MANASI KUMAR

Institute for Excellence in Health Equity . New York University Grossman School of Medicine 

Manasi Kumar is a research professor at the Institute of Excellence in Global Health Equity in New York University Grossman School of Medicine, US. She is an Affiliate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi and Affiliate Associate Professor at Department of Psychology, University College London. She is PI/MPI on 2 US NIH grants, PI on 1 UK NIHR and Co-Investigator on current 4 NIH grants. The focus of her work is on mental health policy and system strengthening for vulnerable and marginalized populations like perinatal adolescents, children and youth living with physical and neurodevelopmental disabilities, exposed to FGM/C and HIV. She has wide experience in delivering training programs for improved health services in LMICs focusing on child and adolescent mental health, human rights and interventions mitigating adverse childhood and community experiences. Alongside this, for the last 15 years her focus has been on strengthening teaching of mental and behavioral sciences in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programs in various East African and South Asian geographies. The focus on medical educational programs has been addressing disparities in health and educational systems in lower- and middle-income countries with a focus on building mental health responsive strategies and initiatives. More recently with her colleagues she is building a pipeline of work around transforming school mental health services through digital service integration and addressing political and environmental determinants of adolescent mental health.