From Intern to Speaker: Returning to CAPAL’s AANHPI Mental Health & Career Session A Decade Later

Roughly ten years ago, having just graduated from college and feeling uncertain where post-grad would take me, I attended a Washington Leadership Program session from the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (CAPAL) on Asian American and Pacific Islander Mental Health that would change my life. It was one of the first panels I would attend where I met Asian Americans in the mental health field who worked across different disciplines - from nonprofit, academia, and government. The session opened my eyes to the diverse career pathways I could explore and led me on my path to becoming an intern with the nation’s leading agency on mental health and substance use, SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration and launching my career in national coalition building and policy advocacy supporting the mental health of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities.

So it comes as no surprise that I gladly accepted CAPAL's invite this year to serve as a speaker for

the very Mental Health panel that supported me in my own career journey. On June 25th, I joined an incredible panel of mental health leaders - Wing Bui, Lead Clinician of Wellness with Wing, LLC, Dr. Christina Hong Huber, Clinical Professor at George Washington University, and Alyssa Belisario, Behavioral Health Coordinator at Asian American Health Initiative (AAHI) - to discuss how participants can navigate building their careers while centering their mental health and navigating burnout.

CAPAL Washington Leadership Program Panel: "Building Career to Burnout: Mental Health & Self-Care"

Ten years later, the conversations rhymed, but what I witnessed was a growing level of awareness from the crowd around mental health, how folks are advocating for their own mental health, how we are talk about it in our communities, and how we can all continue to grow this AANHPI mental health movement and community care through our collective efforts.

My sincere gratitude goes out to CAPAL Washington Leadership Program for continuing to be a space for AANHPIs to come together, share their stories, and connect to increase access to public service opportunities.

In community,

Krystle Canare

Deputy Director, NAAPIMHA

NAAPMHA Deputy Director Krystle Canare (center) with CAPAL Intern Angel Garcia and Filipino Young Leaders Program Tayo Fellowship Supervisor Olivia Bragitikos