Lab Director

Viann Nguyen-Feng

Viann Nguyen-Feng portrait, a person wearing a black v-cut shirt and black cardigan with dark, long hair parted to one side and extending halfway down torso, covering one ear. Viann is facing forward with a slight head tilt, smiling with visible teeth; has Southeast Asian American skin tones; and is in front of a dark jade green background.
ORCiD logo, a yellow-green circle with "iD" in thin, white lettersCenter for Open Science logo, with the abbreviation COS on top of the words "Center for Open Science." The O in COS is stylized with brown and blue teardrop shapes that form an O.Google Scholar logo, a light blue circle (intended to be a face) wearing a dark blue polygon intended to be a mortar board capNameCoach logo, a purple circle with a white audio speaker symbol in the middle

Personal

Born in Shady Grove, Maryland and raised in Alexandria, Virginia (a hop between DC's Red and Yellow Lines), I grew up as a child of Việt Nam refugees and wartime Naval Veteran. From the Lincolnia neighborhood and Justice High (name upd. '18; link goes to a former teacher's book!), I wandered to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Eastern Virginia Medical School/Old Dominion in Norfolk, and the Navy-Marine Corps Public Health Center in Portsmouth. I eventually left the East Coast and found my way to Minnesota for graduate school in 2013—and I haven't left. Rather, I've moved farther north (well, 2 hours) to a colder winter, from UMN's Minneapolis campus to Duluth; nonetheless, I savor the opportunity to take in the four unique seasons as well as the daily and seasonal shifts of Gitchi Gami/Lake Superior's vastness outside my window. I've slowly gotten acquainted with Midwest culture and have fallen in love with all the natural landscapes and weaves of wildlife & city life offered by the Land of 10,000 Lakes. 

Aside from going on "hikes" (it's the Minnesotan term for "walking outside"), I also enjoy bike commuting... except up the Duluth hillside. I like food. Period. My continual search for homey Southeast Asian cuisine in Minnesota is insatiable. Maybe I'll try learning how to cook someday. That aside, I can get really, really, almost-naggingly curious about learning nearly anything on—and off of—Earth. Tangents and a good (or even better—a bad) play on words make me laugh. I appreciate authentic streams of consciousness, even over my tendencies to organize. The most ironic parts of me are that despite my projects leveraging technology to promote access, I have managed to avoid all social media. Also, my Zen room has more items than anywhere else in my home.

Professional

Before entering the field of psychology, I had postbaccalaureate stints in teaching high school remedial algebra, training as a Registered Yoga Teacher, and working in the fields of community and environmental health, public health, and epidemiology. At some point, I realized that the values of inclusivity and curiosity that drive me could themselves be a career—and a great one, at that. Service as a counseling psychologist and professor is the best combination of everything the third-grade version of me wanted to be "when I grew up": an author, a teacher, a doctor, and a detective. Career-wise, I couldn't ask for more.  

I strongly believe in a balance of science, practice, and advocacy, and I'm glad to be in a place that exemplifies that integration. Across my research, teaching, mentorship, and clinical domains, I prefer process and practice over perfection. I see learning about oneself as a necessary precursor to learning about and serving others. My hope is that community-engaged individuals, students, can take what they learn and apply it to their own lives and the lives of those they encounter. I have an open-door policy, so I welcome any questions, concerns, or casual hellos. Ultimately, my goal is to have two dogs, one medium-sized and one small.

Lab logo, which comprises the words "Mind-Body Trauma Care" written in gently-slanted, black front layered on top of overlapping off-gray, almond-shaped, intersecting petals that form an abstract lotus flower

CV 

Viann Nguyen-Feng CV

Core Affiliations

University of Minnesota, Duluth sports logo, which is a maroon ring with gold borders, with the top stating "Minnesota" in bold, sans serif, all caps and "Duluth" in similar font on the bottom ring. Abbreviation "UMD" is in big, slanted, bold maroon with gold borders. The university sports mascot, an angry-eyed gray bulldog with a spiky color and three visible pointy teeth, is on top of the M, facing right
APA Society for the Psychology of Women logo, which includes a light green stick finger with its arms raised on the lefthand side. "Society for the" and "Psychology of Women" is written in two lines with the words alternating light green and royal purple.
APA Trauma Psych Division logo, which says in three lines: "Division 56," "Trauma Psychology," "American Psychological Association." Each line is a different color, with yellow on top, then white, then black. The top yellow bar has an orange sun rising from it.
APA Society for Counseling Psychology logo, the Greek psi symbol centered with the numbers 1 and 7 on each side. The words "Society for Counseling Psychology" is written in a semi-circle above the psi, and "American Psychological Association" is written in three lines below the psi.

Courses Taught

Ongoing Courses

Previous Courses


See RCMDR Guide that was co-written for PSY3001W—Introduction to Research Methods (Twin Cities campus)

Visiting Faculty Courses

L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan

“Maybe, in the long run, my widely divergent activities and those of my students have created better chances of survival—like dandelions, not little cultivated plants in a garden.” –Carolyn Attneave, PhD