Through her Global HEAL Fellowship, Viet gained practical leadership skills while working clinically in Los Angeles and Nepal. She also found mentors with similar backgrounds and a community of peers who reminded her she wasn’t alone in working to improve health systems. Together, they shared what it means to lead with compassion, persistence, and solidarity. Viet is still using the tools she learned during her HEAL Fellowship six years later and nurtures the relationships she’s formed within HEAL’s global community of 260 fellows. Research shows that this social support, advocacy training, and tools to address social determinants of health lead to increased healthcare worker retention and decreased burnout. In fact, 90% of fellows report that HEAL makes working long-term in underserved communities feel more sustainable.

Now, Viet oversees efforts that have diverted more than 14,000 people over 10 years from returning to jail into mental health and housing programs, work that is as demanding as it is transformative. On her hardest days, she still leans on her HEAL mentor and co-fellows for guidance and strength. “There is so much work out there, and I can’t do it alone,” Viet says. “HEAL helped me see that doing my part, with others beside me, is exactly what’s needed.”