Governance

Chris Underhill

Chris is the co-founder of citiesRISE, and a global expert in the delivery of health and rehabilitation systems to very poor people. A serial social entrepreneur he is the founder of BasicNeeds which concerns the delivery of a holistic model to mentally ill people and people with epilepsy in resource poor communities worldwide. In addition to BasicNeeds, he has founded a number of organizations related to disability and mental health, including Thrive, and Action on Disability and Development. Chris has served as chief executive of Practical Action and is currently Chair of Carers Worldwide and the International Centre for Social Franchising. Chris is a Senior Fellow of the Ashoka Fellowship, a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur. Chris has been honored as an MBE by the Queen for his services to disability and development.

Arthur Evans

Arthur is a clinical and community psychologist, health care innovator and current Chief Executive Officer at the American Psychological Association (APA) as of March 2017. Prior to joining the APA, Arthur spent 12 years as the commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavior Health and Intellectual Disability Service. He realigned the agency’s treatment philosophy, service delivery models and fiscal policies to improve health outcomes and increase the efficiency of the service system. Arthur has been recognized nationally and internationally for his work in behavior health care policy and service delivery innovation and holds faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Drexel University School of Public Health and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Arthur holds a doctorate in clinical/community psychology from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in experimental psychology from Florida Atlantic University, where he also completed his undergraduate work.

John Boyd

John has over 12 years of experience within the public health sector. He is Sutter Health’s System CEO for Mental Health Services & Chair of California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. John was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the State of California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and is serving his second term in that capacity. He worked eight years for Shriners Hospitals for Children, both domestically and internationally, serving in both local and system-wide capacities. Additionally, John Boyd has worked as both an inpatient and outpatient therapist in several organizations throughout his career.

Brad Herbert

Brad Herbert has over 30 years of experience in international development with a focus in the social sectors including health and education. He was with the World Bank for 27 years where he spent the majority of his tenure based in developing countries. At the Global Fund Brad was the Chief of Operations and responsible for their multi-billion grant program in over 130 countries. As a result of years of development experience and leadership roles, Brad brings a practical, results-oriented approach to program policy, development, and accelerated implementation of health and education projects. Brad also lead and managed the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council in Geneva, is a founding Trustee of the Global Campaign for Mental Health, London, and engaged with Mothers 2 Mothers, Cape Town.

Norman Sartorius

Professor Norman Sartorius is Professor of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland and former Director of the Division of Mental Health of the World Health Organization.
Professor Sartorius is an eminent figure in the field of international mental health. He has been instrumental in bringing science to mental health by establishing the first internationally-agreed upon classification of mental disorders that can be applied in both the developed and developing countries. Professor Sartorius’s work called attention to the high frequency and the importance of mental disorders throughout the world, including in developing countries. His contribution is important for the recognition and forms a basis for treatment of psychiatric disorders in primary health care. Dr. Sartorius studied medicine in Zagreb and subsequently trained in psychiatry. He started working with the WHO in 1967, serving in Southeast Asia and other regions. He became Director of WHO Division of Mental Health in 1977, a position he held for more than 20 years.

Dr. Sartorius is actively involved in a number of professional associations including serving as President of the World Psychiatric Association and President of the Association of European Psychiatrists.

Prabha Chandra

Dr. Prabha S.Chandra, is a Professor and Head of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, Bangalore, India. She studied at the Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi and NIMHANS.

She has served as a Temporary Advisor to the WHO and UNAIDS and is the Secretary of the International Association of Women’s Mental Health, a nominated member of the World Psychiatric Association and an executive member of the Marce International society. She has been an NHS International Fellow and Consultant in Manchester, UK and a visiting professor at the University of Liverpool.

Her main areas of interest are Women’s Mental Health, Perinatal Psychiatry, teaching methods, ethics and palliative care. She has nearly 180 publications and has edited several books. She has started the first dedicated psychiatry service including a Mother Baby unit in South Asia for mothers with severe mental illness.

Kelly Davis

Kelly Davis’s lived experience with mental health diagnoses and trauma are at the center of her passion for transforming how we support individuals and change systems and services. She currently works in Peer Advocacy, Supports, and Services, where she is involved in promoting peer support, peer certification, youth and young adult leadership, and college mental health.

She is passionate about trauma-informed care, peer support, consumer-led transformation, positive psychology, and civil rights. She serves in an advisory role to the Well Being Trust, The Support Network, and the Center for Law and Social Policy. She has spoken at many events, including The White House Making Health Care Better Series on Mental Health, and has been featured in media outlets including NBC Nightly News, The Mighty, Thrive Global, Yes! Magazine, and Mashable.

Sanjeev Khagram

Sanjeev Khagram is a world-renowned scholar and practitioner in the areas of globalization, transnationalism, leadership, strategic management, entrepreneurship, social enterprise, cross-sector innovation, public-private partnerships, inter-organizational networks, good governance, transparency, the global political economy, sustainable development, human security, and the data revolution. He holds a bachelor’s in development studies and engineering, a master’s degree and doctoral degree minor in economics and doctorate in political economy, all from Stanford University. He has worked extensively with global start-ups, corporations, governments, civil society groups, multilateral organizations, cross-sectoral action networks, public-private partnerships, foundations, professional associations and universities all over the world from the local to the international levels. He has lived and worked for extended periods in Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Sean Mayberry

Sean is the Founder and Executive Director of StrongMinds. StrongMinds uses its own unique depression intervention based on Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy, a low-cost, proven methodology that has reduced depression symptoms for over 80% of the women treated in Uganda. In 2013, he founded StrongMinds with the goal of ending the depression epidemic on the sub-continent. He is a former diplomat and social marketer who believes that there are simple and cost-effective interventions which can improve mental health. For years Sean implemented successful HIV/AIDS and malaria programs in Africa and saw firsthand the struggles of the mentally ill.

Glen Moriarty

Glen Moriarty is a psychologist who is passionate about the Internet’s power to help people lead better lives. He has been involved in a number of services and organizations that support people in need. 7 Cups of Tea is his most recent endeavor; marrying his background in psychology with his love for technology. Glen lives with his wife, Nicole, and their four children, Colin, Madeliene, Avery, and London.

Pat McGorry

Professor Patrick McGorry is the Executive Director of Orygen, Professor of Youth Mental Health at The University of Melbourne, and a Director of the Board of the National Youth Mental Health Foundation (headspace). He is a world-leading researcher in the area of early psychosis and youth mental health, and has a strong interest in promoting the mental health of the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers. His work has played a critical role in the development of safe, effective treatments and innovative research into the needs of young people with emerging mental disorders, notably psychotic and severe mood disorders. He has also played a major part in the transformational reform of mental health services to better serve the needs of vulnerable young people.

Katherine Switz

Katherine is the Founder and Executive Director of The Stability Network and is successfully living with bipolar disorder with recurrent psychosis, suicidal depression, anxiety and OCD.The Stability Network brings together successful professionals speaking out about their mental health conditions in order to help others get the quality care they need to recover. Katherine is Senior Advisor at Camber Collective, a strategy consulting firm that helps social impact organizations to navigate complex change and achieve high performance.

Jeb Brugmann

Jeb is the director of Solutions Development and Innovation at 100 Resilient Cities which is pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. Previously Jeb founded the Local Governments for Sustainability Initiative (ICLEI) and was a managing partner at The Next Practice, an innovation consultancy for 12 years. He has over 30 years of professional experience working with local governments and the corporate sector in 28 countries. Jeb holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and has been awarded the Millennium Award for Best Sustainability Initiative of the European Environmental Agency/Princes’ Foundation. He is the author of Welcome of the Urban Revolution: How Cities Are Changing the World.

Thomas Ermacora

Thomas is a regeneration architect, impact entrepreneur and futures thinker, helping communities, developers and local authorities making better and happier places. He is the producer, design director and co-author of Recoded City: Co-Creating Urban Futures. Thomas is the founder and creative director Clear Village, a strategic regeneration non-profit organization, LimeWharf, a cultural innovation center, and Machines Room, a prototyping space and futures laboratory for artistic and technological projects. Thomas holds a master’s in Geography focusing on sustainability and urban design from the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne and participated in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management’s Start-Up Program.

Sitawa Wafula

Sitawa Wafula is a blogger and nomadic mental health crusader. She’s using her personal journey as a rape survivor living with a dual diagnosis of epilepsy and bipolar disorder to provide people in Africa with information and support to handle mental health conditions and deal with everyday life. Wafula is also an Aspen New Voices Fellow with the Aspen Institute, USA and a non-communicable disease champion under the Ministry of Health in her home country, Kenya. She is supporting citiesRISE’s youth engagement program and brings in her own challenges and triumphs as a youth leader to support citiesRISE work.

Charlene Sunkel

Charlene is the Principal Coordinator for the Movement for Global Mental Health based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1991 she was exposed to the challenges experienced by persons with mental disorders within and outside of the mental health sector. In 2014 she joined the South African Federation for Mental Health as program manager for advocacy and development and now she serves on a number of national and international boards and committees such as the Advisory Board of the Movement for Global Mental Health, the editorial advisory board of the Lancet Psychiatry and the management board of the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders Alliance among others.

Patricio Marquez

Patricio is the lead public health specialist at the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice of the World Bank, coordinating the Global Tobacco Control and Mental Health Initiatives. Since July 2014, he has been part of the World Bank Group team that designed the Ebola Emergency Response Program for West Africa. Before assuming this role, he served as Human Development Sector Leader for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as for Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Prior, he served as Health Cluster Leader for the countries in Southern Africa in 2011-2012 and worked in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region over 2004-2011. Patricio, originally from Ecuador, has worked in more than 50 countries in Africa, Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, East Asia, and the Pacific since 1988.

Craig Kramer

Craig is the Mental Health Ambassador and Chair, Global Campaign for Mental Health, in Neuroscience External Affairs at Janssen R&D, a Johnson & Johnson company. In this capacity, Craig leads a Johnson & Johnson team that seeks to transform mental health care globally by raising awareness, reducing stigma, promoting research, improving access, and ensuring better patient outcomes. Key initiatives include a global leaders’ coalition to champion proven, scalable reforms, and a CEO roundtable to develop “next-in-class” workplace mental health practices. Prior to this role, Craig held a variety of positions in global corporate and government affairs at Johnson & Johnson and worked as a lawyer in the U.S. Congress, a Washington, D.C., law firm, and an international human rights organization. He is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, the University of Michigan School of Law, and Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.

Lian Zeitz

Lian Zeitz has been an active contributor to the philosophical underpinning of citiesRISE and leads international youth activities. Prior to joining citiesRISE, Lian 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 frequently speaks at national and international conferences about student experiences in therapeutic programs, trauma-focused community development, and pathways to successful transitions in life. Lian earned a B.A. from Quest University Canada, where he focused on public health and international development, and a certificate for Leadership in Mental Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

Seika Brown

Seika is an advocate and a researcher in mental health. She founded a non-profit organization focused on mental health policy in Washington State at the age of 15. Seika and her team worked tirelessly, leading to the successful passage of a bill in 2019. Collaborating with citiesRISE, Seika’s non-profit also published a youth advocacy toolkit to empower future youth campaigns. Currently pursuing her undergraduate degree at Cornell University, Seika majors in Urban and Regional Studies with a minor in Anthropology. During her first year at university, Seika established a global research initiative aimed at exploring the diverse cultural perspectives on mental health. Since then, she has collaborated with local, national, and international institutions, contributing to youth engagement, mental health awareness, research design, and policy implementation. Seika received the esteemed mPower award from Mental Health America in 2021. She was also selected as part of the inaugural cohort of ambassadors for the Rare Impact Fund, an initiative established by Selena Gomez.

Yvonne Ochieng

Yvonne is a mental health advocate and citiesRISE Nairobi’s youth leader and program manager. She previously worked at Nzumari Africa (a citiesRISE Youth Challenge Award winner), an organization that focuses on poverty in slums, gender-based violence, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health. Nzumari Africa also addresses mental health by empowering youth holistically, using creative and interactive methodologies that fit into the dynamics of their evolving world. Yvonne was one of citiesRISE’s first established youth leaders who mentored and supported other youth leaders globally to accelerate the transformation in mental health.

Boniface Chitayi

Dr. Chitayi is the team and technical lead for citiesRISE Nairobi. As the President of the Kenya Psychiatric Association (KPA) he took part in the planning of the inaugural national mental health conference in Kenya in 2019 and led the May mental health awareness month campaign of 2020 through the KPA/citiesRISE partnership. Dr. Chitayi has been a member of several ministry of health committees working on initiatives around implementation of the national mental health policy 2015-2030, and is currently a member of the Technical Working Group (TWG) developing the national suicide prevention strategy. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) and Master of Medicine in Psychiatry both from the University of Nairobi.

Pamela Collins

Pamela is a psychiatrist and mixed methods researcher with 25 years of experience in global public health and global mental health research, education, training and capacity-building, and science policy leadership. Dr. Collins’s research has focused on social stigma related to mental illness and its relationship to women’s health behaviors; the intersections of mental health with HIV prevention, care, and treatment; and the mental health needs of diverse groups in the US, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. She has served as the director of the Office for Research on Disparities & Global Mental Health and the Office of Rural Mental Health Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), was a leader of the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health initiative, an editor of the 2011 Lancet series on Global Mental Health, and the editor of the 2013 PLoS Medicine Policy Forum series on global perspectives for integrating mental health in diverse platforms of care. Currently the Principal Investigator of EQUIP Nairobi: a pilot implementation of Trauma-Focused CBT in Nairobi, Kenya, she is leading a more comprehensive effort to meet the mental health needs of children and adolescents in Nairobi. Pamela received her MD from Cornell University and her MPH from Columbia University in New York, NY.

Lukoye Atwoli

Lukoye Atwoli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health at Moi University School of Medicine, and a Consultant Psychiatrist for the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and other facilities in Eldoret and western Kenya. He also holds visiting positions at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and Duke University’s Institute of Global Health and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town’s Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. His work integrating city programs and implementation at citiesRISE is supported by years of global work, including with several consortia involved in mental health research and development in Kenya and in other parts of the world, including the Orphans and Separated Children’s Assessment Related to their health and well-being (OSCAR project) in western Kenya, the South African Stress and Health Survey (SASH), and the World Mental Health Surveys Consortium. Lukoye received his medical degree in Pyschiatry from University of Nairobi Medical School, Nairobi, Kenya and his PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Gretchen Proulx

Gretchen is a creative expression and trauma therapist, a visual artist, and a social justice worker with the goal of connecting people through transformative creativity. Before attending the University of Washington to earn her Master of Social Work, she always sought opportunities to connect with others and facilitate story sharing, especially amongst young people.

Gretchen’s scope of practice has included educational systems, community-based mental health organizations, and juvenile rehabilitation systems. Within the juvenile rehabilitation system, she worked as a clinician in an acute mental health unit, as well as with police and programs within the system to elevate more equitable treatment. She has worked with King and Pierce counties in Washington state, USA in behavioral interventions, case management, and leadership consultation, and has collaborated with United Way of King County to expand mental health access and resources to students. As the Director of Restorative Justice at a local middle school, Gretchen re-designed the behavioral system to be more therapeutic and restorative.

In each setting, she has utilized the process of artmaking to inspire connectedness and radical imagination in a way that develops resiliency. Gretchen recognizes that clinical treatment is just one way to support the mental health wellness of people, and she is excited to bring her extensive experience, unique perspective, and unbridled passion to the the citiesRISE team.

Miguel Uribe

Miguel is head of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health in the School of Medicine at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and a Psychoanalyst at the Colombian Psychoanalytic Association. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana School of Medicine and an Associate Member at Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá. He also has his own private practice in adult psychiatry. Miguel brings an extensive background to his advisory role at citiesRISE, having also consulted for the World Bank for Mental Health in Latin America and Colombia. He specialized in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá and has a Masters in Public Health from Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.

Samuel Talam

Samuel Talam is the founder of Amazing Minds Kenya, a youth led organization housed within Kenyatta University that equips students and staff with mental health resources. Amazing Minds promotes mental health through art, serves as a peer support and referral link for mental health care and services and offers youth leadership opportunities at the university. Samuel is a recipient of the citiesRISE Youth Challenge Award in 2017. Samuel is currently a student at Kenyatta University.