Julie Valentine Center
Celebrates
The Space to Heal
Featuring
Amanda Nguyen
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
12pm Greenville Convention Center
First Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in Space; Activist
Amanda Nguyen is an astronaut and activist. She made history as the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space. Her bioastronautics research focuses on women’s health. For drafting and passing sexual assault survivor rights in the United States and United Nations, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and awarded TIME Woman of the Year. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Saving Five. At NASA, she worked on Kepler exoplanet mission and the final shuttle mission. Amanda was a fellow at MIT and graduated from Harvard. In 2013, the trajectory of Amanda Nguyen’s life was changed forever when she was raped at Harvard. Determined to not let her assault derail her goal of joining NASA after graduation, Nguyen opted for her rape kit to be filed under “Jane Doe.” But she was shocked to learn her choice to stay anonymous gave her only six months to act before the state destroyed her kit, rendering any future legal action impossible. Nguyen knew then that she had two options: surrender to a law that effectively denied her justice, or fight for a change, not only for herself but for survivors everywhere.
A heart-wrenching memoir of survival and hope, Saving Five boldly braids the story of Nguyen’s activism—which resulted in Congress’s unanimous passage of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act in 2016—with a second, beautifully imagined adventure, of Nguyen's younger selves as they—at ages five, fifteen, twenty-two, and thirty—navigate through dramatic incarnations of the emotional stages of her path toward healing, not only from her rape but from the violent turmoil of her childhood. The result is a groundbreaking work that seamlessly blends memoir with a moving journey toward acceptance and hope, forging a path ahead that is as inspiring as it is instructive. From one of the most influential activists (and now astronauts) of her time, Saving Five is at once a tribute to resilience, a celebration of healing through action, and a resounding cry to change the world.
Julie Valentine Center's mission is to provide hope and healing to those who have been impacted by child abuse or sexual assault.