With over 30 combined years of K-12 teaching experience, Stacy Yung and Virginia Nguyen created Educate to Empower.
With over 30 combined years of K-12 teaching experience, Stacy Yung and Virginia Nguyễn founded Educate to Empower to transform education through love, justice, and liberation.
As Asian American educators, we understand the power of storytelling, history, and representation—not just for our own communities, but for all historically marginalized communities. Our work is rooted in solidarity, knowing that true justice requires us to stand together, amplify each other’s voices, and challenge systems that erase, exclude, or harm.
Our mission is to equip educators with liberatory resources, community-rooted learning, and advocacy tools so they can center historically excluded voices, challenge injustice, and cultivate spaces of belonging, joy, and transformation.
We envision a future where educators—especially educators of color—are supported, empowered, and uplifted to honor histories, uplift voices, and build a more just world through education.
Since 2021, we have drawn on our own identities and lived experiences as Asian American educators to engage thousands of our colleagues in Orange County and beyond. Our story highlights include:
Proud to announce that we were 2024 honorees by PBS Local Heroes!
“[They] have trained thousands of educators across Southern California, creating a movement to bring equity, belonging, and student-centered transformation to schools and communities.”
Virginia is a passionate high school history teacher with over 15 years of teaching experience, National Writing Project Fellow, and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Allyship trainer.
She is a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, which has shaped her passion for AAPI advocacy, commitment to social justice, equity, and leadership in DEI. She has national experience holding workshops, leading presentations, educator training, and curriculum development.
Stacy Yung, cofounder of Educate to Empower, is a former middle school history teacher who currently supports educators as a thought leader, mentor, and curriculum developer.
With over 15 years of experience in K-12 education, Stacy has organized and spoken at conferences focused on topics such as culturally responsive teaching, social justice, and student-centered learning. She is dedicated to supporting educators in their efforts to create inclusive classroom and school communities that foster a sense of belonging and joy.
Lauren is a project manager, social worker, and Asian Americanist.
Previously, she served as the Content Manager for the AAPI Multimedia Textbook; a high school Asian American Studies instructor in CSU Long Beach’s Ethnic Studies Initiative program; and as a graduate student researcher and teaching assistant. Lauren earned her Master of Arts in Asian American Studies and Master of Social Work from UCLA in 2021.
