Sister Dang Nghiem

Sister Dang Nghiem, MD (“Sister D”) was born in 1968 in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, the daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. After losing her mother at the age of twelve, she moved to the United States with her brother at the age of seventeen, where she learned English and went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California-San Francisco. After suffering further tragedy and the loss of her partner, she quit her practice as a doctor to travel to Plum Village monastery in France, founded by peace activist and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, where she ordained as a nun in 2000. Her writing draws on her unique experiences as a physician, a nun, and an individual navigating diverse worlds. Sister D is the author of four books: a memoir, Healing: A Woman’s Journey from Doctor to Nun (2010), Mindfulness as Medicine: A Story of Healing and Spirit (2015), Flowers in the Dark: Reclaiming Your Power to Heal from Trauma with Mindfulness (2021), and the poetry collection The River in Me: Verses of Transformation (2024).