Public Engagement Team & Partners

Alexandra Almeida is Research Manager for the Neuroscience, Ethics and Society (NEUROSEC) team based in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. She manages two core projects led by Prof. Ilina Singh: (i) Becoming Good (BeGOOD): Early Intervention and Moral Development in Child Psychiatry, funded by the Wellcome Trust; and (ii) NeuroGenE, the Global Initiative in Neuropsychiatric GenEthics, focused on the ethics of psychiatric genomics, in partnership with the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Harvard and MIT.
Alexandra is a core contributor to the development and execution of the Youth Dissemination Campaign for The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. The Youth Campaign is led out of Oxford, by a team that includes Prof. Ilina Singh, Dr. Gabriela Pavarini and Dr Alexandra Almeida.
Prior to her role as NEUROSEC Research Manager, Alexandra was a postdoctoral researcher in Neurodevelopment in Prof. William Harris’ laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK. She holds a PhD in Developmental Biology also from the University of Cambridge. Alexandra enjoys managing high level projects and teams, and has also worked extensively on developing outreach for scientific and medical programmes.

Melanie Archer is a Senior Associate with Global Health Strategies, where she focuses on nursing, noncommunicable diseases and obesity. Previously, Melanie launched and managed BBC Media Action’s Insight blog, which made the case for communication’s role in global health, governance and humanitarian action. Melanie also has a background in think tank communications, having previously worked for the Overseas Development Institute’s humanitarian team and Africa Research Institute, both in London. Melanie has also worked for Dods, a political information company and media platform openDemocracy.

Deepti is currently working as a Consultant for The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development at New Delhi, India. Being a part of the Secretariat, she was responsible for research administration of The Lancet Commission on GMH. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a PG Diploma in Public Health Management. Prior to joining the Commission, she had worked for a qualitative study on Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chain Policies and Programmes in India, at the Public Health Nutrition Department of the Public Health Foundation of India.

Louise Bradley has built her career in mental health from the ground up. From her early days as a registered nurse, to her advanced degrees, hospital administration and leadership of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Louise has been charting a new course to improve the lives of Canadians living with mental illness. Demonstrating equal parts conviction and compassion, her transformational leadership has been recognized by the Canadian Psychological Association (Humanitarian Award, 2017), by the Canadian College of Health Leaders (Innovation Award, 2015) and by institutes of higher learning (Honorary Doctorates, Saint Mary’s University and University of Alberta).

Alison is the communications lead for mental health at the World Health Organization. In 2017, she took a leading role in the conceptualization and management of WHO’s year-long global public awareness campaign “Depression: let’s talk”. She also coordinated communications for World Mental Health Days on mental health in the workplace, psychological first aid and living with schizophrenia and manages the media launches of all new WHO publications on mental health, suicide prevention and alcohol and substance abuse.

Alison is a seasoned trainer, regularly facilitating training on all aspects of public health communications for colleagues and partners in Geneva and overseas. She is a firm believer in the value of building and managing relationships based on mutual benefit and trust as key to achieving ambitious goals.

Alison was educated in the United Kingdom and France and has a Master in Business Administration.

John leads the work of Global Health Strategies (GHS) on NCDs, access to medicines and polio and joined the organisation in 2012. He is the head of GHS’s European office based in London. John has worked on public health issues for the last thirteen years for groups that include Save the Children in India, UK and US and the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa.

Mychelle Farmer is a pediatrician who specializes in adolescent health, and she has worked extensively in global health programs focusing on children, adolescents and young adults is currently the Chair of NCD Child. Mychelle’s areas of expertise include HIV clinical care and prevention, reproductive health, and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) prevention and early intervention. She will be the Chair of NCD Child, beginning in 2018, and she has served as a member of NCD Child’s Governing Council since 2014. Mychelle serves as Project Advisor for NCDs advocacy projects conducted in several countries in East and North Africa, and she is the Project Director for an initiative to promote NCDs advocacy for youth in US-based pediatric programs. These programs provide guidance to local and national leaders to promote NCDs prevention, health and wellness among at-risk populations. Mychelle was the Senior Technical Advisor for NCDs at Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, 2013-2017. During her tenure with Jhpiego, she was a member of the PEPFAR-NCD Project Collaborative Group, a special working group supported by the National Institutes of Health and PEPFAR, to assess integration of NCDs care and support within HIV clinical care. Mychelle is an active member of the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH), and she serves as the Association’s Ambassador-at-Large. She is a member of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Medical Association, and Global Health Council (NCD Roundtable). She has supported the development of technical briefs and feedback on health policies, as demonstration of her commitment to innovative health services that are culturally relevant and technically excellent. Mychelle attended medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College, and completed pediatric residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.

Pattie Gonsalves works in the areas of arts and mental health to improve health outcomes for adolescents and youth in India. Her background ranges from psychology, development and public health, that has given her opportunities to serve as a youth consultant to UNICEF and co-found the “Music Basti” project, which connects at-risk children with music and life-skills education.

Pattie presently leads a public engagement initiative, “It’s Ok To Talk” (www.itsoktotalk.in) at Sangath, a mental health non-profit in India. The project aims to engage adolescents and youth with issues of mental health through digital interventions and community based activities.

Elisha is an entrepreneur, global campaigner and mental health advocate. She is currently the CEO of United for Global Mental Health and previously was Campaign Director for the Heads Together Campaign spearheaded by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, founded advocacy organisation The Global Poverty Project (“Global Citizen”) in the UK, and has consulted for a range of multilateral, government and non-profit organisations including DFID and The World Bank. She has suffered from PTSD and depression.

Sapna joined the Mental Health Commission of Cananda in 2009 with significant experience in health policy and management in Canada, the United States and overseas. Prior to joining the Commission, Sapna worked at the Queen’s Center for Health Services and Policy Research. She has also worked with the William J Clinton Foundation and the Centre for International Health and Development. At the Commission, she supports the implementation of program and priority initiatives, leading and directly accountable for the implementation of the Commission’s revised strategic goals in the areas of Workplace, Post-Secondary Education and Cannabis.  She helped lead the development of the first in the world, National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, and since then has been working with organizations globally to drive widespread adoption.

Sapna holds a Masters in International Public Health – Health Policy and Management from Boston University. She is a Canadian Healthcare Executive and a Project Management Professional. In 2015, she was chosen to participate in the Governor General Canadian Leadership Conference.

An active community member volunteering with several charities and not for profit organizations, including as a Board member of VoiceFound, Mindful Employer and the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada.

Ed is the Vice President, Programs and Priorities, Mental Health Commission of Canada, a highly motivated visionary and an expert at building partnerships, fostering stakeholder engagement and aligning strategic objectives, Ed has led innovation and improvement in health care for over two decades.

As Vice President of Programs and Priorities at the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Ed is dedicated to promoting mental health in Canada and changing the attitudes of Canadians toward mental health problems and illnesses. By collaborating with stakeholders to improve mental health services and supports, he leads the way to change. Ed pays particular attention to reducing stigmas and increasing mental resiliency through innovative measures like Mental Health First Aid, the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, Suicide Prevention, and the Mental Health Strategy for Canada.

Ed is also a Registered Psychiatric Nurse, holds a Master’s of Science Administration, and is a Certified Health Executive.

Sweta Pal is a communications professional working to improve access to healthcare information for youth in India. As Communications Coordinator at Sangath, she is presently assisting a national youth mental health campaign, “It’s OK To Talk”, where her focus is engaging stakeholders, partners and communities to enable a dialogue on mental health in India by innovatively using storytelling, digital media as well as community-based events and youth leadership programmes. Prior to Sangath, she worked as a journalist reporting on health issues as well as major disease outbreaks.

Gabriela Pavarini is a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, and co-leader of the Youth Campaign for The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. The campaign is developed and implemented in collaboration with two youth groups: the Oxford Neuroscience, Ethics and Society Young People’s Advisory Group and an international group of Young Leaders for Global Mental Health.

Gabriela’s work is motivated by a strong sense of social responsibility and commitment to the inclusion of young people in ethical analysis and debate. She currently works for a project titled Becoming Good: Early Intervention and Moral Development in Child Psychiatry (PI: Professor Ilina Singh), where she is developing a set of digital tools (e.g., video games) to facilitate young people’s participation in ethical decision-making in psychiatry. Before her postdoc, she completed a PhD at the Centre of Music and Science, University of Cambridge.

Onaiza is originally from Pakistan where she worked on a community-based mental health project for depression and anxiety within urban populations in Karachi. She completed her MSc in Global Mental Health at Kings College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2017 and is currently working at the Mental Health Innovation Network as Platform Coordinator.

Grace Ryan is a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Co-Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health in London, UK. Her research focuses on the evaluation of “real-world” community mental health programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, with a special interest in the involvement of people with lived experience of mental health problems in the design, delivery and evaluation of interventions. She is a former Platform Co-Lead of the Mental Health Innovation Network (mhinnovation.net) and currently involved in piloting Ember (emberincubator.org), an incubator for innovation in global mental health.

Solomon Schonfield is the Senior Project Lead for the inaugural of Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit to be held in London, UK on 9-10 October, 2018

Rennie Sloan is assistant director of communications at The Carter Center, providing communications support for several programs including the Mental Health Program. In this role, she oversees the social media and podcast channels for the Center. Previously, she was director of global communications for the American Cancer Society, working to advance noncommunicable diseases as a priority among governments and global health stakeholders and developing journalist trainings to educate them on noncommunicable diseases. She received a master of international management degree from The American Graduate School for International Management (Thunderbird) and holds a bachelor of arts degree from North Carolina State University. She is on the board of the Georgia chapter of Mental Health America.

The team at Autism Speaks supported the Commissission and the Campaign with visual and graphic design and development. Autism Speaks also actively supported the dissemination and promotion of Commission activities through its global network of stakeholders.

Lian Zeitz is a young mental health advocate with lived experience working to make sure all people are supported with dignity.  Lian has worked with therapeutic programs for struggling youth in 15 states in the US to identify pathways for young people to play a greater role in their own care and the development of mental health programs. He has also worked internationally on areas such as suicide prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse in Bhutan, Indonesia, and Zambia. He is passionate about young people’s experiences in therapeutic programs, trauma-focused community development, and pathways to successful transitions in life. At citiesRISE, Lian leads international youth activities and works to develop meaningful ways to engage young people in the development, implementation, and evaluation of mental health programs. In this role Lian has supported the design and scale-up of mental health programs and built a network of youth leaders passionate about mental health across the world. Lian earned a B.A. from Quest University Canada, where he focused on public mental health and international development, and a certificate for Leadership in Mental Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.