Community Engagement Manager

Nirvana brings her love for people and project management to WDN as Community Engagement Manager. She designs programs and experiences that connect our multigenerational membership and foster space for joy, (un)learning, and action. Prior to joining WDN in 2020, she managed communications and served as an advisor to first-generation college students at a non-profit in San Francisco.

As a system-impacted person, Nirvana dreams of a world rooted in justice and accountability, not harm and punishment. She honed her social justice and organizing skills as a fellow with both the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Seeding Change – A Center for Asian American Movement Building. Her organizing centers the freedom and healing of communities impacted by incarceration and deportation. Nirvana currently leads mail correspondence at the Asian Prisoner Support Committee which shares resources and provides community-based reentry support to incarcerated individuals throughout California.

The proud daughter of Filipino and Cambodian immigrants, Nirvana is a first-generation college graduate from the University of California, Berkeley where she earned her BA in social welfare. She lives in Oakland and finds joy in thrifting, scenic hikes, celebrating the art of drag, and reading as much as possible.