Sun Ny Vang (first name pronounced “Sunny”) is Moob Leeg / Hmoob Lees [Blue Mong / Hmong]. He was born and raised on Dakota homelands (currently occupied by St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota) to refugee immigrants from Sainyabuli Province, Laos.

Vang’s academic journey has routed him through multiple Indigenous homelands. He completed his undergraduate studies on Anishinaabe homelands (Duluth, Minnesota), earning a B.A. in music education and K–12 teaching license from The College of St. Scholastica. He then pursued graduate studies on Patwin homelands (Davis, California) while also living on Nisenan homelands (Sacramento, California). There, he earned an M.A. in music and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in music with a designated emphasis in Native American studies in the ethnomusicology program at UC Davis. His dissertation research is under the co-advisorship of Juan Diego Díaz and Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina, Knik Tribe).