Lila K. Chamlagai, MPH

Lila K. Chamlagai, MPH, is currently a third-year doctoral student at Brown University School of Public Health. Born and raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in eastern Nepal, Lila lived in the camp for nearly 17 years before resettling with his family in Springfield, MA, in 2011. He earned his MPH degree from the Brown University School of Public Health. Before attending Brown, Lila served as a Community Advisory Board (CAB) member in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with Dr. Theresa Betancourt’s Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) at the Boston College School of Social Work, where he assisted to investigate cultural norms and traditions related to family-strengthening interventions.

Lila's research interests focus on addressing the challenges faced by refugee communities and other marginalized populations. Specifically, he seeks to explore: (1) how socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and religion/faith influence mental health, depression, and suicidal ideation; (2) why marginalized populations and low-income communities experience significant health disparities; and (3) how to leverage resources to improve mental health service delivery. Ultimately, Lila aims to design and implement culturally congruent Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI-R) for refugee and immigrant populations in the U.S. and low- to middle-income nations.