Margarita Alegria | Nicholas Carson | Chih-nan Chen | Benjamin Cook |  Tara Earl | Marta Gonçalves | Julia Lin | Linda Marc | Norah Mulvaney-Day

Margarita Alegria, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research and a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegria researches mental health services for Latinos and other ethnic populations. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the Advanced Center for Mental Health Disparities, and the Latino arm of the National Latino and Asian American Study, as well as the Co-Principal Investigator of the CHA-UPR Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (EXPORT) Center. Her published works focus on mental health services research, conceptual and methodological issues with minority populations, risk behaviors, and disparities in service delivery. Dr. Alegria received her Ph.D. from Temple University.
Email: malegria@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8447

Nicholas Carson MD, FRCPC is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Research Associate at the CMMHR. He is also a staff child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Cambridge Health Alliance. Dr. Carson’s research aims to improve mental health services for multicultural communities. He has studied the quality of mental health services for Haitian, African American, and White youth and how physical symptoms matter for adult patients and clinicians during mental health intakes. He is also interested in the impact of mass media and technology on youth development. Dr. Carson received his M.D. from McGill University and did his psychiatric training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School.
Email: ncarson@charesearch.org Phone: 617-575-5269

Chih-nan Chen, Ph.D. is a Research Analyst at the Center. He received a Master of Economics from National Taiwan University in 1999, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at Boston University. Dr. Chen´s fields of research include Bayesian data analysis and multiple imputation.
Email: cchen@charesearch.org Phone:617-503-8476

Benjamin Cook, Ph.D., M.P.H.is a Research Fellow at the CMMHR and an instructor at the Harvard Medical School. His research interests are in improving methods for measuring disparities, and applying these methods to understanding the mechanisms underlying mental health and substance abuse treatment disparities, the association between acculturation and mental health, and geographic differences in mental health service use disparities. He received a Ph.D. in Health Policy at Harvard University concentrating in Evaluative Science and Statistics, a MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill in the department of Health Behavior and Health Education, and a BA in psychology from Swarthmore College.
Email: bcook@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8449

Recent Publications

Cook, B., Manning W.G., (2009) Measuring Racial/Ethnic Disparities across the Distribution of Health Care Expenditures. Health Services Research. 2009 Jul 27. [Epub ahead of print]

Cook B, McGuire TG, Zuvekas S, (2009)Measuring Trends in Racial/Ethnic Health Care Disparities. Medical Care Research and Review 2009; 66:23-48.

More publications by Benjamin Cook

Tara Earl, Ph.D. is a Research Associate with the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research and a Post Doctoral Fellow in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has an interest in examining the effects of race and ethnicity on mental health service utilization and accessibility. Currently, Dr. Earl is examining the diagnostic and assessment process for persons of African and Caribbean descent through the Advanced Center for Mental Health Disparities. Her research background includes work relating to sibling caregiving practices, public managed care systems, and disparities in mental health treatment. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from The University of Texas at Austin.
Email: tearl@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8483

Marta Gonçalves, Ph.D., is a Post Doc Research Fellow at the CMMHR. Her research interests are in cross-cultural differences and disparities in mental health service access, use and quality. She received a Ph.D. in Psychology at Zurich University (Switzerland) and Freiburg/Ludwigsburg Universities (Germany) and a MA in Psychology from Oporto University (Portugal). Dr. Goncalves worked also as a Psychotherapist and Intercultural Consultant for expatriates and diplomats in other European countries like Belgium and Poland.
Email: mgoncalves@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8424

Recent Publications

Gonçalves, M. (2009). Der Zugang von Migrantenkindern zur psychischen Gesundheitsversorgung. Eine Untersuchung mit portugiesisch-sprachigen Familien im multikulturellen Umfeld der Schweiz. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovac.

Kappler, C., Gonçalves, M., Borges, M. & Koller, S.H. (2008). Os direitos da criança – O que sabem os profissonais que trabalham com crianças e adolescentes?. In: F. J. Penna & V. G. Haase (Eds.), Aspectos biopsicossocias da saúde na infância e adolescência (p. 589-600). Belo Horizonte: Coopmed.

Käppler, C., Mohler-Kuo, M., Gonçalves, M., Gianella, D., Peng, A., Zehner, S., Anastasi, B., & Nussbaumer, D. (2006). Psychische Gesundheit und Zugang zu Professioneller Hilfe: Wie denken Kinder, Jugendliche und ihre Eltern?. Themenheft des NFP52: Antisoziales Verhalten bei Kindern, psychosoziale Risiken von Jugendlichen: Was bringt Prävention und Beratung?, 18-21.

Gianella, D., Gonçalves, M., Höfler, S., Inglin, S., Borges, M. Käppler, C., Mohler, B. (2005). Access to Mental Health Care in Children: The AMHC – Study. Concepts of Mental Health and Perception of Services from the Perspective of Children, Adolescents and their Families. In: S. Rubinelli & J. Haes (Hrsg.), Tailoring Health Messages. Bridging the Gap Between Social and Humanistic Perspectives on Health Communication, 95-100.

More publications by Marta Gonçalves

Julia Lin, Ph.D., is the Research Statistician of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research. Her research interests are causal models and mental disorders. She completed her Ph.D. in Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania where she was an NIMH pre-doctoral trainee. In her dissertation work she developed Bayesian hierarchical latent class models for looking at the effects of intervention on outcomes accounting for subject non-adherence to treatment randomization in longitudinal studies using the principal stratification framework.
Email: Jlin@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8474

Linda Marc, Sc.D., M.P.H., M.S.is a Senior Scientist with the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research. She concurrently holds a faculty appointment as anAssistant Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, at Columbia University; and an appointment as a Lecturer in Public Health Practice at Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Marc’s work focuses on ethnic group differences in mental health and HIV/AIDS health outcomes. Her primary research aims are to identify psychological and behavioral factors that impact HIV treatment outcomes. She has worked on antiretroviral clinical trials which examine psychosocial factors that influence adherence, immune functioning and virological response to treatment (e.g., depression, socioeconomic position, stressors). She is interested in expanding her work to resource-poor settings to apply a biopsychosocial model to HIV/AIDS outcomes. Dr. Marc received an MS in Health and Social Behavior, and doctorate of science (ScD) in Social Epidemiology, both from the Harvard School of Public Health. She also holds an MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale School of Public Health; and BA in Psychology from St. John’s University in New York. In 2007 she was selected to serve on the US Census Bureau, Race and Ethnicity Advisory Committee and presides as Vice-Chair of the African-American Committee.
Email: lmarc@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8485

Norah Mulvaney-Day, Ph.D., a Research Associate at the Center, is a mental health services researcher and social policy analyst. She has a background in community-based research, participatory research and health care systems analysis. Her research at the Center has included pilot testing a cultural competency assessment tool at different levels of the hospital system, and a participatory systems enhancement project to improve special education services for disruptive children in a public school setting. She received her Ph.D. in mental health policy from Brandeis University.
Email: nmulvaney-day@charesearch.org Phone: 617-503-8448