Patricia Châu Nguyễn (she, her, hers)  serves as the flagship Senior Director of Diversity Programs & Initiatives for UCLA Alumni Affairs. In her role, she supports 10+ identity-based alumni associations, works on diverse student to alumni pipelines, and creates holistic programming to advance issues of diversity and inclusion in UCLA’s alumni community. For the past fifteen years, she has served in multiple roles in merging student affairs and diversity, equity and inclusion work in higher education – ranging from starting up multicultural centers, improving intercultural living and learning communities, multicultural Greek life, summer bridge programs, and other social justice education initiatives in higher education.

Nguyễn also consults nationally on issues related to diverse alumni engagement, interfaith conversations, ethics, meaning-making and intersectionality in practice. She serves as a founding member of Racial Aikido, an affinity-based identity retreat that equips students of color at predominantly White institutions.

Nguyễn received her Master of Education in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, and her Bachelor of Science in cellular and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently a doctoral student the UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences researching diverse alumni engagement and philanthropy in higher education.

Nguyễn’s experiences working with marginalized college students has fueled a commitment and passion to push institutions of higher education to build capacity towards diversity. She hopes to engage all members of the university, including alumni, to build inclusive campus communities and help new graduate manifests the benefits of higher education for themselves, their families and their communities.