Uyen-Phuong Nguyen (known as U.P.) made a mark within the Heartbreakers. In just 3 short years, much of it overlapping with the pandemic, she made many big transitions: she publicy shared her coming-out journey as an LGBTQ+ community member, she ran a marathon around her block, she fought racial injustice, she ran a virtual Boston Marathon, she rose to captain and coach of the Heartbreakers, and she walked away from a lucrative career as a software engineer to lead Outward Bound retreats for young people who may not traditionally have access to adventure tours.
UP leads by example with love and empathy using her positive spirit to pull people in when things are fun and also when they're hard. We're grateful for her overlap in Boston and hope to welcome her back soon.
Special shout-out to Wellness In Motion Boston for supporting our "art heist" - we grabbed one of their beautifully framed pictures off the wall of their clinic as it happened to feature UP's epic Boston marathon finish line from September 2020.
You can find the complete album here by Kevin Gunawan and Lucas Beyer.