The Training Advisory Committee (TAC) is comprised of accomplished leaders in the field of global mental health and mental health disparities research. TAC members are practitioners, policy makers, and/or researchers with extensive experience running training programs and/or experience in mentorship and career development. Members of TAC will provide strategic guidance and oversight for activities of the Leadership team including candidate selection, scientific review of trainee projects, evaluation of trainees, training program progress, program development, implementation and evaluation.
Theresa Betancourt, ScD
Salem Professor
Boston College, School of Social Work, Global Practice
Research interests: Developmental and psychosocial consequences of concentrated adversity on children, youth and families; resilience and protective processes in child and adolescent mental health and child development; refugee families; and applied cross-cultural mental health research
Arvin Bhana, PhD
SMART Africa Co-Principal Investigator
Chief Specialist Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council, Honorary Associate Professor of Psychology, University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban
Research interests: Understanding risk and resilience, adolescent risk-taking behavior (including HIV/ AIDS), and substance abuse and mental health
Mario Castro, MD
Chief, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research
Director of the Rainbow Clinical Trials Science Unit, Frontiers
University of Kansas School of Medicine
Research interests: Community-based efforts domestically and internationally to improve delivery of asthma care and to boost awareness of smoking health effects and respiratory diseases
Tonya Edmond, PhD
Associate Dean for Social Work
Faculty Fellow, Office of the Provost
Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School
Research interests: Testing the effectiveness of interventions for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, sex trafficking and intimate partner violence
Keng-Yen Huang, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Population Health
Associate Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
New York University, School of Medicine
Research interests: Child mental/behavioral health implementation and epidemiological research both in low-and middle-income countries
Sean Joe, PhD
Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development
Associate Dean for Faculty and Research
Washington University in St. Louis, Brown School
Research interests: Black adolescents’ mental health service use patterns and development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent African American males from engaging in self-destructive behaviors
Inge Petersen, PhD
Professor
University of KwaZulu Natal, School of Applied Human Sciences
Research interests: Community-based mental health care and integrated mental health care in lower middle income countries
Lourdes Soto de Laurido, EdD
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
University of Puerto Rico
Research interests: Health disparities, health promotion, and health education
Sherree Wilson, PhD
Associate Dean of Diversity
Washington University in St. Louis
Research interests: Diversity and inclusion; culturally responsive care and cultural competence