Environmental Equity Director

Greenlining Institute

Vien Truong leads The Greenlining Institute’s Environmental Equity team, working to create solutions for poverty and pollution at the state legislature, California Public Utilities Commission, and in localities around the state. She has created state programs and policies around the country to direct billions of dollars in funding and resources to the communities most vulnerable to climate change. In 2012, Vien helped pass SB 535 (de Leon) which directs a quarter of CA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to disadvantaged communities. In 2014, she co-led the Charge Ahead Initiative (SB 1275, de Leon) – California’s million electric cars campaign which created clean transportation choices for low income and working families.

Vien has received congressional, state, regional and local awards for her work on behalf of low-income communities and communities of color.  Vien has been featured in the SF Chronicle as one of San Francisco’s “Top Women Leaders.” She received Urban Habitat’s “Movement Builder” award and Oxfam America’s “Act Local, Think Global” award.

Prior to joining Greenlining, she led Green For All’s state policy and workforce development efforts. Vien was an Associate Attorney for the New Business Practicum at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law, has worked with California Senator Joe Simitian in researching and developing state law, clerked with Chief Magistrate James Larson at the San Francisco Federal District Court and was the Community Economic Justice Law Fellow at UC Berkeley’s East Bay Community Law Center, helping to develop innovative, long-term economic development solutions to address the systemic problems confronting low-income communities.

She holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Vien has served on the City of Oakland’s Planning Commission, helping guide the growth and development of her hometown.