Nga Vương-Sandoval
State: Colorado
Country of Origin: Việt Nam
Nga Vương-Sandoval is the Refugee Congress Delegate for Colorado. She and her family fled their homeland due to the Việt Nam War and became refugees. They were displaced in refugee camps before resettling in the U.S. and were known as the ‘boat people.’
As a Việtnamese refugee, she embraces her heritage and refugee experience and is empathetic to the plight and struggle of other underrepresented communities. She’s a fierce and passionate social justice advocate for marginalized communities including refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers and stateless people. She amplifies these voices and issues with action through education, advocacy, storytelling, training and lobbying.
Vương-Sandoval currently serves as an Investigator at the Colorado Department of Law. Her prior professional experience has included serving at the state homeland security office and specializing in counterintelligence and counterterrorism as well as affiliate faculty at two universities.
Vương-Sandoval is a TEDx Presenter; a founding member and public speaker with Colorado Refugee Speakers Bureau; the first refugee elected to Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains Board of Directors; a Noble Ambassador for Christina Noble Children’s Foundation Providing healthcare, education, and community development for impoverished children and families in Việt Nam and Mongolia; a Denver’s Little Sài Gòn Redevelopment Group advisory member and a Denver Elections Advisory Committee advisory member. She previously served as a Commissioner with Denver Asian American Pacific Islander Commission.
She partnered with Stories Without Borders, Refugee Council USA and Church World Service and provided storytelling, public speaking and advocacy training to refugee and immigrant leaders across the U.S. She provided migrant training for NPR News – Morning Edition – StoryCorps. Her scholarly book reviews are published in the Oxford University Press. She published Op-Eds on Medium.com on race, culture, social justice, her refugee experience and current social issues.
Vương-Sandoval publicly spoke at the Proclamation Day for Colorado World Refugee Day, the Womxn’s March on Denver and the Families Belong Together Rally. She testified on Senate Bill 230: Colorado Refugee Services Program at the Colorado Legislation in the Senate and House subcommittees that was codified into law. She lobbied at Capitol Hill to members of the U.S. Congress in support of the U.S. Refugee Admissions and Resettlement Program. Vương-Sandoval’s story and interviews have been featured in Colorado Public Radio, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Denver Post, Westword, Denverite, KUSA 9News, CBS 4 News, History Colorado, Denver Arts and Venues, WMFDP Insider Outsider Podcast and Confluence Magazine.
“As a proud refugee, I’m honored to serve and advocate for my extraordinary refugee and immigrant communities. For me, I’m not interested in whether you’ve stood with the great, but whether you’ve sat with and assisted the broken, those in need and our most vulnerable.” -Nga Vương-Sandoval