Fred Ssewamala, PhD, Program Director
Dr. Ssewamala is the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor of Social Work and Public Health at the Brown School, and Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine at WUSTL. He is the Founding Director of ICHAD; and the Director of the SMART Africa Center. For the past 15+ years, Dr. Ssewamala’s global research, funded by a consortium of institutions including the U.S government through NIMH and NICHD, has focused on improving health/mental health and developmental outcomes for vulnerable children and adolescents; and creating innovative combination interventions for communities affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS. Through ICHAD and SMART Africa, Ssewamala and colleagues are able to test and implement rigorous innovative interventions in LMICs including Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana.
Mary McKay, PhD, Program Director
Mary M. McKay is Vice Provost of Interdisciplinary Initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis. She joined the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis as dean in 2016, continuing the School’s legacy of creating vital knowledge, initiating social change, and preparing leaders to address social and health challenges both locally and globally. Dean McKay’s academic experience connects deeply to both social work and public health. She has received substantial federal funding for research focused on meeting the mental health and health prevention needs of youth and families impacted by poverty. She also has significant expertise in child mental health services and implementation research methods, as well as over 20 years of experience conducting HIV prevention and care-oriented studies, supported by the National Institutes of Health. She has authored more than 150 publications on mental and behavioral health, HIV/AIDS prevention and urban poverty, and more. Prior to joining the Brown School, Dean McKay was the McSilver Professor of Social Work and the inaugural director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. She previously served as the head of the Division of Mental Health Services Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her prior academic appointments include Columbia University and University of Illinois at Chicago.
Noeline Nakasujja, PhD, Program Director
Dr. Nakasujja is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Psychiatry Department at the College of Health Sciences Makerere University. A clinical psychiatrist by training, Dr. Nakasujja’s research focuses on mental health research that has in particular evaluated special populations of HIV positive individuals. She has an impressive record as a department chair and mentor, serves on several international associations and has received numerous recognitions and honors for her scientific achievements.