Immigrant of the Day: Janet Nguyen (Viet Nam)
Janet Nguyen (born 1976) is a county supervisor in Orange County, California. She won her seat following a special election in which two Vietnamese-American candidates received half of the votes cast in a field of 10, separated from each other by only 7 votes. Nguyen was sworn in on March 27, 2007, after a lengthy court battle and is the youngest person to be elected to the board of supervisors, the first woman to be elected from the district, and the first Vietnamese-American county supervisor in the United States.
Before election to the board of supervisors, Nguyen served as a city council member for Garden Grove.
Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam. Her family joined thousands of other boat people when she was five, coming to California in 1981. They first lived in San Bernardino, but settled in Garden Grove in 1990.
Nguyen attended the University of California, Irvine and majored in political science.
KJ