Phalaen Chang

Phalaen Chang (she/her/hers) is a rising senior studying Neuroscience and Behavior with a Special Concentration in Public Health at Columbia University. As a Global Mental Health Programs Summer Intern, Phalaen worked with Dr. Tahilia Rebello and Dr. Geoffrey Reed to contribute to the development of studies used to assess the clinical utility, reliability, effectiveness, and global applicability of the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for Personality Disorders. She also helped contribute to the production of training modules on the ICD-11 Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Requirements through editing and testing English and Spanish modules on neurodevelopmental disorders, bodily distress disorders, substance use disorders, impulse/addictive disorders, and personality disorders. In between these tasks, she helped with edits for a chapter of a book her mentors are writing, discussed papers with her mentors and a graduate practica student who’s a core part of the team, and had the chance to practice grant reviews.

Phalaen is grateful for all the opportunities and experiences she gained as an intern with the Global Mental Health Programs. She enjoyed hearing her peers’ perspectives and thoughts in the weekly journal clubs, and through her work and other program events, she was able to develop an understanding of what goes into global mental health research, get a better idea of where her specific interests lie, and what possibilities there are within the field of global mental health. She knows that she will take the skills, connections, and knowledge from this summer into her future endeavors, whatever they may be.