Lena’s research focuses on the intergenerational and gendered consequences of trauma, violence and conflict. As a NIMH T32 pre-doctoral fellow in Mental Health Services Research, Lena aims to combine community-based participatory research and dissemination and implementation science to elucidate cultural models of mental health and care-seeking and inform more contextually grounded systems and interventions that are responsive to historically underserved communities. Her recent interests include the complex role of stigma on mental health and implementation outcomes as well as the role of art in collective healing and justice in the aftermath of mass atrocity.

Lena’s interests are shaped by over a decade of international experience, including Fulbright research on mental health services in Cambodia; an ongoing advisory role with a community-based organization for adolescent girls’ equity and empowerment in Rwanda; and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) research, policy and project coordination for the MHPSS Collaborative, Danish Red Cross, Save the Children Denmark and Save the Children the Netherlands. Lena earned her Master of Arts in International Humanitarian Action from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and a Master of Health Sciences in Public Mental Health from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as Bachelors in Psychology and History from the University of Virginia.