Beginning a Postdoctoral Journey at the GW Center for Global Mental Health

Apr 3

2 min read

An illustration of a woman accepting a new professional position at a center for global mental health.

I am delighted to join the incredible team at the Centre for Global Mental Health

Equity at George Washington University, under the mentorship of Dr. Brandon Kohrt, as a Postdoctoral Associate. This marks an exciting new chapter in my professional journey, building on my experience of implementing and evaluating global mental health programs in Nepal through the Center’s partner organization (TPO-Nepal), particularly focused on innovative and collaborative approaches of involving people with lived experiences of mental health conditions in reducing stigma, and improving access to mental health services in low-resourced settings. The Reducing Stigma Among Healthcare Providers (RESHAPE) and Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Healthcare with Service Users (EQUIP-SU) projects are examples of initiatives where I have collaborated with the Centre as a co-investigator.

At the Centre, I will lead independent research initiatives focused on managing

community participatory research and contributing to the development and

implementation of research projects aimed at strengthening the mental health

system, reducing stigma, and building capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This opportunity follows my PhD work at King’s College London, where I explored the understanding and measurement of structural stigma and discrimination in the health system. This resulted in the development of a Framework for Comprehensive Understanding of Structural stigma in Mental Healthcare Systems (FOCUS-MHS) (see published paper here), which was then piloted in Nepal to assess the feasibility and applicability of the framework and its implementation strategy (see published paper here).

I am eager to bring these insights into my postdoctoral role and look forward to

learning from and collaborating with colleagues from within and outside the centre, who are interested in global mental health, health systems, and implementation science research.

Stay tuned for updates from my work within the Centre, and feel free to reach out!