Global Minds, Local Insights
Mental Health Research Scholar Series
Introducing Global Minds, Local Insights
Global Minds, Local Insights is a speaker series within the Boston Medical Center/Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds. Experts are invited from around the globe to spend time at Boston Medical Center and share their research and form new partnerships.
Meet Our Speakers
5/9
Prof Bonga Chiliza, PhD, MBChB, FC Psych - Durban, South Africa
An adaptation of BREATHE (a brief psychological intervention) for people with trauma and serious mental illness in Southern Africa
Bonga Chiliza is an Associate Professor/Chief Specialist and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He completed his medical degree and psychiatry specialization at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and his PhD at Stellenbosch University. His research interests include schizophrenia, consultation-liaison psychiatry, health services and medical education. Prof Chiliza has received a number of awards including the Hamilton Naki Clinical Research Fellowship and the CINP Rafaelsen Young Investigators Award. He has authored over 50 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. He has also served on a number of NGO Boards, including the SA YMCA and Life Choices. He is one of the Founding Directors of Harambee Medical Consulting and African Global Mental Health Institute.
5/16
Overview of the Mental Health landscape in Kenya
Lukoye Atwoli is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Dean of the Aga Khan University Medical College, East Africa. He is also the Deputy Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at AKU. Prof Atwoli is widely published, and his current research interests are centered on trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder and the genetics of mental disorders, although he also leads and participates in research on children’s and youth mental health, and on HIV and Mental Health. Prof Atwoli is also a social and health rights advocate, and has influenced policy and programmes in the health sector as well as in the political sphere.
Prof Lukoye Atwoli, MBS, MBChB, MMed Psych, PhD- Nairobi, Kenya
5/30
Dr. Victor Cruz, MD, MS - Lima, Peru
Child Adversity and Psychosis: Findings from the Peruvian National Survey of Mental Health, 2022
Victor O. Cruz is a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia and the University of San Martin de Porres, respectively, in Lima, Peru. He has conducted various research projects in collaboration with several USA universities, such as the Epidemiology of Coca Leaf Chewing in the 21st Century in Peru with Michigan State University and the first Peruvian National Survey of Mental Health and Service Use with Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. His current research includes the Pilot of the Genetic Architecture of Schizophrenia among Peruvians, conducted with the Broad Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
6/13
Development of Liberia's Mental Health Policy and Commencement of Postgraduate Residency Training in Psychiatry
Dr. Benjamin Harris is Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine, University of Liberia. He also is an adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Harris is a clinician and educator with vast experience in post-conflict mental health. His primary areas of expertise are psychoactive substance use prevention, HIV/AIDS related mental health, and general health/mental health policy, program planning, implementation and supervision. Dr. Harris worked for a number of years with the Global Program on AIDS and played an active role in the development of the World Health Organization HIV and AIDS related counselling policies and guidelines.
Prof Benjamin Harris, MD, DPM - Monrovia, Liberia
6/27
Prof Laila Asmal, PhD, MSc, MMed, FC Psych, MBChb - Cape Town, South Africa
The Urban African Neighborhood and Psychosis
Dr. Laila Asmal is a clinician scientist who heads the Psychosis Research Unit at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. She is an associate professor and earned her PhD examining neuroimaging and schizophrenia in first episode schizophrenia in South Africa. Her work examining childhood trauma and neuroimaging in psychosis helped develop her special interest in the biological, behavioral and environmental factors contributing to psychosis risk and recovery in Africa. She is an experienced neuropsychiatrist with a MSc in Clinical Epidemiology and is passionate about raising awareness of the relative neglect of psychosis in the global health agenda. Her vision is a collaborative network of African centers of psychosis research.
