In 1983, a young mother in Vietnam bundled her two-year-old daughter in rags and boarded a fishing boat to come to the U.S.

The girl grew up to graduate from Harvard, and now Lynn Huynh works to provide young people in Vietnam with the opportunities that her mother gave to her.

With friends, Huynh founded VietHope, a nonprofit organization that awards scholarships and funds educational projects for poor children in rural Vietnam. It exemplifies her belief that education and good health go hand in hand.

Huynh’s interest in the prevention of hepatitis B grew out of her mother’s struggle with the illness. On a Fulbright Fellowship to Vietnam, she evaluated that country’s strategies for giving the hepatitis B birth dose and found that perceived contraindications, pregnancy tracking practices and family attitudes were all affecting vaccine coverage rates. Huynh’s accomplishments and plans to address health disparities reflect her desire “to repay some of the sacrifices that have been made on my behalf.”