Sister Dang Nghiem, MD

Sister Dang Nghiem, MD, ("Sister D") was born in 1968 in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. She lost her mother at the age of twelve and immigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen with her brother. Living in various foster homes, she learned English and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California - San Francisco. After suffering further tragedy and loss, she quit her practice as a doctor to travel to Plum Village monastery in France founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, where she was ordained a nun in 2000. She is the author of two books: a memoir, Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun, and Mindfulness as Medicine: A Story of Healing and Spirit. In 2019 she was honored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Global Studies program to deliver the T. T. and W. F. Chao Distinguished Buddhist Lecture on "Mindfulness as Medicine."