Pak Chau

Pak Chau, MSN, RN, is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (UPenn), in Philadelphia, PA. His anticipated graduation is July 2022. Prior to enrolling at UPenn, Mr. Chau worked as a registered nurse at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center Emergency Department in Paterson, New Jersey. While working in the urban safety-net hospital, he became aware of the deep-rooted sequelae of the opioid crisis, the effects of violent crime, and the pressing disparities in mental health care. He was inspired to acquire additional education to become a PMHNP to assist him in helping to solve existing system’s issues. Mr. Chau is interested in using technology to bridge gaps in care, identifying public health inequities, and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate psychiatric care to minority populations. He currently works as a telehealth nurse specializing in communicable disease management, epidemiology, and healthcare informatics.

Mr. Chau received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. During his studies, he became introduced to the mental health field through his volunteering as a crisis counselor through the Trevor Lifeline, a suicide prevention lifeline for at-risk LGBTQ youth. Additionally, as a research assistant, Mr. Chau assisted Dr. Susan Caplan in the development of technological innovations in the Dominican Republic to alleviate mental health disparities alongside the Dominican Ministry of Health. He hopes to continue working with groups across different intersections of life moving forward as a PMHNP. He attributes good care as care that meets patients at these specific intersections. 

Mr. Chau is a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA), Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), and Sigma Theta Tau’s Nursing Honor Society.