In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. speaks with NAMI National Board Member and Cambodian American Connie Mom-Chhing about Asian American and Pacific Islander mental health, the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and rising hate crimes against the AAPI community.
“It was like a perfect storm from our perspective that hit our communities because of the combined effects of the increase in racial discrimination, the social isolation and with already existing underutilization of mental health care among the AAPI community,” she says.
You can find additional episodes of this NAMI podcast and others at nami.org/podcast.
Episode Video:
Connie Mom-Chhing
Connie Mom-Chhing, D.M., MPA is a member of the NAMI Board of Directors and a Senior Director of Regional Systems Integration at the Community Health Plan of Washington in Vancouver. She is a member of NAMI Southwest Washington where she has advocated for funding to support NAMI programs, services and events.
She hopes to support NAMI’s outreach efforts to underserved and underrepresented communities and increase awareness of mental health within communities of color.
Connie previously worked at Columbia United Providers where she was the Chief Behavioral Health Officer. She has more than 20 years of working experience in the areas of behavioral health administration, health care integration strategies, managed care operations, non-profit management, health care policy analysis, peer advocacy, and cultural diversity, inclusion and equity.
She has been recognized by the Washington State Governor’s Office with the Governor’s Recognition Award for Statewide Services to Mental Health Transformation.
She earned her D.M. in Organizational Leadership, University of Phoenix, AZ; MPA from Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR; and B.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and French, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA. She also completed a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program from Cornell University.
For the 2022-2023 Board year, Connie serves as Chair to the Public Policy Workgroup and is member on the Youth & Young Adults Mental Health Outreach Workgroup and Justice Systems, Equity, Diversion & Inclusion Committee.
About The Host:
Daniel H. Gillison, Jr.
Follow on Twitter: @DanGillison
Daniel H. Gillison, Jr. is the chief executive officer of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Prior to his work at NAMI, he served as executive director of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF) in addition to several other leadership roles at various large corporations such as Xerox, Nextel, and Sprint. He is passionate about making inclusive, culturally competent mental health resources available to all people, spending time with his family, and of course playing tennis.
