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Global Mental Health

Our Students and Alumni

Doctoral Students

Luke AldridgeLuke Aldridge, BA, MSc

Luke’s work focusses on strengthening and evaluating systems for the delivery of mental health services in low- and middle-income countries. Specifically, he is interested in leveraging health information technology to effectively scale treatment as well as the the economic evaluation of treatment approaches. Prior to attending Johns Hopkins, Luke worked in research and the non-governmental sector in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Shoshanna FineShoshanna Fine, AB, MPH

Shoshanna's central research interests include studying the psychosocial and developmental consequences of adversity among children and adolescents, particularly in conflict and post-conflict environments. In addition, she is interested in the development and implementation of mental health interventions in low-resource contexts; community-based participatory approaches; and mixed methods research.

Claire GreeneClaire Greene, BS, MPH

Claire is interested in the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of substance misuse, particularly in humanitarian settings and as it relates to co-occurring violence and mental health problems.  Her dissertation research focuses on the integration of alcohol misuse research and interventions into the field of global mental health. Additionally, she is currently work on an ongoing randomized controlled trial of an integrated intimate partner violence prevention and mental health treatment program in Nyarugusu refugee camp, Tanzania.

Noa KrawczykNoa Krawczyk, BA

Noa Krawczyk is a 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Mental Health, a trainee of the Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training Program, and a member of the Global Mental Health Lab group. Before entering graduate school, Noa received a B.A. in Biology and Latin American history from the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Hunter College, and worked for three years in the field of public health research, including a Fulbright research project where she studied treatment and health services for vulnerable cocaine users in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Noa’s research interests center on evaluating access to and quality of drug and alcohol treatment programs in the U.S. and abroad, and she has focused her recent research on understanding access and barriers to evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorders.

Daniel LakinDaniel Lakin, BA, MA

Dan is primarily interested in the development and implementation of effective mental health treatment programs for low- and middle-income settings. His current work involves a clinical trial for a low-intensity, self-directed psychosocial intervention for refugees in Northern Uganda, and an updated look at cognitive processing therapy for survivors of violence in Eastern Congo. He is also interested in men’s engagement with psychotherapy, and understanding potential correlates associated with drop-out and initiation of care for men in low-resource settings.

Georgia MichligGeorgia Michlig, MA

Georgia’s work aims to address the mental health needs of vulnerable populations where services are either unavailable, or underutilized. Her background is in medical anthropology and ethnographic methods; however, her current training seeks to expand my skill set to include quantitative and mixed method designs. Georgia has six years of experience in research and service delivery with refugees in the United States and is currently involved in research to understand mental health among Somali women who have undergone female genital mutilation, nomadic pastoralists in Northern Kenya who are abandoning their traditional livelihoods due to climate change, and Iraqi healthcare workers who provided medical services in Mosul under ISIS. Her thesis proposes to develop an innovative intervention strategy for Somali women in the US through a mixed methods design using psychiatric epidemiology, discourse analysis, and ethical philosophy. 

Ohemaa PokuOhemaa Poku, BA, MPH

Ohemaa’s research interests include cross-cultural interpretations of illness and how stigma impacts access to psychosocial care, particularly for Black American and African populations. She is also interested in designing and employing cross-cultural measurements to determine the burden of mental illness and then translating these measures into capacity-building and program design. While Ohemaa is primarily a qualitative researcher, she will be incorporating more mixed methods approaches through her upcoming training. Prior to JHSPH, Ohemaa worked with the Global and Local Center for Mental Health Disparities at Boston University and the Columbia University Global Mental Health Program. She has an MPH in Global Health and Research Methods and a BA in History and International Development. 

 

Postdoctoral Students

Jura AJura Augustinavicius, MSc, MHS, PhD

Jura uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to study mental health in low-resource settings. Her dissertation work is focused on parenting self-efficacy, mental health, and child neurodevelopment among HIV-affected caregivers and children in rural Uganda. For a number of years Jura has also been involved in a project that is adapting and evaluating a self-help based mental health intervention for South Sudanese refugees living in Uganda.

Molly LasaterMolly Lasater, MPH, PhD

Molly’s broad research interests focus on addressing the mental health needs of vulnerable populations, particularly young women, in low-resources settings. Her dissertation research used mixed methods to examine local understandings of perinatal mental health to inform the development and integration of a mental health intervention into community-based maternal health services in rural Mali. As a postdoctoral fellow, one of Molly’s projects will build off of her dissertation research findings to develop an integrated group-antenatal care and depression prevention intervention to efficiently support pregnant adolescents in a healthy transition to motherhood in Mali. 

PTPhuongThao (PT) Le, MPH, PhD

PT’s research focuses on assessing and addressing global mental health issues in low-resource settings, particularly the implementation of sustainable mental health interventions. Her dissertation and prior research examined the psychosocial health among returned survivors of human trafficking in Vietnam. PT has also engaged in multiple mixed-methods and community-based participatory research projects that address health disparities among diverse and underserved populations in the U.S.  

 

Alumni

Sharon AbramowitzSharon Abramowitz, PhD
Research Faculty

Rutgers University Dept. of Anthropology, Global Health/Medical Anthropology Consultant
Email: saabramowitz@gmail.com 

Sabine CorneliusSabine Cornelius, MSW, LICSW, PhD
Psychotherapist, and Clinical Instructor

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services, George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates
Email: sacornelius@mfa.gwu.edu

Masoumeh DejmanMasoumeh Dejman, MPH, MD, PhD
Clinical Trial Specialist

AMAREX Clinical Research, LLC
Email: dejman.masoumeh@gmail.com 

Itziar FamiliarItziar Familiar, MPH, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor

Department of Psychiatry, Michigan State University
Email: familiar@msu.edu

Brian HallBrian Hall, PhD
Associate Professor

Department of Psychology (primary), University of Macau, and Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Email: bhall41@gmail.com

Emily HarozEmily Haroz, MA, PhD
Assistant Scientist

Department of Mental Health (primary) and Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Email: eharoz1@jh.edu

Rebecca HockRebecca S. Hock, PhD
Research Fellow in Psychiatry

Chester M. Pierce, MD Division of Global Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Email: rhock@mgh.harvard.edu  

Jeremy KaneJeremy Kane, MPH, PhD
Assistant Scientist

Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Email: jkane29@jhu.edu

Sachiko KuwabaraSachiko Kuwabara, MA, PhD
Director, Office of Risk Management and Operational Integrity

Division of Emergency Operations, OPHPR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Email: ymf5@cdc.gov

Laura Stonestreet McDonaldLaura Stonestreet McDonald, PhD
Operations Officer

World Bank
Email: laurasmcd@yahoo.com

Sarah MurraySarah Murray, MSPH, PhD
Assistant Professor

Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Email: smurray9@jh.edu

Maya NadisonMaya Nadison, MHS, PhD
Senior Program Manager

Community Health Evaluation and Research, Kaiser Permanente 
Email: maya.nadison@kp.org

Etheldreda Nakimuli-MpunguEtheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, MMED(Psych), PhD
Senior Lecturer & Psychiatric Epidemiologist

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences
Email: ethelmpungu@yahoo.com

Amanda NguyenAmanda Nguyen, PhD
Research Assistant Professor

Human Services, Youth-Nex Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, University of Virginia
Email: ajnguyen@virginia.edu