Gloria Pedersen , DrPH, MSc

Research Fellow in Global Health and Social Medicine

Gloria A. Pedersen, DrPH, MSc is dedicated to using collaborative efforts for identifying, implementing, and testing methods for strengthening the quality and safety of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) delivery within task-sharing and pre-service programming, primarily in lower-resourced and humanitarian settings. She is a specialist in competency-based assessment, training, and supervision strategies that leverage digital tools to enhance the competency of healthcare and other service workforces and overall safety of program delivery within non-profit, academic, and governmental programming. At the forefront of transformative initiatives, Gloria co-led the development and launch of the global and freely available digital resource platform, Ensuring Quality in Psychological Support (EQUIP), in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. Some accomplishments from this work included the creation, testing and dissemination of 11 competency assessment tools and related resources, 14 e-learning modules, and a manualized curriculum for trainers and supervisors to teach foundational helping competencies. A seasoned trainer and facilitator, Gloria has conducted over 30 trainings and workshops worldwide, fostering collaboration and empowering stakeholders across continents. With a decade-long dedication to child and adolescent mental health, her contributions range from informing policy on youth criminalization in the USA to identifying effective interventions impacting mental health outcomes globally. She holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from George Washington University and a Masters in Global Mental Health from Kings College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Currently, she serves as a Research Fellow at the Mental Health For All Lab, collaborating with teams on the ESSENCE project and on a newly funded R01 leveraging a digital platform to support the uptake and integration of a psychosocial rehabilitation intervention for people experiencing schizophrenia. Additionally, Gloria provides research and implementation consultation services, and is currently supporting the NGO Health Professionals 4 Tigray (HPN4Tigray) with survivor justice informed MHPSS implementation during the ongoing humanitarian crises in Northern Ethiopia. She is also a member of the Women in Global Mental Health (WiGH) steering committee. (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3427-3464)