Thu-Van Nguyen Biography

Thu-Van Nguyen, came to the United States from Viet Nam in June 1975 as a refugee. She wasted little time in embracing her new home and attended and graduated from Gonzaga University in 1989. Thu-Van spent decades working in Seattle supporting the language access cause. She worked as a Healthcare Outreach Worker at the Indochinese Language Bank; she was the Medical Interpreter Service Coordinator at Pacific Medical Center and Cultural and Language Access Coordinator at Medalia Healthcare ( a consortium of Providence and Franciscan clinics that started in 1998 and went out of business in 1999). During the time at Pacific Medical Center, she worked as Interpreter Services Coordinator and helped develop the Interpreter Services from its infancy. She also assisted in the Medical Interpreter Forum in 1989, which laid the basis of the Cross-Cultural Health Care Program creation in 1992. Thu-Van’s expertise also was important as she help develop The Medical Interpreter Forum of which became the Society of Medical Interpreters (SOMI). She served for two years term as President of SOMI. She also helped develop Pac Med’s Translation Services in collaboration with the Health Education Department and set the guidelines for translation of health materials.

Ms. Nguyen, while now retired, continues to work as an interpreter and volunteers her time working with Seattle Central College in the ESL program and is an instructor of Vietnamese at the Vietnamese Catholic Church.