The research team

Professor Ricardo Araya
Professor of Global Mental Health, KCL

Ricardo’s field of expertise is in the development and implementation of simple and affordable interventions to treat mental disorders, particularly in resource-poor settings. He is Director of the Centre of Global Mental Health at King’s College London, and Lead of the Global Mental Health Research Group. His role in CHANCES-6 is to oversee the review updating and synthesis and to advise the team on capacity building, engagement with policymakers and dissemination.

• email • web

Professor Mauricio Avendano Pabon
Professor of Public Policy and Global Health, KCL

Mauricio is an expert in the quasi-experimental evaluation of the consequences of social policies and programmes in terms of both physical and mental health. For CHANCES-6, he advises on methodological strategies to identify the causal effect of (conditional) cash transfers on mental health using survey and registry data, and understanding the nature of poverty reduction programmes in each country.

• email • web

Dr Emily Baron
Senior Researcher, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Emily's research interests at the Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health include maternal mental health, interventions for common mental disorders and longitudinal modelling. Her role in CHANCES-6 is to coordinate the quantitative and qualitative research activities planned in South Africa, as well as co-lead the stakeholder engagement work in South Africa.

• email • web

Annette Bauer
Research Fellow, CPEC

Annette's expertise is in the economic evaluation of mental health and social care interventions. For CHANCES-6, she is leading on impact and dissemination and works with Dave McDaid and A-la Park on economic evaluation.

• email • web 

Dr Yadira Diaz
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of the Andes, Colombia

Yadira’s fields of interest at the Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government are health economics and welfare and poverty measurement. For CHANCES-6, Yadira is involved in the quantitative analysis studying the relationship between poverty and mental health in Colombia and in supporting the impact work.

• email • web

Dr Philipp Hessel 
Associate Professor, University of the Andes, Colombia

Philipp is a demographer and sociologist interested in social determinants of health, mental health, contextual factors of (mental) health, and social policies. As part of the CHANCES-6 project he coordinates the quantitative and qualitative analyses of contributory cash benefits in Colombia and Mexico, as well as coordinating contacts with key stakeholders (with the assistance of the wider team in Bogotá).

• email • web

Dr Sara Evans-Lacko
Associate Professorial Research Fellow, CPEC

Sara leads the CHANCES-6 project. Her expertise is in child and adolescent mental health, with a focus on access to services. Sara is responsible for the overall direction of CHANCES-6 including: the academic agenda, coordination and management of staff and stakeholder groups, and chairing of team meetings. She oversees and contributes to data analysis and synthesis, as well as leading on the dissemination of research findings. 

• email • web

Professor Crick Lund
Professor of Global Mental Health and Development, KCL and University of Cape Town, South Africa

Crick is a world-leading expert in poverty and mental health and in the implementation of mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. For CHANCES-6, he advises on these aspects across countries, supervises the data analyses for South Africa, and contributes to overarching impact activities.

• email • web

Dr Paulo Artur Malvasi
Assistant Professor, Santa Casa de São Paulo Medical Science College, and Researcher, Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning  (CEBRAP)

Paulo Artur is an anthropologist with a particular research interest in youth and adolescence in an urban context. For CHANCES-6, he is responsible for the qualitative data collection and analysis in Brazil.

• web

Dr Alicia Matijasevich
Associate Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil

Her research in the Department of Preventive Medicine is focused on maternal and child health, health inequalities, and life-cycle studies. For CHANCES-6, Alicia is responsible for conducting the quantitative analysis in Brazil and Mexico.

• web

David McDaid
Associate Professorial Research Fellow, CPEC

Dave is an internationally recognised expert in economic aspects of improving mental health services globally with particular expertise in the economic evaluation of mental health and social welfare programmes. For CHANCES-6, Dave is leading the economic evaluation, which involves modelling the costs and benefits of cash transfer programmes and mental health interventions. This evaluation seeks to demonstrate the potential economic case for optimising programmes so that they improve life chances. 

• email • web

Shari Baddan Ortiz Sochandamandou
Research Assistant, University of the Andes, Colombia

Shari is an undergraduate student in government and public affairs at the University of the Andes. She is particularly interested in Latin American studies, having already completed a master’s on this topic in Paris. 

• email

A-la Park
Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, CPEC

A-la is a senior health economist. For CHANCES-6, she is conducting the economic evaluation together with Dave McDaid and Annette Bauer.

• email • web

Dr Cristiane Paula
Associate Professor, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, and Senior Researcher, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil

Cristiane’s research interests and expertise are in mental health services for children and young people. Cristiane has many years of experience in conducting and analysing data from international epidemiological studies. For CHANCES-6, she oversees the data collection and analyses in Brazil, as well as leading stakeholder engagement work.

• web

Juliana Sánchez Ariza
Research Assistant, University of the Andes, Colombia

Juliana is an undergraduate student in economics at the University of the Andes. She is particularly interested in health economics and applied microeconomics. For CHANCES-6, she is involved in the quantitative analysis for Colombia.

• email

Dr Annie Zimmerman
Research Associate, KCL

Annie is an expert is psychology, obesity, and mental health, with a focus on cross-cultural research and longitudinal data analysis. She is part of KCL research groups on Global Health and Social Medicine and on Global Mental Health. Her role in CHANCES-6 is to lead in data harmonisation for datasets from each country and to understand the nature of poverty reduction programmes in each country. 

• email • web