Effective Mental Health Interventions in Humanitarian Settings
Mental health is a critical yet often under-resourced priority in humanitarian settings. As crises and displacement intensify, the psychological toll on affected communities grows deeper and more complex, eroding the foundations of individual well-being and human dignity. This event features Columbia faculty and researchers whose work drives innovative, evidence-based approaches to supporting mental wellness amid conflict, migration, and disaster. By sharing insights from regional projects and field collaborations, panelists explore how research can translate into real-world impact—spotlighting efforts to strengthen support for refugees, address the intergenerational effects of trauma, and reduce barriers to care. The discussion also examines emerging needs and gaps within the current geopolitical landscape, offering a forward-looking perspective on how academia can help build more responsive and enduring systems globally.
This event, in which Columbia faculty and researchers leading Columbia Global initiatives present, is in collaboration with Columbia Global Centers Amman + Istanbul and Columbia World Projects.
Columbia Global Center Amman advances knowledge sharing through public events, research projects, educational workshops, and practical trainings to connect ideas and perspectives across local and global contexts. Contact us to explore opportunities to partner, collaborate, or participate in our upcoming programs and events. We continue to build on our work together across our key thematic areas.
Speaker Spotlight
Lena Verdeli (Moderator), Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of Clinical Training at Teachers College
Lena Verdeli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of Clinical Training at Teachers College, Columbia University. She received federal and foundation funding to study psychotherapy for prevention and treatment of mood disorders. In the past fifteen years Lena Verdeli has played a key role in landmark studies involving adaptation, training, and testing of psychotherapy packages used by non-specialists (primary care staff, community health workers, etc.) with depressed adults in southern Uganda; war-affected adolescents in IDP camps in northern Uganda and depressed IDP women in Colombia; distressed patients in primary care in Goa, India; depressed community members in Haiti; and war-affected Syrian refugees in Lebanon, among others. She is a member of the Mental Health Advisory Committee for the Millennium Villages Project of the Earth Institute, a Scientific Advisory Council member of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Scientific Advisory Board of Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. She received the American Psychological Association International Psychology Division Mentoring Award and chaired the research workgroup of the Family NGO at the UN. She is currently a technical advisor for the WHO on global dissemination of psychosocial treatments.
Charles Branas, Gelman Professor of Epidemiology, chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Branas leads one of the nation's oldest and largest Departments of Epidemiology and is known for his focus on especially challenging health issues and interventions that improve basic determinants of health, such as access to green space, housing, and medical care. He is the founding PI/PI of two CDC-funded injury research centers. His research has been cited by landmark Supreme Court decisions, Congress, and major news outlets, and he has mentored scientists into leadership posts ranging from top universities to the White House. He has worked at multiple Schools of Public Health, Engineering, and Medicine, including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, Penn, the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, and the University of Otago in New Zealand, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Anindita Dasgupta, Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Anindita Dasgupta is a social and behavioral scientist whose research focuses on understanding how gendered inequities of health intersect with sexual and reproductive health among populations of girls and women who are marginalized in the United States, India, and the Middle East. Dr. Dasgupta’s research uses a reproductive justice lens – with the goal of using research to tackle systems of oppression to improve reproductive health outcomes of birthing people through intervention and epidemiologic research. Dr. Dasgupta is currently funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to implement and evaluate the PrEP for WINGS intervention, which aims to reduce hazardous alcohol use, intimate partner violence and increase PrEP initiation for women engaged in the criminal legal system in New York City (R01AA030462)
Claire Greene, Assistant Professor of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health
M. Claire Greene, PhD MPH, is an epidemiologist and implementation scientist interested in identifying opportunities to improve mental health and psychosocial wellbeing among forcibly displaced populations through multisectoral and community-based interventions. In her work she consults and collaborates with governments, non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and academic institutions. At Mailman, Dr. Greene teaches Investigative Methods in Complex Emergencies, a course focused on how to collect and effectively use data to inform programming and policy in humanitarian emergencies, and a course on Psychosocial and Mental Health Issues in Forced Migration.
Sarah Knuckey, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann and Bernstein Clinical Professor of Human Rights, Columbia Law School
Sarah Knuckey is a human rights advocate and clinical professor of law, and she directs the Human Rights Clinic and the Human Rights Institute. Knuckey and Human Rights Clinic students work in partnership with social justice advocates, communities, and rightsholders around the world to investigate human rights abuses and advocate for justice and accountability. The clinic prepares students for lifelong careers in social justice advocacy and works to promote human rights and recalibrate the global power imbalances that drive economic and political inequality, exploitation, threats to physical security, poverty, and environmental injustice. Knuckey has investigated human rights abuses around the world, including in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, the United States, and Yemen.