Bien Doan
Councilmember, District 7

My family and I immigrated to America in 1975 and we became the first Asian/Vietnamese family in Porterville, CA.  We were welcomed by our neighbors in our new and diverse country, full of opportunity.  I will never forget the generosity and help they provided our family, and it was then, at that young age, that I made a promise to myself to give back through public service and more. 

I moved to Silicon Valley after high school and my family has lived here in San Jose District 7 for the last 36 years.  I earned a degree in Project Management, another in Psychiatric Tech LVN, and I worked at Agnews as a Psychiatric Tech. 

One of the most important decisions of my life was becoming a firefighter to serve everyone in our community. 

I have been a firefighter for the past 27 years, 21 of those years with the San Jose Fire Department where I worked my way up from Rookie, to Engineer, to Fire Captain, which has been my rank for the past 11 years.   

I am the first Vietnamese Fire Captain in the history of the San Jose Fire Department.  I am honored to be one of the first from my generation who have shown that the American Dream is possible through hard work and dedication for everyone, especially our minority communities and immigrants in our country. 

I have been very involved in our city professionally and active locally with volunteer work.  I am the co-founder and President of Vietnamese American City Employees (VACE), a volunteer at a COVID vaccination clinic, and a Board Member of the Asian-American Women's Alliance.  I continually work with the Red Cross to implement the Sound the Alarms program placing smoke alarms in mobile home communities; especially here in District 7. 

I have developed the tools needed to do more for our community and continue to realize my potential as a public servant. I look forward to working with you to make our community safer, cleaner, and better for us all.