Chris Vu

Chris Vu (ze/hir and he/him) is passionate about mental health advocacy and disability justice. Ze pursued law as a result of a fortuitous internship opportunity with the Mental Health Advocacy Project at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley.

As the Mental Health Equity Fellow, ze will collaborate with communities most impacted by existing mental health policies and other stakeholders to ensure that people with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) receive quality health care in settings away from the cycle of incarceration and homelessness. Applying a disability rights and anti-racist intersectional framework, Chris will work to ensure that individuals with SMIs gain access to a full spectrum of mental health treatment options from quality in-patient psychiatric care to outpatient and community-based services, regardless of socioeconomic and insurance status.

Chris graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law. As a student, he was the President of Equality at Santa Clara Law, the school’s LGBTQ+ law student organization. He also wrote for the law school’s award-winning newspaper, The Advocate. During his final semester, Chris finally achieved his important goal by founding the law school’s first affinity organization for students with disabilities, the Disabled Law Students Association.

He recently joined the National Disabled Law Students Association and will volunteer his time in the organization’s events, outreach, and advocacy team. Previously, ze was a Law Student Representative and board member for the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the Northern California’s LGBTQI+ Bar Association, in its 2020-2021 cycle.

Image description: A waist-up shot of a nonbinary Asian American with black shoulder-length hair and blue eyeglasses in a dark floral button-up shirt.

(Photo by Amira Maxwell)

Fellowship type: Justice Catalyst

Organization: Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation and Loyola’s Anti-Racism Center at LMU Loyola Law

Project name: Mental Health Equity Project