Huong Nguyen-Yap

Huong Nguyen-Yap is the Vice President of Equity and Justice at Northern California Grantmakers, where she leads the organization’s internal and external efforts to advance racial equity. In this role, she works to align NCG more deeply with its vision for racial equity and collaborates with staff, members, and partners to drive transformative change across the philanthropic sector.

Huong brings over a decade of experience in philanthropy, where she has focused on redistributing wealth, resources, and power to communities most impacted by inequities. Her approach is grounded in her earlier career as a youth development professional and social worker, spending 10 years across the Bay Area working alongside young people, families, and communities. These experiences continue to inform her belief that those closest to the issues must be at the center of solutions, and that philanthropy must be accountable to community.

Raised in a community of refugees, Huong developed a strong sense of mutual care, collective responsibility, and service that continues to shape her work and commitments today. She lives in Oakland, where she and her partner are raising two young children. Beyond her role at NCG, she is an active community member: a part of the Hella Heart Oakland giving circle, which pools resources to support Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities locally, and an advisor to the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project, which sustains and connects a network of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color activists, educators, artists, and organizations working to strengthen coalitions, collective action, and community protection.

Huong’s leadership is rooted in the values of equity, justice, and solidarity. She is committed to reimagining philanthropy as a tool for repair, relationship, and transformation one that not only responds to community needs but also builds the conditions for collective thriving.