Lan Quoc Nguyen

2018

Lan is a member of the Executive Board of Orange County Council. Previously, he was Chairman of the Scout-O-Rama in 2017 and 2018. As a child in Vietnam, he observed family adults trusting only Scouts during their seven attempts to escape their country by boat. He has admired Scouts ever since. He and his family finally managed to leave Vietnam where Scouting is outlawed.

Upon arriving in America as a fifteen-year-old refugee, Lan joined Troop 170 in Garden Grove and earned the rank of Tenderfoot before he aged out. That short experience left a lasting positive impression of what Scouting brings to youth. In addition to Scouting, Lan is President of the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education, serving his fifth term as Trustee. He is an ardent advocate for refugees, active in the Vietnamese Catholic Youth for the past 25 years and various Vietnamese-American youth and young adult organizations in political empowerment.

Lan lives in Garden Grove with his wife Helen Tran. They have one son, Andrew, who was a member of Troop 279 Chi Lang Scout Group. Andrew is now in his first year at San Jose State University.