Jian (Lily) Chen is the Executive Director of United Chinese Americans Youth Mental Health Collaborative UCA WAVES (Wellness, Advocacy, Voices, Education, and Support). Since 2016, UCA WAVES has touched the lives of thousands of immigrant families from 50 states through its community educational programs and advocacy.

Lily has an extensive background in nursing education and public health nursing
including schools and senior care sectors. As a nurse educator at North Carolina Central University, a graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program, a PhD candidate and Royster Fellow at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Lily has been actively engaged in research on mental health disparities among Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI). She is the principal investigator for the Substances Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA)’s Mental Health Awareness training grant and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of North Carolina AANHPI health disparity research grant.

Lily is a member of the “Pathways Forward: Action Plans to Advance AANHPI Mental Health” work group by the SAMHSA. She also serves on the Community Advisory Committee of National AANHPI Youth Mental Health Survey by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) and the Human Service Board of Wake County, NC. Lily is a frequent speaker at mental health education conferences and webinars, and has appeared in multiple media outlets locally and nationally advocating for AANHPI mental health. Lily is an immigrant mother of five wonderful grown children and lives with her husband in Cary, North Carolina.