About Me

Colleen M. Nguyen is a public health leader and researcher specializing in community-engaged research, health equity, and systems transformation.

She currently serves as Executive Director of Asian Women for Health, a nonprofit organization advancing health for communities through education, advocacy, and culturally responsive programming. Her work focuses on integrating lived experience into public health research and practice, with expertise spanning genomics, infectious disease, and mental health.

Her career began in community organizing and political strategy, followed by a year of AmeriCorps service at the International Rescue Committee, the same organization that helped resettle her mother as a refugee. Colleen has led engagement for research initiatives at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and contributed to infectious disease surveillance and digital health innovation at the Computational Epidemiology Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital.

She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) at Tulane University, building on an MPH in global health and infectious disease epidemiology from Boston University, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Davis. Her personal interests include ornithology, hiking, and golfing with her young son.