Sissy Trinh

2002

Sissy Trinh

Southeast Asian Community Alliance

http://www.seaca-la.org

Los Angeles, California, United States

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

Launched in 2002, the Southeast Asian Community Alliance (SEACA) works to build a just and humane world. SEACA creates spaces for new forms of leadership to emerge. They support the development of members of the community to create new and culturally relevant solutions to deep-rooted social, economic, and racial justice issues impacting the Southeast Asian community.

Biography:

Sissy Nga Trinh is the founder and executive director of the Southeast Asian Community Alliance as well as a 2002 Echoing Green Fellow. Sissy and her family fled Vietnam and moved to the United States when she was just a toddler. After graduating from Pitzer College in 1996 with a Bachelor's of Art in English and World Literature, she chose to use her education to fight for the rights of immigrants and the poor. She spent her initial years out of college organizing Vietnamese factory workers and Filipino hospital workers. She then spent the next three years as a community educator and policy advocate on health and welfare reform. Sissy's experience as a community educator, organizer and advocate inspired her to develop SEACA -- an organization dedicated to building the next generation Southeast Asian leaders.