Faculty

Jean-Francois Trani is a demographer, an associate professor at the Brown School and a scholar at the Institute of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the Brown School in 2012 from the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London where he is still an honorary research fellow.  His work lies at the intersection of mental health, disability, vulnerability and poverty with a focus on conducting research that informs policy and service design for individuals living in conflict affected fragile states, and other low-income countries, such as Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan (Darfur) and more recently in middle-income countries such as Morocco and Tunisia.

Parul Bakhshi is a social psychologist and an assistant researcher professor at the Program in Occupational Therapy, Washington University in St. Louis. As a social psychologist, the majority of her work has been in the  field of human development, with specific focus on inclusion of vulnerable populations and education policies in LMICs. Understanding the dynamics of exclusion and the conditions for participation of vulnerable individuals and communities has been a leitmotiv of her research over the past 10 years. She is currently conducting research on stigma and social exclusion of destitute groups that impede participation in the field of inclusive education as well as poverty and mental illness.

Ellis has worked for many years at the intersection of disability, poverty, and social policy. He coordinated field work for the RADIE study in Afghanistan and has conducted qualitative research and trainings in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, India, Tajikistan, Uganda, and Ethiopia.  Ellis has Master’s Degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the Brown School of Social Work and Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.

Yiqi Zhu’s scholarship aims to develop and support strategies to improve rural families’ well-being in response to rapid globalization, urbanization and modernization. She has conducted research and consultant work on food security, nutritional well-being, and educational attainment with organizations in China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.