Theresa Stichick Betancourt, ScD, MA, Assistant Professor of Child Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health

Theresa Stichick Betancourt, ScD, MA, Assistant Professor of Child Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health Dr. Theresa Stichick Betancourt, Sc.D., M.A. is Assistant Professor of Child Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). She is a member of the faculty in the Department of Population and International Health and of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights where she directs the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). Her central research interests are the psychosocial consequences of concentrated adversity on children and families, including complex humanitarian emergencies and children affected by HIV/AIDS; resilience and protective processes in child development; child health and human rights; and applied cross-cultural mental health research. Her recent work includes a study of the psychosocial dimensions of an emergency education program serving internally-displaced Chechen youth, a randomized-controlled trial of interventions to treat locally described depression symptoms in children displaced by war in northern Uganda, and a longitudinal study of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Dr. Betancourt is currently collaborating with Partners in Health Rwanda to launch a mixed-methods study of mental health needs among HIV/AIDS affected youth. This research is expected to culminate in a trial of adapted mental health interventions. She is also working with colleagues at the JFK School of Government to develop a policy initiative designed to improve child welfare and social services for war-affected youth in Sierra Leone. Dr. Betancourt graduated summa cum laude in psychology from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon and holds a Master in Art Therapy from the University of Louisville. She completed her doctoral work in Maternal and Child Health with concentrations in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.