Dr. Kimberly Hook is a global psychiatry postdoctoral research fellow at Boston University School of Medicine/Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a clinician in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Medical Center. Her educational/clinical background is in clinical and counseling psychology. Other areas of interest include transdiagnostic therapeutic interventions and implementation science. Her expertise primarily lies in issues related to mood and anxiety disorders, as well as substance use disorders. She is funded by the United States National Institute of Health to collaborate with in-country mental health professionals on projects related to increasing access to treatment, investigating rates of mental illness/factors associated with risk of mental illness, prevention of mental illness, and similar. Past work has included emphasis on Liberia and Ethiopia, and she currently focuses most of her research efforts on Eastern Europe.

Work stemming from collaboration with Dr. Ng includes:
* (poster) Ametaj, A., Serba, E. G., Cheng, Y., Hook, K., Hanlon, C., Fekadu, A… Ng, L. C. (2019). Preliminary PTSD data from rural Ethiopian patients with severe mental illness. Poster presented at the meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Boston, MA.
* (poster) Hook, K., Getachew, E., Ametaj, A., & Ng, L. (2019). Understanding and beliefs about the etiology and treatment of mental illness in Sodo District, Ethiopia. Poster presented at the meeting of the XVI European Congress of Psychology, Moscow, Russia.
* Potential facilitators and barriers to implementation of a brief psychological intervention in a treatment-naïve population: A qualitative study.(in preparation).
* Preliminary PTSD data from rural Ethiopian patients with severe mental illnesses.(in preparation).

Dr. Keneilwe Molebatsi is a Psychiatrist and Lecturer at the University of Botswana. She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in South Africa and holds a Master of Medicine in Psychiatry from University of Nairobi in Kenya. She is currently pursuing PhD in Psychiatry at UKZN focusing on psychological interventions for trauma and PTSD in patients with severe mental illness. Dr Lauren Ng is Keneilwe’s supervisor and mentor on her PhD project. Dr Molebatsi’s other research interests include child and adolescent mental health and interventions to improve identification and management of Depression across all levels of health care. Dr. Molebatsi’s ResearchGate page

Dr. Vuyokazi Ntlantsana is a medical doctor, an Accelerated Academic Development Programme Lecturer and research fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Department of Psychiatry. She is currently working towards her PhD. Her areas of interest include trauma in populations with serious mental illness. Her PhD is on cultural adaptions and piloting of a brief trauma intervention and is entitled A pilot study of a Brief Relaxation, Education and Trauma Healing (BREATHE) in patients with first episode psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder. Professors Lauren Ng (UCLA) and Bonga Chiliza (UKZN) are her supervisors. Through her research, she hopes to contribute towards development of interventions that mediate the effects of trauma in marginalized populations.

Boniface Harerimana is one of top experts in mental health and addictions in Rwanda with over 15 years’ work experience. Boniface is a senior addiction specialist at Ndera Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital with an MSc Degree in Addictions Studies conferred by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London in the UK. He is completing a PhD at Western University with thesis testing an addiction care model for patients’ retention in the recovery process. His scholarly work focuses on developing and testing innovative ideas for mental health and addictions, through clinical research, for creating and applying knowledge in the advancement of mental health and addictions care practice and the promotion of individuals’ health and well-being as they transit from hospital to the community. Boniface also has extensive experience in research implementing telehealth for mental Access and Care Delivery among older adults.

Since the last seven (7) years, Boniface and Dr Lauren Ng have worked together on a number of projects intended to advance research skills and evidence-based practice in a Low-Income Country, Rwanda. Examples include an ongoing assessment of the feasibility of the implementation of a research project on psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression and a one-year (2013 -2014) research project that evaluated a program specializing in PTSD and substance use disorders in in a Low-Income Country, Rwanda. Boniface and Dr Lauren Ng have co-authored published and under peer-review research and conference papers, including:
Research papers
• Lauren C. Ng, Anne Stevenson, Sreeja S. Kalapurakkel, Charlotte Hanlon, Soraya Seedat, Boniface Harerimana, Bonginkosi Chiliza, & Karestan C. Koenen. National and Regional Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (under peer-review, PLOS Medicine Journal).
• Boniface, Harerimana; Michael Kerr; Richard Csiernik; Lauren C. Ng; Eugene Rutembesa; & Cheryl Forchuk. Contribution of Age at First Substance Use and Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder to Later Addiction Severity in a Clinical Sample from Sub- Saharan Africa: Implications for Prevention and Treatment. Submitted to the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. Manuscript ID: JPM-19-0382.
• Lauren C Ng & Boniface Harerimana. (2016). Mental health care in post-genocide Rwanda: evaluation of a program specializing in posttraumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Global Mental Health 3, DOI: 10.1017/gmh.2016.12

Conference proceedings
• Boniface, Harerimana; Michael Kerr; Richard Csiernik; Lauren C. Ng; Eugene Rutembesa; & Cheryl Forchuk. Predicting Contributions of Age and Motives for First Substance Use, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders to Later Addiction Severity in Clinical Sample from a Sub- Saharan Country, Rwanda. Mental Health Research and Innovation Day: Expanding Partnerships and Impact. St Joseph’s Healthcare London & Lawson Health Research Institute. London, Canada; 24 October 2019.
• Lauren C Ng, Paradis Dukoshe, Charles Nkubili, & Boniface Harerimana. Developing and Implementing Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment in Rwanda. American Psychological Association Annual Convention. New York, USA; August 2014.

Rachel John is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at Boston University. Her research interests are the impact of cultural stress, mental health, alcohol and drug misuse and on immigrant and refugee population. Rachel works with Dr. Ng in understanding the impact of limited English proficiency on mental health diagnoses and subsequent health utilization among patients who are refugees and asylees. Rachel is a licensed clinical social worker, trained in adult psychodynamic psychotherapy. Rachel earned her Master’s of Public Health from Drexel University and her Master’s of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania

Rachel is a Ph.D. student in Applied Human Development at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. She is interested in mental health service provision for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, and particularly those who have experienced trauma. Her dissertation, which was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, addresses seasonal patterns in both the use of psychiatric emergency services and outpatient specialty mental health care in a large, urban, safety-net hospital. In addition, her research addresses racial and ethnic disparities in mental healthcare. Rachel has worked with Dr. Ng on a project developing a brief screener to identify youth with PTSD in primary care settings. Dr. Ng and Rachel will present this research at the upcoming Society for Research in Adolescence biennial meeting, in San Diego. Rachel was awarded a Glenn Doctoral Fellowship and a Boston University Women’s Guild Award. Her research has earned awards from the Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA) and the American Psychological Foundation (APF).

Emily Pariseau is a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at Boston University. She received her bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from Trinity College and her master’s degree in psychology from Boston University. Emily’s clinical/research interests are in pediatric psychology, health disparities, and family-centered care for children with chronic medical and developmental diagnoses. Emily primarily conducts research through the Child and Family Health Lab at Boston University under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Long. Emily’s research employs qualitative and quantitative methods to examine family processes and youth psychosocial functioning in the contexts of pediatric cancer, traumatic stress, autism, and gender diversity. Emily collaborates with Dr. Lauren Ng on a project exploring barriers and facilitators to implementation of a brief PTSD intervention for adolescents and young adults in primary care settings.
Child and Family Health Lab

Presentation
Pariseau, E. M., Carter, Q. B., Long, K. A., & Ng, L. C. (2019, September). Barriers and facilitators to implementation of a brief PTSD intervention for adolescents in primary care. Poster presentation at the 2019 Developing and Researching Advanced Models of Integrated Primary Care (DREAM IPC) Biennial Conference, Wilmington, DE.

Manuscript in Preparation
Carter, Q. B., Pariseau, E. M., Long, K. A., & Ng, L. C. Barriers and facilitators to screening and treating PTSD in adolescent primary care.