Amanda Nguyen

Profile Overview

Amanda Ngọc Nguyễn (born Oct 1991) is a Vietnamese-American social entrepreneur, civil rights activist, and commercial astronaut. In 2014 she founded Rise, a non-governmental civil rights organization that works to implement a sexual assault survivors' bill of rights. She drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, a bill that passed unanimously through the United States Congress. She has also been credited with kickstarting the movement to stop violence against Asian Americans, after her video calling for media coverage went viral in February 2021.
In recognition of her work, Nguyen was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize and was named one of the 2022 Time Women of the Year. She has received several awards, and was credited as a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy. Her memoir, Saving Five, was published in March 2025 and debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Nguyen flew aboard Blue Origin's 11th spaceflight under the New Shepard program. The Blue Origin NS-31 sub-orbital spaceflight took place on April 14, 2025, making Nguyen the first woman of Vietnamese heritage to fly into space. During the flight, Nguyen conducted scientific experiments, including one related to wound dressing in microgravity.