Caressa Nguyen

Caressa Nguyen is a tribal citizen of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, Vietnamese and Filipino. She is passionate about strengthening the sovereignty of Indigenous nations by amplifying Indigenous/marginalized voices and values through policy, design, social entrepreneurship and land stewardship. She has conducted climate change research predicated on Indigenous rights in Bolivia, Morocco, Peru, the United States, Vietnam and Nepal. Her research includes highlighting international case studies on Indigenous resistance to natural resource extraction, and investigating the United Nations Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) program. Caressa founded Sacred Lands, Native Hands (SLNH), a nonprofit that is restoring homelands to the hands of Indigenous people and traditional stewardship practices to the land.