Carina Lei is from Cary, North Carolina, graduating with an interdisciplinary Program II major titled “Toward Culturally Competent Care: Holistic Mental Health in Asian American Diasporic Communities.” Program II is a major track that allows Duke students to self-design majors that speak to interdisciplinary interests, as well as conduct research for a senior thesis. For her thesis, Carina examined differences between Asian American and non-Asian American mental health organizations through a values-based framework as part of the Duke Culture Lab.

On campus, Carina has spent much of her time working in community-building and student advocacy spaces as co-president of Duke’s Asian Students Association and co-director of the Asian American Studies Working Group. She is also heavily involved in health service organizations that provide peer-to-peer support for Duke students as well as social determinants of health services to the Durham community. Carina is passionate about the value of holistic community-based forms of care as integrated into systemic medical practice. In her free time, she likes to paint, dance, and play card games with her friends.

Carina will spend her Hart Fellowship year in Orange County, California, working with a local non-profit that provides joint mental health services and civic engagement programming to the community in addition to research and policy efforts. She plans to research how community spaces and alliances can be situated as access points for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander mental health services, and is excited to continue learning about how direct health services and community advocacy/social justice are in conversation with each other.