Dr Gina Hechanova-Alampay on doing good, doing it for others, and what it means to be successful

When Dr Regina Hechanova-Alampay was an undergraduate student at the University of the Philippines, she went on a two-week immersion that would define the work she would eventually do as a researcher, educator, and Filipino. Dr Hechanova, or Doc Gina to students, colleagues, and the communities she’s worked with, is a trailblazer in the field of psychology in the Philippines, evidenced by extensive publications, prestigious awards, and her stature as one of Ateneo de Manila’s most esteemed professors. 

The immersion, which took place sometime in her junior year, changed her worldview and opened her eyes to a purpose beyond herself. “I realized how sheltered my life was and how much poverty there was in the country,” Doc Gina says of the experience. “That was a big part of shaping my career, because suddenly my initial career goals seemed very shallow and very selfish. I began to rethink, What do I want to do?”

After 12 years in the UP System, Doc Gina, by her own admission, could’ve chosen a much more comfortable life abroad, pursuing a different career path or carving her place in the corporate world. She initially pictured herself in the hotel industry, a field that, for a time, she did join. “I entered the hotel industry, but in Human Resource Development, [because I wanted to work] with people. And then it just began pulling me more and more towards psychology, so I went to grad school. Then from organizations, you could see the trajectory in my career. My work now is with communities,” she says. 

Doing good, and doing it for others
After finishing her MA in Psychology in UP, Doc Gina received her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Central Michigan University in 2000. Despite an offer to stay and work in the United States, she and her husband decided to return to the Philippines.

“My husband and I had degrees [na] parang wala pa dito sa Pilipinas. (My husband and I had degrees that weren’t yet available here in the Philippines.) Or in my case, there were Filipinos who had this degree, but they didn’t come home to teach,” she says. When they were thinking about where they would find a more meaningful life, they both agreed that returning home was the best thing to do. “Both of us wanted to give back with the degrees that we had and we wanted to teach,” Doc Gina adds. 

When she returned to the Philippines, Doc Gina began teaching in Ateneo following a conversation with Dr Lota Teh, then chair of the Department of Psychology. Doc Gina found herself drawn to the university because of its reputation in the applied field, she said, and adding to the list of pros was the Jesuit formation—something that she got a taste of during her time in UP Student Catholic Action, which was founded by Fr John P Delaney SJ. She recounts, “Part of the formation was living your life for others and our mantra was, ‘Do good, live simply, pray.’ Our Jesuit formators were Fr Teodulo Gonzalez SJ and Fr Manny de Guzman SHJ, so that affinity [to Jesuit education] was there.”

Since then, Doc Gina has been pioneering solutions and research in the fields of organizational psychology, community-based mental health, and substance use programs. But the road to affecting change, especially on a larger scale, isn’t always linear or easy, and they are faced with many obstacles, such as funding, for one.

Explaining why she decided to take on the challenge of juggling teaching and managing a project this large, Doc Gina, who is currently Chief of Party of the USAID RenewHealth Project, says: “A lot of the time, the kind of work that we need to do is long-term. One of the challenges as an applied researcher is that our funding cycles are very short. [It’s usually] one year, one sem. But the work that you need to do will take time. That’s one of the challenges, [and] that’s why I took the USAID project because it was five years. And there’s so much you can do in five years, as opposed to a one-year project.” 

Her RenewHealth team assisted the Department of Health in developing the Lusog Isip Mobile App and the Department of Education in developing Lusog isip Online to promote wellbeing and prevent mental health problems among Filipinos.

Another challenge she has experienced is making partners appreciate the need for data and capacitating people. “The question now is, how do you use your science to address the needs of communities? How do you make them value the need for monitoring and evaluation? How do you capacitate people to use evidence-based interventions? We still have so many gaps in terms of mental health care,” she adds. “But I am hopeful that I can find more allies who believe in making mental health accessible to those who need it most.” 

Defining success
Doc Gina’s contributions in psychology in the last twenty years have benefited countless students, communities, and Filipinos. Her seminal work, “Understanding the Filipino Worker and Organization,” has become an essential text and resource in IO Psychology courses and for psychometricians preparing for board exams. Doc Gina also led the development of Katatagan, a resilience intervention for Filipino disaster survivors, following the destruction caused by Supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013. Her team brought the program online during the Covid-19 pandemic, training and capacitating over 130 facilitators and helping hundreds of distressed individuals. Today, they have evolved the program to Katatagan Plus, a community-based mental health program to help those experiencing adversity and who are at risk for mental health problems.  

Her work and contributions to her field have earned her awards and recognition both here and abroad—Outstanding Young Scientist (2005, National Academy of Science and Technology), The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (2010, TOWNS), UP President Eduardo Angara Fellowship (2023), PFPA Distinction Award for Psychology (2022), Global Citizen Citation (2021, American Psychological Association), Professional of the Year in Psychology (2018, Professional Regulatory Commission), and more. 

This year, Doc Gina was chosen by the Metrobank Foundation as one of its Outstanding Filipino Teachers for 2024, an accolade bestowed on exceptional servant-leaders in the academe, military, and police sectors. “It was an overwhelming feeling,” she says of the recognition. “I’ve had other awards for research and practice, but this is for teaching and I see myself as first and foremost as a teacher. So of course it is such an honor.”

Still, Doc Gina doesn’t count awards as the measure of her success as a psychologist or an educator. Foremost a servant-leader, Doc Gina finds great fulfillment in being of service to others, and her fellow Filipinos especially.

“Success to me is not measured in monetary terms nor recognition,” Doc Gina says. “Do I feel that what I do is meaningful? Have I been able to grow and give back? Even if you win an award, you don’t stop. Success for me is that I continue to evolve and I continue to give back whatever I have. At the end of the day, success is really just that satisfaction that I used the talents that God gave me for others.”◾️