies at San Jose State University. Lan's pedagogy centers around a liberatory framework and explores how culturally sustaining curricula can serve as an anti-assimilationist intervention. She has served on many local and statewide curriculum projects that reimagine social science teaching through a social-justice lens. Lan also worked as a teacher supervisor, mentoring pre-service teachers. Lan was recognized as the SJSU Lurie College of Education Distinguished Alumni in 2025 for her work as an educator.

In addition to teaching, Lan utilizes photography and documentary filmmaking as a tool to mobilize for social change. Her short films have focused on issues such as incarceration, deportation, and gentrification, which have earned several accolades. 

Lan currently serves on SJ4All (San Jose For All), an advisory board for the San Jose Office of Racial and Social Equity. 

Lan earned her Bachelors of Science in Education at Northwestern University, her Masters of Arts in Asian American Studies at UCLA, and her Masters of Arts in Teaching at San Jose State University.