A Conversation with Chloe Sorensen
What drives your work at the Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center?
From a young age, I have been driven towards finding ways of making mental health care more accessible. In high school and college, I worked on a number of initiatives designed to expand youth mental health care access and reduce barriers to care. As an undergrad, I became interested in research. While working for a depression research program after graduation, I was given the opportunity to work on several clinical trials focused on identifying novel treatments for depression. Many people are not able to find treatments that work for them, so I find it meaningful to be able to contribute to the advancement of alternative treatments. Though I initially planned on pursuing a PhD in psychology, I found that I deeply enjoy the challenge of managing complex clinical trials and delivering treatments directly to patients. Part of what I love about this work is that it’s so dynamic: depending on the day, you might find me building a database, drawing blood, running a sauna session, or completing a clinical interview with one of our study patients. My role at Vail Health has been a dream job for me because I get to build relationships with patients in our community, increase access to care, and contribute to science all at once.
How do you see your research at Vail Health impacting the mental health field?
There is a dire need for new treatments for depression, and one of our core missions is to not only identify new treatments but also understand how they work. I see our research as a way to drive meaningful change in mental health care by advancing evidence-based practices, fostering collaboration, and implementing innovative treatment approaches. Additionally, I really enjoy working for a smaller research program because we are very community-oriented: all of our studies are designed to deliver treatments to the local community, which is somewhat unique.
Can you tell us about your team?
The Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center team is unique in that it is split between Vail and Madison, Wisconsin – Dr. Charles Raison, our director, and Tina Sauder, our program administrator, are based full-time in Wisconsin and guide our work from afar. Until recently, I was the only full-time employee based in Colorado, but I consider myself very lucky to have been recently joined by our new Clinical Research Coordinator, Brandy Núñez. Brandy and I work together to oversee the on-the-ground operations of our two clinical trials (CHILL’D and OPTIMIZE). We handle every aspect of the patient experience, including recruitment, enrollment, scheduling, treatments, and assessments. We also work very closely with a handful of Vail Health providers, including Dr. Barry Sandler, who serves as the principal investigator for CHILL’D and the lead physician for both studies. In addition to our core team, we also collaborate closely with psychologists at UC San Francisco (Ashley Mason, PhD) and Emory University (Deanna Kaplan, PhD, and Roman Palitsky, PhD).
What’s your background in this field?
I grew up in Palo Alto, California, and became involved in community mental health and suicide prevention efforts as a teenager. Throughout high school and college, I worked closely with the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing to launch allcove, a chain of integrated youth mental health centers in California. As an undergrad, I worked in the Culture and Emotion lab at Stanford University and wrote an honors thesis focused on the public health impact of news media reporting on suicide. After graduating from Stanford with honors in psychology and a concentration in health and development, I moved to Boston to work full-time at a depression research program based at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where I first began working with Dr. Raison and his team. When Dr. Raison asked me if I would consider moving to Colorado for this role, I was initially hesitant (I had never been to Colorado and didn’t know how to ski!). But I took a leap of faith and have had zero regrets – it has been an honor to play such a key role in the launch of this program, and I am constantly inspired by the innovation taking place at Vail Health. I consider myself lucky to have a job that continually challenges me and pushes me towards growth. It has been amazing getting to know this community and providing innovative mental health care through our research.
