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Lila K. Chamlagai

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Lila K. Chamlagai is a Bhutanese-American public health scholar, researcher, and community advocate. Born in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, he is the founder of Helping Hands America and a Gates Millennium Scholar pursuing a PhD at Brown University.

Early Life

Lila K. Chamlagai was born and raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, one of the over 100,000 Lhotshampa refugees displaced from Bhutan in the early 1990s. His lived refugee experience has shaped his career as a scholar and advocate for refugee health and wellbeing.[1]

Education

Chamlagai is a Gates Millennium Scholar. He holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Brown University's School of Public Health, where he received a full-ride scholarship in 2020. In 2022, he was awarded a fellowship and grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue his doctoral degree. He is currently a PhD candidate in Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown, focused on global mental health, refugee and immigrant issues, and implementation science in low- and middle-income countries.[2]

Research

Chamlagai's research focuses on the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Bhutanese refugee communities in the United States. Key publications include:

  • "Honoring their stories" — a study of care providers' understanding of psychosocial concerns among Bhutanese American older adults with refugee life experience, published in the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care (2025)[3]
  • Co-authored research on applying human-centred design in global mental health to improve reach among underserved populations in the US and India, published in Global Health: Science and Practice (2023)[4]
  • Co-authored study on family strengthening interventions for resettled Somali Bantu and Bhutanese refugees, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2022)[5]

Community Work

"Untold Story of Bhutanese American" Project

Chamlagai conducted interviews, transcription, and translation of audio recordings with Nepali-speaking Bhutanese elders for the "Untold Story of Bhutanese American" oral history project, funded by a $15,000 Mass Humanities grant to the Bhutanese Society of Western Massachusetts in Springfield. The project documented cross-generational dialogue and preserved the stories of Bhutanese American elders.[6]

Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP)

In mid-2023, Chamlagai joined the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP) team, bringing his community advocacy experience to an organisation serving over 8,000 Bhutanese refugees and former refugees in Allegheny County and surrounding counties.[7]

Helping Hands America

Chamlagai is the founder and president of Helping Hands America, a humanitarian organisation providing free healthcare and human services to refugees and underserved communities.[1]

References

  1. "About Us." Helping Hands America.
  2. "Lila Chamlagai." ResearchGate / Brown University.
  3. "Honoring their stories." International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 2025.
  4. "Applying Human-Centered Design in Global Mental Health." Global Health: Science and Practice, 2023.
  5. "Investigating Outcomes of a Family Strengthening Intervention." MDPI IJERPH, 2022.
  6. "Past Grants Awarded." Mass Humanities.
  7. "Our Team." BCAP Pittsburgh.
  8. "Lila Chamlagai." Google Scholar.

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