Tran is the Assistant Provost for Faculty Advancement at Columbia University. She has over a decade of experience working in higher education. Prior to this position, she served as Chief of Staff at the Social Science Research Council and executive director for decanal affairs in the Division of Social Science in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. At Columbia, she worked at the Women Creating Change initiative at the Center for the Study of Social Difference; the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality; the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law; and the Collaborative to Advance Equity through Research on women and girls of color. She holds master’s degrees in public administration from Columbia and in gender, sexuality and cultural studies from the University of Manchester.