OUR LIVED EXPERIENCE & RESEARCH
About BTR TMRW
Our family’s story is one of perseverance and belonging. It is a story about finding beauty in challenge and meaning in responsibility. I share this journey in my first book, The Miles We Chase, which explores what it means to build a future rooted in compassion, courage, and the belief that progress must serve people first.
The BTR TRMW mission is an extension of that same belief. The lessons I’ve learned as a father, veteran, educator, and advocate continue to shape how I see the future. I envision a world that grows with empathy, listens with intent, and builds with everyone in mind.
ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Academic Research
My work has always been about people. As a scholar and educator, I’ve spent my career studying how systems can serve people better and how change can begin with understanding. At the University of Southern California, where I earned my doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership, my research focused on transforming higher education to better support students with intellectual disabilities.
My dissertation, Transforming Postsecondary Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities, looked closely at how universities can move beyond symbolic gestures of inclusion to build programs that last. Through months of research and long conversations with program leaders and institutional staff, I explored what truly makes inclusion work. Leadership that listens. Collaboration that connects departments. A shared belief that inclusion is not only a moral responsibility but an economic opportunity for everyone.
What began as academic study has become a personal mission. I am now creating bridges between education and employment, designing workforce programs that prepare students with intellectual disabilities for meaningful, competitive careers. I want to help build systems that see people first and recognize that every person deserves the chance to grow, contribute, and belong.
These lessons continue to guide me as an educator, as a father, and as a public servant. They remind me that progress means very little if it forgets the people it was meant to serve. True leadership begins with listening, and real change only lasts when it is built together.
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Loc H. Nguyen
As a young child, I came to the States as a refugee, by way of a war that lasted nearly two decades. In my mid-twenties, I answered a calling after the events of 9/11. The gravity was so strong it compelled me to leave everything I knew on behalf of the United States Air Force, to somehow make reparations for a war that sent me here in the first place.
Halfway through that journey, during my first foray as a parent, I was blessed with a beautiful girl with Down syndrome, and my sense of life began evolving many times over.
Today, after multiple career paths along with all the lessons learned, I’ve come to understand the value of my wide-ranging skill set and the profound nature of my intersectional identities. As an entrepreneur, a doctoral researcher at USC and an adjunct college instructor, I'm evolving my ability to lead human-centered teams that drive real, practical change.