Formal Education

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2015-2016), Full-time
- Master of Public Health (MPH)
- Degree concentration: Health in Crisis and Humanitarian Aid
- Capstone/Master’s Thesis: Ebola Crisis – A Retrospective on the Media Coverage
  - Video Essay
  - Master’s Thesis
University of California, Berkeley (2007-2011), Full-time
- Bachelor of Arts (BA), Public Health

Selected Fellowships, Press & Awards

American Medical Student Association (Sterling, VA)
- Racial Justice Award for “Is This Going to Be On The Test?”: June 2023
California Health Care Foundation (Oakland, CA)
- “Is This Going to Be On The Test?”: January 2022 – April 2022
Visual Communications (Los Angeles, CA)
- 2020 Armed with a Camera Fellow: October 2019 – October 2021
Los Angeles Times
- As COVID-19 wreaks havoc in Vietnam, Orange County nonprofits provide needed support (2021)
- How is Little Saigon curbing coronavirus? By respecting elders, authorities and masks (2020)
State of California Senate Certificate of Recognition
- Unsung Heroes of Southern California, presented by Ling Ling Chang (2020)
Los Angeles Animation Festival 2019 (Los Angeles, CA)
- Silver Winner “Student Animated Documentary”: I Never Picked Cotton (2019)
Chicago Southland International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
- Best College Film: I Never Picked Cotton (2019)
Elks National Foundation (Santa Ana, CA)
- MVS Scholarship Recipient (2007)

Selected Film Work

Is This Going To Be On The Test? (2023)
Talking Out Coffins (2020)
I Never Picked Cotton (2019)
Mất Nước • We Can’t Go Back (2019)
Personalities of Public Health (2015-2016)
Ebola: A Media Retrospective (2016)

Selected Essays

Emails with Ebert (2013)
Facepainting (2010)
The Essential Critic (and why we need them) (2010)
Falling In Love with an Idea (“Paprika” and “Inception”) (2011)

Film Festivals:

2022 Short Encounters International Film Festival, (Out of Competition) Greece (I Never Picked Cotton)
2021 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Talking Out Coffins)
2021 HONORABLE MENTION, BEST ANIMATED SHORT AWARD, Cleveland International Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2021 Official Selection, Positively Different Short Film Festival, Greece(I Never Picked Cotton)
2021 Official Selection, Inconvenient Films, International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Lithuania(I Never Picked Cotton)
2021 Official Selection, Cordillera International Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 American Film Showcase(I Never Picked Cotton)
2021 Official Selection, Short Encounters Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Coffee Talking out of Coffins)
2020 BEST ANIMATED SHORT (STUDENT) category, NFFTY | National Film Festival for Talented Youth (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Salute Your Shorts Fest (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Supernova Digital Animation Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, 10th Annual Queens World Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Human Rights Category, Anibar International Animation Festival, Kosovo (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 SEMI-FINALIST, Dumbo Film Festival, NY(I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, American Film Showcase (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Asiana International Short Film Festival, S. Korea (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 Official Selection, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 BEST COLLEGE FILM, Chicago Southland International Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 SILVER AWARD, Student Animated Documentary, Los Angeles Animation Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 World Student Panorama, Ottawa International Animation Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 Portland Unknown Fingertip Exhibition, Portland Unknown Film Festival ((I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 Official Selection, Ojai Short Film Fest (I Never Picked Cotton)
2019 Official Selection, 5th Annual Montana Film Festival (I Never Picked Cotton)

Conferences

California Health Care Foundation Conference (Is This Going To Be On The Test) (2023)
California Health Care Foundation Conference (Is This Going To Be On The Test) (2022)
74th UFVA Conference (2020)
Breaking the Glass Frame: Women and Animation, Past, Present, and Future – Los Angeles Symposium (2018)
11th Annual WORLD (We're Organizing Research on Lysosomal Diseases) Symposium (2015)

Talks

2023 ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educator’s Forum – DEI in education and production (I Never Picked Cotton)
2020 The Knowledge Exchange Cinema Class Screening at Governor’s State University (I Never Picked Cotton)
The Making of “I Never Picked Cotton” (2020)
2020 Anibar Film Festival – Meet the Filmmakers (I Never Picked Cotton)

Film Festivals, Conferences & Talks

Selected Community Health & Research Projects

Galvanize USA (2025 – 2026)
Hollywood, Health & Society (2020 – 2025)
Project Vietnam Foundation (2020 – 2023)
Trial Promoter (2017 – 2020)
Digital Scholar Program (2017 – 2020)
Baltimore Bike Safety PSA: Video Pitch (Grant Successfully Accepted) (2016)
JHSPH Centennial Class Contribution Project (2016)
Interventional drug and device study for Hunter Syndrome (MPS II) (2014 - 2015)
Natural history study of Hunter Syndrome (MPS II) (2012 - 2015)
Interventional drug study for Morquio Syndrome Type A (MPS IVA) (2012 - 2014, study
completion)
Giao Diem Humanitarian Foundation: Pediatric Nutrition Project (2011-2012)

Selected Published Research & Academic Papers

Using Patient-Generated Health Data From Twitter to Identify, Engage, and Recruit Cancer Survivors in Clinical Trials in Los Angeles: Evaluation of a Feasibility Study (JMIR, 2021)

General Practice and Digital Methods to Recruit Stroke Survivors to a Clinical Mobility Study: Comparative Analysis (JMIR, 2021)
General Audience Engagement With Antismoking Public Health Messages Across Multiple Social Media Sites: Comparative Analysis (JMIR, 2021)
Analysis of psoriasis-related posts on Twitter: An abundance of patient-driven advocacy versus a scarcity of dermatologists (JAAD, 2020)
Public Response to a Social Media Tobacco Prevention Campaign: Content Analysis (JMIR, 2020)
Public Concern About Monitoring Twitter Users and Their Conversations to Recruit for Clinical Trials: Survey Study (JMIR, 2019)
A Software Tool Aimed at Automating the Generation, Distribution, and Assessment of Social Media Messages for Health Promotion and Education Research (JMIR, 2019)
Monitoring Twitter Conversations for Targeted Recruitment in Cancer Trials in Los Angeles County: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Pilot Study (JMIR, 2018)
Abstract: Perspectives on increasing competency in using digital practices and approaches to enhance clinical translational research: A qualitative study (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Ebola Crisis: A Retrospective on the Coverage (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2016)
The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) (Think Health LA, 2010)
Using patient-reported health data from social media to identify diverse lupus patients and assess their symptom and medication expressions: a feasibility study (ACR, 2022)

Resume

Last updated 13 Apr 2026