International Institute of Geopsychiatry

Prof. Joana Narvaez is based at the Federal University of Health Sciences in Porto Allegre, Brazil (UFCSPA). She obtained a degree with honor in Psychology from the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul – PUCRS (2004) and a Masters in Medical Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), as well as a PhD in Psychiatry at UFRGS. Her specialisation is in Clinical Psychology at Contemporâneo- Institute of Psychoanalysis and Transdisciplinarity. She is a researcher at Research Center for Alcohol and Other Drugs (CPAD)/HCPA, a professor of the Postgraduate Program in Psychology and Health (UFCSPA) and a Professional Professor of the Master’s Degree in Mental Health and Addictive Disorders (HCPA/ UFRGS). Her research interests lie in the areas of trauma, addictions, violence, gender and the interface of geopolitical vectors and mental health.

Dr. Albert Persaud is the founder and architect of the subdiscipline of geopsychiatry. Throughout a long and distinguished career in psychiatry in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), Dr. Persaud worked in clinical practice, research, and national policy. Owing to this, he was cited and acclaimed as one of the 40 people of Asian Origin to have influenced the development and shaped the NHS (“Nurturing the Nation: The Asian Contribution to the NHS since 1948”).

Dr. Persaud is the co-founder of The Centre for Applied Research and Evaluation International Foundation (CareIF), a mental health charity, which the Institute are proud to have as one of our partners. He also serves on a number of scientific committees and boards, including for the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry, the World Health Organization and, the European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research Committee.

Dr. Persaud was made a lifetime fellow of the World Psychiatric Association in 2017 and has received awards from other psychiatric organisations, such as the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry in 2018.

Dr. Albert Persaud is the founder and architect of the subdiscipline of geopsychiatry. Throughout a long and distinguished career in psychiatry in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), Dr. Persaud worked in clinical practice, research, and national policy. Owing to this, he was cited and acclaimed as one of the 40 people of Asian Origin to have influenced the development and shaped the NHS (“Nurturing the Nation: The Asian Contribution to the NHS since 1948”).

Dr. Persaud is the co-founder of The Centre for Applied Research and Evaluation International Foundation (CareIF), a mental health charity, which the Institute are proud to have as one of our partners. He also serves on a number of scientific committees and boards, including for the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry, the World Health Organization and, the European Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research Committee.

Dr. Persaud was made a lifetime fellow of the World Psychiatric Association in 2017 and has received awards from other psychiatric organisations, such as the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry in 2018.

Prof. Dinesh Bhugra CBE is Professor Emeritus of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at Kings College London. He is an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and is former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

He was the first ever United Kingdom-based psychiatrist to be voted president of the World Psychiatric Association and then served as president of the British Medical Association. In 2012, Dr. Bhugra was awarded his CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to psychiatry.

Dr. Bhugra is a well-known commentator on mental health issues. He is the editor of Geopsychiatry and the International Review of Psychiatry and has authored/co-authored over 500 scientific papers, chapters, and editorials, in addition to 40 books. Additionally, he has contributed to outlets like The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times (UK), the Financial Times, The Observer, The Huffington Post, the BBC News Magazine, The Times of India, and The New York Times.

PD. Dr. Anna Buadze is a senior physician leading the Special Outpatient Clinic for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Zurich. Originating from Georgia, her rich cultural background and proficiency in multiple languages underpin her sensitivity towards diverse cultural perspectives. Dr. Buadze’s dedication to improving mental health is rooted in her personal experiences with migration and war.

After completing medical studies at Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg and Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Dr. Buadze expanded her expertise at Tulane University in New Orleans. Since 2012, she has been a lecturer at the University of Zurich and earned her Venia Legendi in 2023. In 2018, she assumed the leadership position at the Special Outpatient Clinic. Utilising qualitative and quantitative methods, Dr. Buadze’s studies on neurodevelopmental disorders have been widely published in international outlets.

Dr. Persaud was made a lifetime fellow of the World Psychiatric Association in 2017 and has received awards from other psychiatric organisations, such as the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry in 2018.

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Dr. Mike Campbell is an academic psychologist with experience in hospital-based practice, individual and community crisis response, and weather- and climate-related mental health. He supports the Caribbean Public Health Agency as vice chair of the CARPHA Research Ethics Committee and through service on other committees and is a member of the Disaster Mental Health Committee of the Caribbean Alliance of National Psychology Associations.

He is past president of the Barbados Society of Psychology, a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 1, 12, 17, and 52), and a fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Dr. Campbell is co-chair of the Caribbean Centre for Geopsychiatry.

Dr. Joseph El-Khoury is the CEO and co-founder of the Valens Clinic. He is also adjunct faculty at United Arab Emirates University. He is the former chief of psychiatry and behavioral health at American Hospital Dubai. He is also a former assistant professor of psychiatry at the American University of Beirut where he founded the Psychosis Recovery Outreach Program (PROP) and directed the psychiatry training program.

His research combines conflict Psychiatry, addiction, and general psychiatry.

Dr. Neil Krishan Aggarwal is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. His areas of research interest are cultural psychiatry, cultural-competence training, and psychiatric anthropology.

He is especially interested in conceptions of mental health and illness among South Asian and Middle Eastern populations.

Dr. Myrna Lashley holds a Ph.D in counseling psychology from McGill university. She was an Associate Academic dean at John Abbott College She is also an associate professor in the department of psychiatry of McGill University as well as a researcher at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital. She is an internationally recognized clinical, teaching and, research authority in cultural psychology, and serves as an expert psychological consultant to institutions, including the juvenile justice system. For seven years, she was the Chair of the First-Line Psychosocial Science Committee of the Clinical Ethics Committee of CIUSS de centre-ouest-de-l’ile-de-Montréal.

Dr. Lashley has worked both as a consultant to First Nations and the Jewish communities, and as the Cross Cultural Trainer for the Grievance Committee office of the secretariat for McGill University. She has also conducted training workshops locally, nationally, and internationally and has acted as a consultant to the Brazilian health care system. She was a director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and has also served on the Comité consultatif sur les relations Interculturelles et Interraciales de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal. From 2008 to 2017 she was the Chair of the Cross Cultural Roundtable on Security. She was the Vice-chair of the board of the École Nationale de Police du Québec from 2004 – 2017. As well as conducting research on police matters, she has also been appointed to the Comité expert en matière de profilage racial of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal and to the Comité-conseil sur l’organisation d’une consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémique. She is a consultant to government and non-governmental agencies at the Canadian federal, provincial and municipal levels on issues of equity and inclusivity.

In addition to academic publications, Dr. Lashley has also authored two training manuals on intercultural issues in the workplace and co-authored book chapters. She has received several awards including the 2024 Order of Canada, a 2024 Horary Doctorate from University of Ottawa, 2021 CBC Changemaker, 2015 Woman of Merit Award from the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association; the Queen Elizabeth II 2012 Diamond Jubilee award; 2006 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Award for Holocaust studies; the 2004 Martin Luther King legacy award; as well as the 1995 Merit Award for the Kanawake Native survival school.

Her current research focuses on the intersections of culture, terrorism and national security. Dr. Lashley is co-chair of the Caribbean Centre for Geopsychiatry.

She is currently Barbados’s Honorary Consul to Montreal.

Prof. Tarek Okasha is Chair of the Neuropsychiatric Department Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Director of the Okasha Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University Hospitals in Cairo, Egypt, where he leads the Geopsychiatry Collaborative Centre.

Prof. Okasha is Director of the World Psychiatric Association Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Psychiatry and is Editor-in-Chief of the Middle East Current Psychiatry Journal and is currently President of the Egyptian Alzheimer Society.

Prof. Okasha is also chairperson of the evaluation committee of the scientific research presented for the promotion to the positions of assistant professor and professor in the field of psychiatry in the higher council of universities in Egypt. He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine at Ain Shams University and a Masters and Doctorate degree in Psychiatry from the same university. He also received a Diploma in Psychotherapy from the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine, Counseling and Psychotherapy from the United States.

Prof. Okasha is Honorary Fellow of the World Psychiatric Association and received a Presidential Commendation from the WPA. He is a member of many other international associations and organisations and an Editorial Board Member for numerous international psychiatric journals. He has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals and contributed to more than 34 national and international book chapters as well as supervising around 110 master’s degree and doctorate degree thesis.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Ventriglio, MD, PhD, is professor of Psychiatry within the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the University of Foggia (Italy), as well as a practicing psychiatrist and psychotherapist at the “Riuniti” Hospital in Foggia.

Dr. Ventriglio formerly served as a Research Fellow at the Department of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, and holds two doctoral degrees in Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Sciences from the University of Foggia.

He is a member of the Italian Society of Psychiatry and the Italian Society for Social Psychiatry, and holds honorary membership in the World Psychiatric Association.

Currently, Dr. Ventriglio serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry and is a member of the editorial boards of the International Review of Psychiatry, Current Drug Research Reviews, and Frontiers in Psychiatry and Neuroscience. Furthermore, he is an editor of several volumes published by Oxford University Press and Springer Nature.

Dr. Helena Moura holds a degree in medicine from the State University of Pará (2005), specialisation in Psychiatry from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul/Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (2009), in Addiction Psychiatry from the Federal University of São Paulo (2008) and further training in Psychogeriatrics from University of São Paulo (2016). She has a PhD in Psychiatry from the Alcohol and Drugs Research Centre (CPAD) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Her areas of scientific production include: biomarkers in alcohol and cocaine/crack use disorders; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, especially the consumption of psychoactive substances; smoking and mental health; lifestyle and mental health of university students and geopolitical determinants of mental health. She has been a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Brasilia (UnB) since 2021, where she coordinates the mental health internship and is vice-coordinator of the Medical Residency Programme in Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Brasilia (HUB). She is also currently a member of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) working group on Geopsychiatry.

Dr. Geraint Day worked on the inception of the Geopsychiatry CAPE Vulnerability Index in 2018 and joined the WPA Geopsychiatry Special Interest Group in 2023. He has worked in health statistics and demographics in the UK’s National Health Service, UK health policy and with the International Health Co-operative Organisation.

A Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, Dr. Day is a judge for its Florence Nightingale Award in Health and Care Analytics, with the Health Foundation.

Originally educated in astronomy and planetary science (University College London, Lancaster University and Natural History Museum, London) he has long been active in patient-public involvement, currently with Oxford Brookes University.

Dr. Egor Chumakov (MD, PhD) is an adult psychiatrist currently holding the position of the head of the day psychiatric clinic in St. Petersburg Mental Health Hospital No 1 named after P.P. Kashchenko. After defending his PhD thesis, he took up the position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction in St Petersburg State University. Egor Chumakov is an active member of international professional organisations. Currently and in the past, he has held positions as chairs, co-chairs, members and secretaries of different committees and working groups of the European Psychiatric Association and World Psychiatric Association. His research interests include cognitive neuroscience in severe mental disorders, first episode of schizophrenia, computational psychiatry, mental health care for minorities, mental health of medical students, and the organisation of mental health care for borderline personality disorder.

Julio Torales is a physician specialised in Clinical Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He holds a master’s degree in Psychopharmacology and a PhD in Research Projects and is the head of the Geopsychiatry Collaborative Centre in Paraguay. His work focusses on teaching, research, and strengthening institutional research capacities, particularly in undergraduate and postgraduate education. He is currently a Full Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology at the School of Medical Sciences of the National University of Asunción (FCM UNA, Paraguay) and Head of the Department of Pediatric Psychiatry.

He has held various academic and administrative roles, including serving as an advisor to the Research Directorate and as an academic coordinator for master’s programs at the Postgraduate Directorate of FCM UNA. He has also worked as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization and has been a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. Additionally, he served as member of the World Psychiatric Association-Lancet Psychiatry Commission on the Future of Psychiatry and The Lancet Neurology Commission on Stroke in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

His research spans multiple areas:

✦ Mental health projects and interventions: Developing and evaluating mental health interventions, creating psychometric tools, and supporting accurate diagnosis.

✦ Public mental health: Designing policies to improve access to mental health services and address social determinants of well-being.

✦ Epidemiology and psychopathology of mental disorders: Studying the prevalence and risk factors of mental disorders in Paraguay.

✦ Psychodermatology: Investigating the relationship between mental health and skin diseases.

✦ Physiotherapy in mental health: Exploring the role of physiotherapy in mental health treatment.

✦ Geopsychiatry: Examining the impact of environmental factors, including climate change, on mental health.

Throughout his career, he has contributed to the development of research policies at FCM UNA and has led initiatives such as the Scientific Research Training School and the Research Mentorship Program at the National University of Caaguazú (Paraguay). His commitment to teaching and research remains a central focus of his work.

Dr. Davendranand Sharma graduated from Amritsar Medical College Punjab India with the Bachelor
of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree and completed his dissertation on substance abuse,
which was done at St Georges Hospital Grenada, for the Doctorate of Medicine from the University
of the West Indies.

Dr. Sharma is currently employed as Psychiatrist to the St. Georges University Health services from
June of 2024.

Previously, Dr. Sharma was Department Chair for the Behavior Science department of Ross University
School of Medicine before moving to the University Health Services as a consultant psychiatrist. After
Hurricane Maria in 2017, Dr. Sharma moved to St. Kitts and Nevis to provide support for students
from Ross University on the cruises hip, the Excellence, before remigrating to Guyana in 2019.

Dr. Sharma is a former consultant to Project Hope Grenada and psychiatrist for the Ministry of Health
Grenada. He was also a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in developing
the National Mental Health plans for several Caribbean countries and also provided training in
Disaster Management throughout the Caribbean for PAHO.

Dr. Sharma is active in clinical presentations, both in the community and for medical professionals.
These include a weekly radio program “Straight Talk” in Dominica and also a weekly radio talk in
Guyana on Brain Health. His current areas of interest include causative factors for suicides and the
effects of climate change on mental health.

Dr. João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia is a doctoral and master’s advisor at the Department of Psychiatry at Faculdade Medicina da USP and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Department of Neuroscience at Centro Universitário FMABC. He was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, supported by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) International Program INVEST Drug Abuse Research Fellowship. Dr. Castaldelli-Maia earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Medical School, University of São Paulo. He is an editorial board member of International Review of Psychiatry, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Global Psychiatry, Current Drug Research Reviews, Revista Paraguaya de Psiquiatria, and Medicina Clinica y Social. His primary focus is research on epidemiology and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. He has published more than 100 indexed articles, being cited more than 1,000 times in the last five years.

Prof. Khalid A. Mufti was in Peshawar Pakistan. He qualified with an MBBS in 1969, received a Diploma in psychological Medicine from England in 1974 and subsequently became a member and fellow of The Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1975 and 1989. He Joined the Provincial Govt. service in Pakistan in 1976 and achieved professor status in 1990. Retired as Principal Khyber Medical College in 2004, where he is currently, honorary adjunct professor.

Dr. Padmavati Ramachandran is currently, Director at the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), a premier mental health NGO in Chennai, India and a Collaborative Centre for Geopsychiatry. Over the past 35 years, Dr. Ramachandran has been involved in several research areas, including phenomenology, epidemiology, mental health stigma, and physical comorbidities in schizophrenia. She is a clinician with a keen interest in a needs-based psychosocial intervention program for persons accessing SCARF Clinical services for treatment and rehabilitation. Dr. Ramachandran is the principal investigator of the Grand Challenges Canada project on Youth friendly Spaces for young adolescents in the juvenile justice system. She is the India site Investigator of the PIECEs study – a cross-country program (India and Pakistan), which aims to improve treatment, mental health and quality of life outcomes for people with psychosis using an app, DIALOG +. She has been the investigator of several research projects, supported by the Indian Medical Council, India. She is a member of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Reference Group on Mental Health (RRG-MH) and the WPA Special Interest Group for Geopsychiatry. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals and has over 80 publications in national and international journals. Over the past 20 years, she has been the organising secretary of the biennial International Conference of Schizophrenia (IConS) held in Chennai India. Dr. Ramachandran was recently awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the Queen Mary University of London and has delivered lectures and plenary talks at various conferences.

Professor Eric Chen is at Center of Youth Mental Health (Orygen) at the University of Melbourne. He was formerly Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Consultant at Nanyang Technical University and Institute of Mental Health in Singapore as well as Chair Professor and Head of Psychiatry at the University of Hong Kong. After receiving medical training at Oxford and Edinburgh, Eric trained in psychiatry in Nottingham and Cambridge. Eric explored the role of brain and cognitive mechanisms such as memory and language processes in psychosis. He and his team (PSI Team) also studied the impacts of early intervention and pharmacological and psychological approaches to psychosis outcomes. He and his team have been studying relapse prevention with randomized controlled studies of first-episode psychosis with long-term follow-up. Eric was a key leader in developing the Early Intervention Services in Hong Kong (EASY Program) and the Asia Pacific region. He also pioneered Youth Mental Health developments in Hong Kong and led the Hong Kong Youth Epidemiological Study (YES) and developed the early intervention program for young people (Levelmind). He received the Richard Wyatt Award from the International Association for Early Intervention in Mental Health (IEPA) and the Honorific Award for Distinguished Service in the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS). Eric founded the Asian Network for Early Psychosis (ANEP). He was the immediate past Chairman of the Asian College of Schizophrenia Research (ACSR). Eric was also a Past President of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists. Eric was a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Medical School (Department of Social Medicine). He has also founded the highly successful Master-degree program in Psychological Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Eric is the author of over 400 articles in academic journals, as well as several books on psychopathology, psychosis, and early intervention in psychiatry

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Liebrenz is an extraordinary professor leading the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Bern. In forensic-psychiatric practice, he has first-hand experience managing the mental health of migrants in deportation detention. Before his tenure at the University of Bern, Prof. Liebrenz directed the Assessment Clinic for Civil and Public Law Issues at the Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Zurich and was a visiting researcher at Columbia University, New York.

Since 2022, Prof. Liebrenz has chaired the Swiss Federal Commission for Quality in Medical Assessment of the Federal Office for Social Insurances and was reappointed by the Federal Council to this position for 2024-2027. Prof. Liebrenz has frequently been invited by the Federal Office of Public Health to represent Switzerland at the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe. He is a member of national and international professional societies and served as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Forensic Science International: Mind and Law.

Prof. Dr. Afzal Javed MBBS, MCPS, D.Psych (Lond), Board Cert.Psych (UK), M.Phil (Edin), FRC Psych. (UK), FRCP (Ireland) is Chairman of the Pakistan Psychiatric Research Center, Fountain House, Lahore (Pakistan) and leads the Geopsychiatry Centre there.

He graduated from King Edward Medical College Lahore, Pakistan and trained at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the University of Edinburgh, and Institute of Psychiatry & Maudsley Hospital London. He completed his term as the President of the World Psychiatric Association in 2023 and his areas of special interest include Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Psychiatric.

In 2022, the president of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi conferred the Pakistani Civil Award (Sitara-i-Imtiaz) to Dr. Javed (the third-highest honour and civilian award in the State of Pakistan) for his Services to Pakistan on the 75th Diamond Jubilee Anniversary of the country.

Mr. Alexander Smith is a researcher in the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Bern and a part-time PhD Survey. Prior to joining the University of Bern, Mr. Smith worked for nine years in academic publishing, acquiring extensive expertise in interprofessional project management and planning. Mr. Smith holds a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Sheffield, exemplifying his interdisciplinary approaches to geopsychiatry and mental health.

Although junior in his academic career, Mr. Smith has published innovative work in geopsychiatry including in prestigious journals, such as The Lancet, The Lancet Psychiatry, and Nature Mental Health.

The International Institute of Geopsychiatry was established in 2025 based on a mandate from the World Psychiatric Association Geopsychiatry Special Interest Group to promote research and education in geopsychiatry, building awareness, collaborations, and forward-thinking approaches.

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