KAITLYN TRAN

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UNITED STATES, 17

Project: Coalition Against Anti-Asian Hate
Focus Area: Safety, Data and Technology

Kaitlyn is a 17-year-old storyteller, student and writer who is passionate about racial justice, refugee and immigrant rights, and de-stigmatizing mental health. As the daughter of Vietnamese war refugees, she feels strongly about protecting and healing communities affected by violence.

Kaitlyn is the co-creator and leader of the National Data Coalition Against Anti-Asian Hate, a coalition dedicated to collaborating and collectively increasing the capacity of data branches of AAPI organizations. She has established partnerships with two national AAPI organizations collecting anti-Asian hate incident data and recruited a team of volunteers across the fields of data science and academic research. The Coalition aims to build a system that can drive a united movement to protect the AAPI community by aggregating data on hate incidents across organizations, researching reporting trends over time and rallying support for policy change.

The Coalition further works to expand organizational victim response resources and connect incident form respondents with community and mental health healing resources. They envision lasting impact toward systemic change by bridging disciplines toward AAPI solidarity and supporting work on the ground.

Kaitlyn is a senior in high school, where she serves as the Student Representative to the Clayton School Board of Education and Chief Digital Editor of the Globe school newspaper. Her reporting in cover stories has received top 3 finishes in competitions from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. Kaitlyn has also been recognized by the Princeton Prize in Race Relations and presently serves as a UN Foundation GirlUp Teen Advisor.