My purpose is to create Aha and WOW moments!
My calling is to create impact as a facilitator and creator, working at the intersection of storytelling, animation, game development, emerging technology, psychology, and cognitive science.
As a refugee from Vietnam, Van's childhood dream was to become a comic book artist — storytelling was always the pull. But his parents encouraged a more stable path, so he studied Psychology and Business Economics at UCLA, graduating cum laude, and went on to work as an accountant at Ernst & Young.
Crunching numbers by day, he still longed to doodle. Then a chance screening at the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater changed everything: seeing a single filmmaker create an entire short film alone left him inspired and transformed. That "aha" moment motivated him to learn this emerging technology as a new way to tell his stories.
Now, as a facilitator, he gets to help others experience their own "wow" moments — fostering the same sense of agency in his learners that once changed the course of his life.
I am passionate about VR and emerging technology to push the boundaries of storytelling!
Van's breadth of experience across XR, emerging technology, pipeline development, real-time game engines, animation, broadcast, interactive media, academia, and psychology gives him a unique perspective and teaching philosophy. Working at these intersections lets him think creatively and draw on that range of knowledge to create "aha" and "wow" moments for others. He loves solving problems, pushing the boundaries of new mediums, and untangling both creative and technical challenges.
Recently, Van has contributed to several award-winning metaverse projects — improving workflows for animation, previz, XR, and virtual concerts, creating content for award-winning VR, and testing cutting-edge tools in AI and the metaverse.
I love fostering Aha moments to help learners fulfill their potential!
As an educator, Van has taught or guest lectured at more than twenty institutions, including Duke, Northeastern, USC, UCLA, Santa Clara University, the Academy of Art University, and California community colleges. He served as Technical Director and Instructor for the 2023 Unreal Animation Fellowship and has advised the Art Directors Guild on game-engine curriculum design.
Van's teaching is student-centered, equity-driven, and grounded in Universal Design for Learning. Rather than teaching courses, he designs learning ecosystems — combining industry practice, project-based collaboration, AI-integrated workflows, and reflection loops that give learners multiple paths to mastery. He's especially committed to neurodivergent learners, building strengths-based environments where students can find flow — the state where challenge meets capability and real growth happens. He has presented on this work at the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit and the Contra Costa Pedagogy Conference, among others.
