Our team

Who are we?

At the MHPSS Collaborative, our team is the heart of our mission. We are a passionate group of professionals, each with unique expertise, all united by a shared commitment to improving mental health and psychosocial support globally.

Core team

Lead consultants

Advisory board

Core team

Marie Dahl

Director

Marie Dahl

Director

Marie is a dedicated humanitarian professional with over 15 years of experience in crisis response, child protection, and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS). She is passionate about supporting communities in crisis and ensuring children, youth and families receive the care and protection they need.

Throughout her career, Marie has held key leadership roles at Save the Children Denmark and Save the Children International, leading efforts in emergency response, program development, capacity building, and advocacy across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. She has also worked with NGOs in Zambia, Burkina Faso, Palestine, India and the Philippines, gaining hands-on experience in diverse humanitarian contexts.

Marie holds a Master’s in International Humanitarian Action (NOHA), with studies at Uppsala University, University College Dublin, and Columbia University, along with a Bachelor’s in Social Sciences from Sweden. She has also completed advanced training in leadership, migration, and child protection in emergencies.

With a deep commitment to mental health advocacy and building resilient communities, Marie strives to drive meaningful change in humanitarian policy and practice worldwide.

Email:[email protected]

Deepali Pavagadhi

MHPSS and Research Advisor

Deepali Pavagadhi

MHPSS and Research Advisor

Deepali brings MHPSS and research expertise from over a decade of professional experience across non-profit organizations, academia, and the private sector in India, Singapore, the UK, and Denmark. At the Collaborative, she oversees and supports the research portfolio, collaborating closely with national and local partners to design and implement mixed-methods evaluations and advance participatory approaches to MHPSS research. She also works with the communications and advocacy team at the Collaborative to support the dissemination of research and its impact on policy and practice.

Deepali holds an M.Sc. in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King’s College London. Her interests include evidence and action on social and structural factors in mental health, critical scholarship in MHPSS and global mental health, and development of participatory and inclusive approaches for MHPSS research.

Email:[email protected]

Kate Harris, MSc

Senior Portfolio Advisor

Kate Harris, MSc

Senior Portfolio Advisor

Kate brings a combination of experience from the legal, educational, and humanitarian sectors. Her formal education helps to deliver strategic advice to the Director on portfolio management, finances, partnerships and operational decisions for the organisation. Additionally, her experience of providing executive and team support helps her navigate a balance between structure and flexibility required for complex project management.

Kate is motivated to ensure programmes run efficiently to enable MHPSS technical staff to focus their time and expertise to promoting mental health and wellbeing for children, youth, and families.

Email:[email protected]

Louise Juul Hansen

Advocacy and Communications Advisor

Louise Juul Hansen

Advocacy and Communications Advisor

Louise (she/her) is an advocacy and communications specialist with a master’s degree in media studies from the University of Copenhagen.

She has more than 15 years of experience in advocacy, communication and development of learning material in the field of mental health and psychosocial support.

Over the years, she has gained a special expertise in dissemination and communication of large research projects.

Louise strongly believes that the recipe for success for an organisation like ours is a combination of bringing together great expertise to produce results and to be able to communicate those results in the right way to the right people.

In her role, Louise works closely with our technical team and external partners on advocacy and communication. At the MHPSS, Louise advises on advocacy and communications for The Collaborative and its projects. She leads the communications and dissemination work for the REFUGE-ED project.

Email:mailto:[email protected]

Victor Ugo

MHPSS and Youth Engagement Advisor

Victor Ugo

MHPSS and Youth Engagement Advisor

Dr. Victor Ugo is a medical doctor with an MSc in Global Mental Health from King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is the founder of Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI)—one of Africa’s largest youth-led, user-led mental health networks. Over the past decade, he has built grassroots organizations, driven policy change, and led mental health campaigns across multiple contexts. He has also been a leading voice in the global conversation on the wellbeing of young people as well as their meaningful engagement in programming, research, and advocacy. He has developed and advised on digital mental health solutions both in Africa and globally, while also designing, adapting and scaling programs for schools and communities.

Currently, as Senior Technical Advisor at the MHPSS Collaborative, Dr. Ugo provides oversight over the organization’s strategic direction as well as its four priority portfolios. He is deeply committed to the localization and decolonization of global health, and his work emphasizes empowering young people and communities to co-create and lead the development of culturally relevant, community-based mental health and wellbeing solutions that address their needs in their own contexts.

Email:mailto:[email protected]

Lead consultants

Jennifer Flemming, PhD

Research Advisor, Education and ECD

Jennifer Flemming, PhD

Research Advisor, Education and ECD

Dr. Jennifer (Jenn) Flemming is an applied social science researcher focused on education in emergencies and support to children, youth, and families in humanitarian contexts. Jenn holds a PhD in Education Policy, Research, and Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MEd in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For the last decade, Jenn has led research for I/NGOs focused on holistic education programming, MHPSS in EiE, refugee and education policy, and resilience with emphasis on community, youth, and participant led design and methods. At the Collaborative, Jenn currently leads the three-year ‘MHPSS in Action’ research project studying education-based MHPSS programming in Kenya, Colombia, and Greece and serves as advisor for the education and ECD portfolio.

Email:[email protected]

Jura Augustinavicius, PhD

Research Advisor, Climate Change

Jura Augustinavicius, PhD

Research Advisor, Climate Change

Jura Augustinavicius is the Lead Researcher on climate change and MHPSS at the MHPSS Collaborative. She is also an Assistant Professor at the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University and an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Jura’s climate change and mental health work has a strong program implementation and evaluation focus. She regularly provides technical support to governments, NGOs, and UN agencies on mental health and psychosocial support in the context of climate change. Jura supports the MHPSS Collaborative’s climate change and MHPSS portfolio.

Email:[email protected]

Suzan Song, MD, MPH, PhD

Research Advisor, Emerging Challenges

Suzan Song, MD, MPH, PhD

Research Advisor, Emerging Challenges

Suzan Song, MD, MPH, PhD is the Portfolio Lead on Emerging MHPSS Challenges and Strategies at the MHPSS Collaborative. As well, she is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Global Child and Family Mental Health at Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital. For the past two decades, she has focused on clinical care, policy/advocacy and research for children and families of forced migration, armed conflict, torture, trafficking and hostage across the U.S., sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe for various multilateral, governmental, academic, and community organizations. At the Collaborative, Suzan is developing a portfolio to convene actors and develop strategies on addressing emerging MHPSS challenges, anticipatory action and strategic foresight for children and families in humanitarian settings

Email:[email protected]

Advisory board

Sharon Sitania

Co-President Self Love Warrior Indonesia

Sharon Sitania

Co-President Self Love Warrior Indonesia

Sharon Sitania is a 20-year-old youth from Indonesia, she’s passionate in advocating social rights & mental health since the age of 16. Therefore, she’s continuously making movements through Self Love Warrior as the Co-President. She was also one of the UNICEF x AstraZeneca Young Leaders 2021. With this program, she has been a moderator for the INSPIRE Conference 2021 by WHO & UNICEF, Youth Speaker for the Global Mental Health Summit 2022, and one of the panelists for the AEAN-AUSTRALIA Youth Mental Health Fellowship Forum

Olivia Biermann

Health Policy and Systems Researcher, Karolinska Institutet

Olivia Biermann

Health Policy and Systems Researcher, Karolinska Institutet

Olivia Biermann, PhD, is a health policy and systems researcher at Karolinska Institutet and a knowledge translation consultant at the World Health Organization. Her current research focuses on the political economy of adolescent mental health and well-being, and she is co-leading a workstream on the topic as part of the 2023 Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. Previously, Olivia was a Fellow at the Boston University-Rockefeller Foundation Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-making. She also worked as a consultant at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (2014-2017), supporting the Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe. Olivia was named an Emerging Voice for Global Health in 2018.

Ananda Galappatti

Co-director of MHPSS.net

Ananda Galappatti

Co-director of MHPSS.net

Ananda Galappatti is a medical anthropologist and MHPSS practitioner based in Sri Lanka. Over the past 27 years, he has worked to strengthen services for vulnerable children and adults in conflict, disaster, post-war transition and development contexts. He has also been cconcerned with improving practitioner access to knowledge and skills, building collaborative networks and enhancing coherence within thee field of MHPSS in Sri Lanka and globally. Ananda is a co-Director of the global online platform MHPSS.net, and was a co-founder the journal Intervention. Ananda is also a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

Chiamaka P. Ojiako

Innovation Lead, East Midlands Imaging Network/Health Innovation East Midlands

Chiamaka P. Ojiako

Innovation Lead, East Midlands Imaging Network/Health Innovation East Midlands

Amaka is a lawyer and health policy professional with diverse work experience in the public, nonprofit and international development sectors. Her work is at the intersection of law, research, policy, and innovation, with a focus on health system governance and fostering health equity. She has published opinion pieces and articles on several global health topics with BMJ Global Health, PLOS Global Public Health etc. and hosts the Global Health Law and Policy Dialogue (GHLPd) platform on LinkedIn. Currently, she is working in the public sector to drive digital transformation for health and health data governance for research and innovation.

Alessandro Massazza

Policy & Advocacy Advisor, United for Global Mental Health

Alessandro Massazza

Policy & Advocacy Advisor, United for Global Mental Health

Alessandro Massazza completed his PhD in clinical psychology at University College London and worked as a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In his academic career, he specialised in the development and evaluation of mental health and psychosocial support interventions in settings affected by adversity such as disasters and armed conflict. After working at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at the World Health Organization on mental health in humanitarian settings, he transitioned to the Wellcome Trust where he was the focal point for work on climate change and mental health. He is now a Policy and Advocacy Advisor at United for Global Mental Health where he leads on their environment and climate change strategy.

Lorraine Sherr MBE

Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute for Global Health, University College London, UK

Lorraine Sherr MBE

Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute for Global Health, University College London, UK

Prof Lorraine Sherr is a Clinical Psychologist based at UCL London. She has a wide range of national and international research. She is the editor of three international journals (AIDSCare, Psychology Health and Medicine and Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies). She has been the co-director of the UKRI hub to accelerate achievements for African adolescents (jointly with Prof Lucie Cluver- PI - and Prof Chris Desmond). She has provided research, insight and leadership contributions to a wide range of organisations including UNICEF, PEPFAR/USAID,AIDStar, NORAD/SIDA, World Bank, Save the Children to name a few. She has served on the board of REPSSI (the regional psychosocial support programme providing services to 13 Sub Saharan African Countries) as well as a founding member of the Coalition on Children Affected by AIDS, WHO STAC, a member of the Global Reference group on Children orphaned by COVID, The Global Reference Group for Children in Crisis, and provided academic input for groups such as the Firelight Foundation, The Bernard Van Leer Foundation, World Vision, Help Age. She was a member of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS as well as the Joint Learning Initiative for Know Violence. She has over 300 publications in peer reviewed journals, contributed to over 40 books and has carried out research on children and families globally. She was awarded an MBE in the UK Honours for work with vulnerable children and families.

Marta Petagna

MHPSS Advisor for Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe – Save the Children

Marta Petagna

MHPSS Advisor for Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe – Save the Children

Marta Petagna (MA, MSc) is a Global Advisor on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Save the Children, with a portfolio including the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Marta has over 25 years’ experience in MHPSS and multisectorial programming in humanitarian and development settings; prior to joining Save the Children in 2020, Marta covered roles as Director of Programmes for Medical Aid for Palestinians, and Programme Specialist/Head of Section for UNICEF among others. She has lived and worked in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Albania, and Ethiopia, with shorter deployments in Iraq and Yemen. Since 2021, Marta has served as Save the Children’s Technical Lead on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Diploma in Humanitarian Settings in MENA – an initiative designed and run in partnership with the American University of Beirut, with funding from the International Labour Organisation within the frame of the PROSPECTS Partnership/ Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Marta holds an MSc Degree in Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Psychological Practice from the University of Edinburgh, as well as a Master’s degree in Development Practice from Stoa’ Business School/Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli.