About John

As a refugee from Vietnam, John was raised by a single mom and his older brother. Growing up in public housing, his mom worked two jobs while going to community college and raising her two boys. While living in Riverside Plaza, the colorful high-rises across I-94 from US Bank Stadium, John received a scholarship to attend St Thomas Academy, the state’s only all-boys, Catholic, military school. He went on to earn an engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a graduate degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School.

John is member of the Shoreview City Council. He has also served as a commissioned naval officer, chair of the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and Shoreview Planning Commission, and member of the Metropolitan Council and Minnesota Board on Aging. John currently is the Vice President for Operations and Equity for Trellis, a nonprofit that helps people optimize well-being as they age. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Erin Doan. They are the proud parents of two young adults who both graduated from Oak Hill Montessori and Mounds View High School.

John and his older brother at the Galang Refugee Camp. He jokes that they had so little they had to share one outfit, he got the top and his brother got the bottoms.

John served for 8 years as a Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer and lived by the Seabee motto “Can Do!”

John and his family at Tamarack Nature Center.

As a board member on the Shoreview Community Foundation, John helped to organize the Foundation’s annual ice cream social at the Shoreview Concert in the Commons.

John is an active member of the St Rose Catholic Community where he is a volunteer lecturer.

John and family at his Shoreview City Council swearing in ceremony. He was proud to take his oath of office using his mom’s Vietnamese bible.