Scientific Advisory Council

Science and evidence-based action is essential to achieving our mission. Therefore, we ground our work in the latest research, which we evaluate for effectiveness then share with confidence. An integral component of this is BC2M’s Scientific Advisory Council, which is comprised of an acclaimed team of experts in the fields of stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

Margarita Alegría, Ph.D.

Chief, Disparities Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital

Margarita Alegría, Ph.D.

Margarita Alegría, PhD, is the Chief of the newly formed Disparities Research Unit, part of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Medicine, and a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegría has dedicated her career to generating knowledge that can be used to increase equity in behavioral health outcomes for disadvantaged and minority populations. Her research has integrated three methods: a multidisciplinary approach to research; a multi-level framework which gives necessary consideration to environmental and social context, the individual and family system; and a strong focus on which aspects of culture and context need to be addressed to improve health, as well as service delivery to disadvantaged populations. Dr. Alegría is currently the Principal and co-Principal Investigator (PI) of two National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research studies: “International Latino Research Partnership”; and “Effects of Social Context, Culture and Minority Status on Depression and Anxiety.” She is a PI of a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) project, “Effectiveness of DECIDE in Patient-Provider Communication, Therapeutic Alliance & Care Continuation.”

Dr. Alegría has published extensively in the behavioral science field with over 200 papers, editorials, intervention training manuals, and several book chapters on topics such as improvement of health care services delivery for diverse racial and ethnic populations, conceptual and methodological issues with multicultural populations, and ways to bring the community’s perspective into the design and implementation of health services. She has presented at numerous international and local conferences, workshops, and panels; and is an active committee member of several national organizations including Institute of Medicine, National Hispanic Science Network, and Center for Health Policy Development. Dr. Alegría mentors many minority junior investigators and researchers from mentoring programs at Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, Harvard University, and Harvard School of Public Health.

As an acknowledgement of her contributions and dedication to her field, Dr. Alegría has been widely recognized and cited. In 2003, she was awarded the Mental Health Section Award of American Public Health Association; the Health Disparities Innovation Award from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities, 2008; the Carl Taube Award from APHA, 2008; the Simon Bolivar Award from the American Psychiatric Association, 2009; Harold Amos Award from the Harvard Medical School, 2011, and the Award of Excellence from the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse, 2011. In October 2011, she was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Alegría received the Frances J. Bonner Award in 2012, from the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, which was awarded for meritorious service in the mental health field for the ethnic and racial minority community. In 2013, Dr. Alegría was named to the 8^th annual Powermeter 100, 2012-2013 by El Planeta (Massachusetts’s largest circulating Spanish-language newspaper) as one of the 100 most influential people for the Hispanic community in Massachusetts.
Patrick Corrigan, Psy.D.

College of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology

Patrick Corrigan, Psy.D.

Patrick Corrigan is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to that, Corrigan was Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Director of the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at the University of Chicago. Corrigan is a licensed clinical psychologist setting up and providing services for people with serious mental illnesses and their families for more than 30 years. Corrigan has been principal investigator of federally funded studies on rehabilitation and consumer operated services. Twelve years ago, he became principal investigator of the Chicago Consortium for Stigma Research, the only NIMH-funded research center examining the stigma of mental illness. The Chicago Consortium evolved into the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment (NCSE) also supported by NIMH. Central to NCSE is the Center on Adherence and Self-Determination (CASD) supported as a developing center in services research by NIMH. Located at IIT, CASD includes co-principal investigators from Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple and Rutgers. One recent study supported by NIAAA, NIMH, and The Fogarty Center examined the stigma of mental illness endorsed by employers in Beijing, Chicago, and Hong Kong. In 2013, Corrigan took the helm of an NIH-funded grant on peer navigators meant to enhance integrated care experiences for African Americans with mental illness who are homeless. In 2014, Corrigan received a grant from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute to establish a peer navigator program to facilitate engagement with integrated care for Latinos with mental illness. Corrigan is a prolific researcher having authored or edited twelve books and more than 300 papers. He is editor of the American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
Dr. Sara Evans-Lacko

Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre
Lynn E. Fiellin, M.D.

Professor of Medicine (General Medicine), Yale Child Study Center, and Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D.

David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at the UCSF, and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape at UCSF. Dr. Gazzaley is co- founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, Sensync and JAZZ Venture Partners
Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, Ph.D.

John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, Ph.D.

Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, PhD, is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Psychology at Harvard. He was previously an Associate Professor (with tenure) and Deputy Chair for Faculty Development and Research Strategy in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia. Dr. Hatzenbuehler received his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale and completed his post-doctoral training in population health at Columbia, where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar. Dr. Hatzenbuehler’s work examines the role of stigma in shaping population health inequalities, with a particular focus on the mental health consequences of structural forms of stigma. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and through the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program. He has received several early career and distinguished contribution awards from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. In 2020, he was one of only 200 social scientists named to the prestigious Highly Cited Researcher List by Clarivate Analytics in recognition of his research influence, as demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. Dr. Hatzenbuehler is an elected fellow of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the premier honorary organization for scientists working at the interface of behavior and medicine, and he has been appointed to serve on two consensus committees at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Sara Hickmann, Ph.D.

Clinical and Performance Psychologist, Behavioral Health / Human Performance Program, Naval Special Warfare Group ONE

Sara Hickmann, Ph.D.

Dr. Sara Hickmann is currently a Clinical and Performance Psychologist
for the Behavioral Health / Human Performance Program of Naval Special Warfare Group ONE. Previously, Dr. Hickmann served as a Clinical Counselor for the Fleet and Family Support Center at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, CA where she provided clinical support services to service members and their family members, including members of the Navy SEALS. Prior to this, Dr. Hickmann was the Clinical and Sport Psychologist on the medical staff of the New York Jets Football (2009-2014) and the Brooklyn Nets Basketball Team (2010-2014). In addition to her work with the teams, Dr. Hickmann had a private practice with offices in New York City and Morristown, New Jersey. She remains affiliated with Atlantic Sports Health, a division of Morristown Memorial Hospital. She was also a member of the Behavioral Health Team for LaPalestra, The Center for Preventative Medicine in New York City.

Dr. Hickmann served as the Director of Player Assistance Services in the Player Development Department at the National Football League from 2004-2009. In this role, she coordinated a number of their core programs, including Continuing Education, Life Skills, Internships, Financial Education, Players Assistance, and the player evaluations for the Personal Conduct Policy. Dr. Hickmann received her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, her M.A. in Sport Psychology from San Diego State, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital and is currently a licensed clinical psychologist in the states of New York and New Jersey.

Dr. Hickmann worked in college athletics for approximately 15 years: she was the academic advisor for the football team at San Diego State University, was a Health Educator in the Athletics Department at the University of Virginia, and coordinated the academic program for the Athletics Department at the University of San Diego. Dr. Hickmann’s doctoral dissertation was entitled, “Impulsivity as Predictor of Athletic Success and Negative Consequences in NFL Football Players.”
Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D.

Liaison, Board of Directors
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

Stephen Hinshaw, Ph.D.

Stephen Hinshaw is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Department Chair from 2004-2011, and is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Francisco. He received his B.A. from Harvard (1974, summa cum laude), and his doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA (1983). After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Langley Porter Institute (UCSF), he joined the Berkeley faculty. His work focuses on developmental psychopathology: peer and family relationships, neuropsychological risk factors, pharmacologic and psychological interventions for children with ADHD, assessment and evaluation, conceptual and definitional issues, mental health problems in teenage girls, the stigmatization of mental illness, and international training efforts. He has directed summer research camps and conducted longitudinal studies for boys and (more recently) for girls with ADHD and related disorders, having received over $14 million in NIH funding. Hinshaw has authored over 225 articles, chapters, and reviews plus 7 books, including The Mark of Shame: Stigma of Mental Illness and an Agenda for Change (Oxford University Press, 2007), and The Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures (Random House, 2009). Two more books are in preparation (ADHD and public policy; a memoir of growing up in a home with severe mental illness). He is editor of Psychological Bulletin, the most cited journal in the field of general psychology, and is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution in Psychology Award from the California State Psychological Association (2009) and the Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Letters and Sciences, UC Berkeley (2001). His 24-lecture series for the Teaching Company, entitled “Origins of the Human Mind,” was released in 2010.
Bernice Pescosolido, Ph.D.

Chair, Scientific Advisory Council
Director, Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research, Indiana University

Bernice Pescosolido, Ph.D.

Bernice A. Pescosolido is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Indiana University and Director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research. She has focused her research and teaching on social issues in health, illness, and healing. More specifically, Pescosolido’s research agenda addresses how social networks connect individuals to their communities and to institutional structures, providing the “wires” through which people’s attitudes and actions are influenced. This agenda encompasses three basic areas: health care services, stigma, and suicide research. In the area of stigma research, Pescosolido has led a team of researchers on a series of national and international stigma studies including the first U.S national study in 40 years, the first national study of children’s mental health, and the first global study of 16 countries representing all six inhabited continents. As a result, she and her colleagues developed a model on the underlying roots of stigma, designed to provide a scientific foundation for new efforts to alter this basic barrier to care. Pescosolido has received numerous career, scientific, and community awards from the NIH, the ASA, the APHA, and Mental Health America, and in 2011 was the recipient of the prestigious Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from Yale University. She works closely with mental health advocacy organizations such as Bring Change 2 Mind and the Carter Center to use research to foster public awareness and improve public policy and decision-making regarding these devastating illnesses.
Drew Ramsey, M.D.

Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University

Drew Ramsey, M.D.

Drew Ramsey, MD is a leading innovator in mental health, combining clinical excellence, nutritional interventions and creative media. He is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and in active clinical practice in New York City.

His work and writing has been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Lancet Psychiatry, and NPR, which named him a “kale evangelist.”, the Today Show, BBC and TEDx. He is the author of 3 books, Eat Complete: The 21 Nutrients that Fuel Brain Power, Boost Weight Loss and Transform Your Health, 50 Shades of Kale, and The Happiness Diet. His e-course, Eat To Beat Depression, helps people maximize their brain health with every bite.

He splits his time between New York City and rural Indiana where he lives with his wife, children and parents on his 127 acre organic farm.
Elyn Saks, J.D., Ph.D.

University of Southern California Gould School of Law

Elyn Saks, J.D., Ph.D.

Elyn R. Saks is Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law; Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; and Faculty at the New Center for Psychoanalysis. Professor Saks received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University, where she was class Valedictorian; an M.Litt. in philosophy from Oxford University, where she was on a Marshall Scholarship; a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an editor on the Yale Law Journal; and a Ph.D in Psychoanalytic Science from the New Center for Psychoanalysis, where she was awarded the Jaque Brien Prize. Saks was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree (LL.D., Hon.) from Pepperdine University.

Saks writes extensively in the area of law and mental health, having published five books and more than forty articles and book chapters. For example, she has published on multiple personality disorder and criminal law (Jekyll on Trial, with Stephen Behnke, NYU Press); and on refusal of care in psychiatry (Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill, University of Chicago Press). Current projects include empirical studies on high functioning people with schizophrenia.

Saks’ most recent book, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (Hyperion, 2007), is a departure from her academic writing. Her memoir describes her struggles with schizophrenia and her managing to craft a good life for herself in the face of a dire prognosis. Saks’ memoir has won numerous honors, including New York Times Extended Best Sellers List, Time Magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of the Year Award, and Books for a Better Life Inspirational Memoir Award.

Saks is also a 2009 recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship (the so-called “Genius Grant”).

Indeed, Saks has taken part of that grant to found the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at USC, a think tank that studies issues at the intersection of law, mental health, and ethics. On her board she has many prominent people, including Glenn Close, Oliver Sacks, Kitty Dukakis, Nobel Laureate Eric Kandell, and psychiatry professor and consumer, Kay Jamison. The Institute is a research institute that Saks hopes will become the go-to place for policy makers facing hard decisions in mental health law.
David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, The Satcher Health Leadership Institute

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.

David Satcher, MD, PhD is Director of The Satcher Health Leadership Institute which was established in 2006 at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Satcher was sworn in as the 16^th Surgeon General of the United States in 1998. His tenure of public service also includes serving as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He was the first person to have served as Director of the CDC and then Surgeon General of the United States. Dr. Satcher has held top leadership positions at the Charles R. Drew University for Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, and the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Georg Schomerus, M.D.

Full Professor of Psychiatry at University of Leipzig, Germany, and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at University of Leipzig Medical Center
Lloyd Sederer, M.D.

School of Public Health, Columbia University

Lloyd Sederer, M.D.

Lloyd I. Sederer, MD, is Adjunct Professor at the Columbia School of Public Health; Chief Medical Officer for the NYS Office of Mental Health, the nation’s largest state mental health agency; and Contributing Writer for Psychology Today, the NY Journal of Books & the NY Daily News, among other publications. He was Medical Editor for Mental Health for the HuffPost, where over 250 of his posts were published. He has served as Mental Health commissioner for NYC; Medical Director/EVP for McLean Hospital, a Harvard teaching facility; and as Director of Clinical Services for the American Psychiatric Association. He has written hundreds of articles on mental health, the addictions and book, film, TV and theatre reviews, and has published a dozen books.

Dr. Sederer is the 2019 recipient of the Doctor of the Year award from The National Council on Behavioral Health. His new book is The Addiction Solution: Treating Our Dependence on Opioids and Other Drugs (Scribner, 2018).
Ruth Shim, MD, MPH (she/her)

Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Associate Dean of Diverse and Inclusive Education. University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Heather Stuart, Ph.D.

Bell Canada Chair in Mental Health and Anti-Stigma Research, Queen’s University, Ontario

Heather Stuart, Ph.D.

Heather Stuart, MA (Sociology, University of Western Ontario), PhD (Epidemiology, University of Calgary) is a Full Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the holder of the Bell Canada Chair in Mental Health and Anti-stigma Research at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Stuart is cross appointed to the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s. Dr. Stuart is also the Senior Consultant to the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Opening Minds, Anti-stigma initiative and the Chair of the World Psychiatric Association’s Stigma and Mental Health Scientific Section. Dr. Stuart’s research program focuses on mental health services research with a specific focus on the destigmatization of mental illnesses. She has contributed to the peer reviewed scientific literature in the areas of mental health needs assessments; suicide and suicide prevention; stigma and stigma reduction; and workplace mental health and is the co-author of several books. Her most recent books deal with anti-stigma programming and human rights legislation.
Dr. Lawrence Yang

Vice Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at NYU- School of Global Public Health