About Monique

Monique Tu Nguyen is a passionate change-maker on the leading edge of women’s rights. Since becoming the Executive Director of Matahari in 2012, under her leadership, Matahari has become a vibrant, political community organization making strides in advancing the rights and protections for domestic workers, women, immigrants and their families. Monique help founded the Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers that successfully spearheaded the passage of the Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2014.

She is a skilled facilitator, strategist and community organizer. She has spoken on women’s leadership and empowerment, community base-building, domestic workers rights, racial justice and immigrant rights at events and campuses across the country. Monique has appeared in the Boston Globe, Feministing.org, Wall Street Journal, and Huffington Post Live. She will be Smith College’s 2018 Activist in Residence and in the past has received the May Takayanagi Making Waves Award’ from the Asian American Resource Workshop in 2014; the ‘Salt of the Earth Award’ from Community Labor United in 2013; and the ‘Horace Seldon Emerging Leader Award’ from Community Change, Inc. in 2011.

Monique’s drive for social justice is rooted in her own personal experience as a former undocumented immigrant and daughter of Vietnam War refugees and deep belief that all people deserve dignity. She loves to cook, dance, hike, and dream and scheme about community building. She currently serves on the board of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and in the past served on the board of United for a Fair Economy and the Student Immigrant Movement. She is based in Boston, MA and also calls Vancouver, Canada and Houston, TX her other homes.

Matahari Women Workers’ Center

Matahari Women Workers’ Center is a Greater Boston organization where women of color, immigrant women, and families come together as sisters, workers, and survivors to make improvements in ourselves and society and work towards justice and human rights. Our goal is to end gender-based violence and exploitation.