We are doctors, social workers, anthropologists, epidemiologists, researchers, social scientists, teachers, professors, public health professionals, and non-profit leaders and field workers. We come from non-profits, universities, health systems, and school systems. Together, we are tackling the child mental health burden, one teacher and one child at a time.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Christina M. Cruz, MD, EdM (co-PI). Christina Cruz is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Division of Global Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School Psychology Program at the UNC School of Education. She is the PI of the Global Child Mental Health Collaborative @ UNC. While faculty at UNC, Dr. Cruz has been awarded the AACAP Junior Investigator Award, the Thrasher Early Career Award, the Caregivers at Carolina Award from the Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists at the Doris Duke Foundation, a UNC Children’s Development Early Career Investigator Grant, the Gene Orringer Junior Faculty Career Development KL2 (TraCS KL2) at UNC, and the Doris Duke Foundation’s Clinical Scientist Development Award. She is serving a 3-year term as a member of the Council on Research of the American Psychiatric Association.
During her general psychiatry residency at UNC, Dr. Cruz was named a SAMHSA Minority Fellow through the American Psychiatric Association. While a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at UNC, she was awarded the AACAP Pilot Research Award and named an OGHE UNC Global Health Scholar.
Dr. Cruz received her MD from Harvard Medical School and concurrently her Masters in Education in Prevention Science and Practice from the Harvard Graduate School of Education . While at Harvard pursuing dual degrees, she was named a Zuckerman Fellow. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Accounting, Summa cum Laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Venessa Fuentes, MD. Venessa Fuentes is currently a Master of Public Health in Applied Epidemiology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Social/Clinical Research Assistant in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine. Venessa is a licensed physician in the Philippines where she graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines Manila with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree, and earned her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, Inc. Prior to starting the MPH program at UNC, Venessa worked in the WHO Solidarity Trial Vaccines in the Philippines as a clinical trial physician in a randomized controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines. Moving to North Carolina, Venessa brings with her a strong passion for research, mental health, and a vision to improve health outcomes in low- and middle- income countries.
Former Team Members
Hillary Chen, MPH. Mrs. Chen is a public health professional with both domestic and international experience, specifically interested in promoting resilience among vulnerable populations. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Lacie Emmerich, MPH. Ms. Emmerich is a public health professional interested in injury prevention work. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Juliana Vanderburg, PhD. Juliana Vanderburg is now a post-doc. She obtained her PhD, with studying parent involvement in Tealeaf as her dissertation, in the School Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education.
Broadleaf Health and Education Alliance
Broadleaf unlocks human potential through community-led innovations in health and education. We partner with children, families, and schools in the Eastern Himalayas to develop innovative, data-driven programs that improve educational outcomes and maximize well-being. We believe access to health knowledge and educational opportunity empowers communities to break down barriers to growth and development so every individual can thrive. We work at the intersection of health and education.
Michael Matergia, MD (co-PI). Michael Matergia is the Executive Director of Broadleaf Health and Education Alliance. Together with his wife, Dr. Matergia co-founded Broadleaf. Currently, he is focused on implementing a lay fieldworker led school health program and developing the community-based care system for child mental health at the center of this collaborative. Dr. Matergia is also interested in the delivery of primary care to adult laborers on the tea estates of Northeast India. He is a Clinical Instructor of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a Senior Investigator at the Center for Global Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, and an attending and teaching physician at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver. Dr. Matergia completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and his medical education at Harvard Medical School. While at HMS, Dr. Matergia was named an AIF William J. Clinton Fellow. He trained in family medicine at Saint Joseph Hospital and completed a fellowship in Global Health at CU Anschutz Medical Campus. He is passionate about full scope family medicine, medical education, and the design of healthcare delivery systems in resource-poor settings.
Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna
Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna (DLR Prerna) believes in a world that sees the need to live as one family where the environment is preserved and protected, where conscious efforts are made to remove unjust structures while striving to build a just and humane society. Our mission is to build sustainable human communities in the Darjeeling hills and the adjoining area by promoting peoples participation, gender equality and living in harmony with the environment.
Team members include: Rinzi Lama, PhD (co-PI); Roshan Rai; Priscilla Giri, MSW; Surekha Bhattarai, MSW; Arpana Thapa; Choden Dukpa, MSW; Tara Chhetri; Catherine Canavan Shrestha, MA.
Priscilla Giri, MSW. Priscilla Giri is a Programme Administrator with an organisation DLR Prerna, leading a research program TeaLeaf (Teachers Leading the Frontline) Mansik Swastha in Darjeeling, India. She is experienced in project designing, implementation and evaluation. She has worked with the schools in rural communities in Darjeeling for the past eight years and involved in the mental health program for five years. Priscilla Giri has completed her master’s degree on Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, and a one year course on Narrative Therapy from Ummeed’s Mental Health Training Program, Mumbai.
Surekha Bhattarai, MSW. Surekha Bhattarai is a Project Officer with DLR Prerna, Darjeeling based NGO. She currently works in providing mental health support to the children in the rural parts of Darjeeling district under Tealeaf: Mansik Swastha project. The work allows the team to partner with the low-cost private schools and train the principals and the teachers to provide mental health support to the children. Training, awareness and workshops for parents, teachers and principals are also facilitated by her. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work with the specialization on Women and Children and disaster management and has completed her graduation in Sociology (Honours) from St. Joseph’s college, Darjeeling.
Arpana Thapa. Arpana Thapa is a Project Officer at Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna, a Darjeeling based NGO. She is currently working with teachers in low cost rural private primary schools for providing mental health support to school children under the Tealeaf: Mansik Swastha Project. Arpana has worked as a Counselor under the project National Aids Control Organization (NACO) amongst the Female Sex Workers (FSW) and Injecting Drug Users (IDU) of Darjeeling District. She has completed her Master’s degree in Political Science from Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Choden Dukpa, MSW. Choden Dukpa is a Research Administrator at Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna, a Darjeeling based NGO. She is currently involved in conducting research activities in a child mental health project in the rural areas of Darjeeling. She is also a fellow at South Asia Implementation Research Fellowship (SPIRIT) 2020-21 batch. Choden has worked as a Young Professional under National Rural Livelihood Mission, Government of Bihar. She has a Masters in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and specializes in Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship and has worked in different parts of India such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal including outside the country such as Nepal.
Colorado School of Public Health
Molly Lamb, PhD (co-I). Dr. Lamb is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and the Center for Global Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. Dr. Lamb’s research and public health practice are focused on improving the health of children living both in the US and in resource-poor countries. Before joining the faculty at the Colorado School of Public Health at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, she was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the CDC, stationed at the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, MD, where she investigated infectious disease outbreaks and conducted research on childhood obesity. She currently is an Epidemiologist at the Center for Global Health, where she works on research projects being conducted around the world. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in International Relations, Biochemistry, and Cell and Molecular Biology and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Colorado.
Megan Cherewick, PhD, MPH. Dr. Cherewick is an Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health and Senior Investigator at the Center for Global Health at University of Colorado. She has over 13 years of experience conducting research in low-income countries and in contexts of humanitarian emergencies, including the cultural adaptation and design of multi-level interventions, management of program implementation and mixed method evaluation of programs. Her central research interests include psychosocial consequences of concentrated adversity in children, youth, families and communities; risk and resilience processes in developmental trajectories of mental health; climate change and mental health; autism; and emergency preparedness and response. Her work seeks to interface research, practice and policy to strengthen community preparedness and resilience to acute and protracted stress. Dr. Cherewick received her PhD in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, with specialization in refugee and disaster response. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in adolescent developmental science from University of California Berkeley. She earned her Master in Public Health from University of Michigan with specialization in Global Health and completed dual degrees in Sociology (BA) and Printmaking (BFA).
University of Houston
Debarati Sen, PhD (co-I). Dr. Sen is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. An interdisciplinary cultural anthropologist with expertise in South Asia. Dr. Sen’s award-winning scholarship combines cultural anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, geography, gender studies and development studies. “Everyday Sustainability: Gender Justice and Fair Trade Tea in Darjeeling” (Albany: SUNY Press, 2017), her first single-authored book, is an outcome of a long-term engagement with issues of sustainability, fair trade and gender justice. In 2018, this monograph won two major national-level book awards: The International Studies Association’s book award for the Global Development Section and the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize from National Women’s Studies Association. In 2019, her book also received an honorable mention for the Michelle Rosaldo Book Prize of the Association for Feminist Anthropology (American Anthropological Organization). Her research was funded with grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, US National Science Foundation DDIG, Princeton University’s Office of Population Research, and Columbia University. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Presidency College, Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy in Sociology and Anthropology from the Delhi School of Economics, and her PhD in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies from Rutgers University.