Working in human rights was my first professional passion, and it has continued to be a large part of my life and identity. I am a member of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and work in their Asylum network, where I evaluate the mental health of torture and persecution survivors seeking asylum. I am also clinical faculty at the Mt. Sinai Human Rights clinic where I do asylum work and teach human rights and international mental health to medical students and psychiatry residents. I am also part of the Global Psychosocial Network supporting healthcare, psychosocial, and humanitarian workers in regions of distress.

In addition, I am a consultant on refugee mental health and have regularly conducted trauma-specific trainings on the Burma border as well as inside Burma, including to Burma Border Projects on the Thai-Burma border, where I supervised (via Skype) the adult director of mental health at a large refugee clinic for many years. The chapter I wrote in this book describes my work there.

I am also a member of the 9-11 Trauma Commission therapist network, APA Disaster Relief Network, NY State Psychological Association Disaster/Crisis Response Network, the International Red Cross Disaster Team, Women’s Mental Health Consortium, and the NYC Medical Reserve Corps. My past human rights jobs have been at the UN, the International Center for Peace and Democracy Training (Tel Aviv), and Defense for Children International (Jerusalem) where I focused on issues related to children’s rights, torture, and refugee mental health, including writing this report.

I am also a signatory and contributor to this document.