full bio
GEMS' More Than a Survivor Campaign | National Underground Railroad Freedom Center | Historians Against Slavery Conference | September 2013
Minh Dang, MSW, PhD is co-founder and Executive Director of Survivor Alliance, an international non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on building sustainble communities with by, of, and for survivors of slavery and human trafficking. She is also a Research Fellow and Lead in Survivor Scholarship and Wellbeing at University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab.
Minh Dang recently earned her Ph.D in Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Nottingham School of Politics and International Relations, studying the wellbeing of survivors of slavery and human trafficking. For her scholar-activism, she earned the Vice Chancellor’s Medal in 2020.
Prior to returning to academia, Minh was Team Manager at Linde Group and Co-Principal Investigator for a community-based research study funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, evaluating an anti-trafficking task force in San Francisco, CA. Minh’s public service career includes serving as a Presidential Appointee to the first ever U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and an Advisory Board member for AnnieCannons, an organization training survivors of human trafficking to become software developers. In the past, she served as an independent consultant, trainer, and speaker on issues of human trafficking, child abuse, leadership development, and social justice. From 2005 to 2011, she worked at the UC Berkeley Public Service Center, coordinating student leadership and service-learning programs, including the Bonner Leaders AmeriCorps Program. She has served on the non-profit Boards of Human Trafficking Legal Center, Youth, Engagement, Advocacy, Housing (YEAH!) and The Morris Center for Healing from Child Abuse. In 2013, she was one of fifteen Asian Pacific Islander Women named a Champion of Change by President Barack Obama for her work to empower survivors of slavery and human trafficking.
Although Minh is now in the UK, she was born and bred in California, USA, and a two-time alum of the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a Bachelors in Sociology and Masters in Social Welfare, with an emphasis on Community Mental Health. She is a fan of stationery and farmers' markets, loves to sing, and Yosemite National Park is her favorite place on the planet.