Leslie Nguyen-Okwu is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and Nigerian immigrants. She worked as a foreign correspondent with bylines in New York Times, BBC, National Geographic, and Harper's Bazaar.  She is Director of Strategic Communications at Welcoming America, a nonprofit advancing immigrant inclusion. Leslie is pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Saint Mary's College. She received fellowships, awards, and residencies from Tin House, Disquiet, Hedgebrook, and others. At Mesa, she worked on American Hyphen, a memoir about race, identity, and belonging across the Asian and Black diaspora. You can learn more about Leslie here.