Faculty

The PRIIIA team consists of members from around the world with the goal of inspiring, guiding, and mentoring young leaders to pursue mental health research.

University of Pittsburgh Principal Investigators

Vishwajit Nimgaonkar, MD, PhD

Dr. Nimgaonkar is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (PITT), a neuroscientist with additional training in human genetics research and board certified as a psychiatrist. Dr Nimgaonkar has over 25 years of experience researching interventions for psychotic disorders like schizophrenia (SZ) in the U.S. and internationally, with a particular interest in its associated cognitive dysfunction. His research group has expertise in clinical and laboratory research, his laboratories are fully equipped for human molecular genetics, cell culture and molecular biological research, with requisite analytic and bioinformatics support through collaborations. He has conceived and nurtured collaborative research in India for over 30 years, enabling him to establish lasting relationships with Indian collaborators. He has published over 230 peer reviewed publications with his research continuously funded for the past 25 years by the National Institutes of Health. To serve the research community, he assists several international academic societies. He has reviewed grants for over 12 NIH CSR study sections and SEPs and for Canadian, UK and Indian agencies.

Weblinks:

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/vishwajit-l-nimgaonkar-md-phd

https://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn4/People/Pitt/nimgaonkar.asp

Mary Hawk, DrPH, LSW, Professor and Chair, Faculty in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences and Infectious Diseases and Microbiology

Dr. Hawk is a Professor of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hawk has worked in applied intervention or research settings for more than 20 years, primarily in program development, implementation, and evaluation. She is the Co-Director of the Evaluation Institute for Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She is the Principal Investigator of an NIMH-funded study that explores the impact of a financial management intervention (representative payee) on antiretroviral treatment HIV adherence among unstably housed people living with HIV/AIDS and has served on AHRQ special emphasis panels to evaluate research training proposals.

Her other research foci include implementation and assessment of structural interventions to improve population level health outcomes, including of those with problematic substance use and substance use disorders; program evaluation to enhance service delivery in health and public health settings; and the development of community-engaged approaches to optimize public health.

https://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/directory/mary-hawk

India Principal Investigator

Smita Deshpande, MD, DPM

Dr. Deshpande is Professor of Psychiatry (Research), at St John’s Medical College, St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru. She was the Professor and Head of Dept. of Psychiatry, Centre of Excellence in Mental Health, ABVIMS-DR RML Hospital, New Delhi from July 2004 to September 2018. Beginning with systems research in 1988, she led over 36 research projects in autism, schizophrenia genetics, clinical trials, psychosocial aspects of mental health, disability and rehabilitation, tobacco cessation, de-addiction, yoga for cognitive enhancement in schizophrenia and Implementation research for agencies such as the NIH, WHO, ICMR, DST and DBT, with more than 350 publications in national and international journals and innumerable presentations. She has been continuously funded by research grants from the NIH since 1997. Since 2004, she led successful Training Grants funded by the Fogarty International Centre, NIH, USA. From 2016- 2024, she led Grantathon project collaborations between the FIC Training Grants and the Indian Council of Medical Research, coordinating a 12-site consortium in India concerned with psychiatric implementation research. Since 2022, she is coordinating a second ICMR collaboration (Grantathon 2022) involving 10 projects and 18 sites.

On Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CeLHjyMAAAAJ&hl=en

➢ On ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Smita_Deshpande4

➢ On ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7770-9657

Program Faculty

We have enlisted faculty from multiple disciplines relevant to our training goals to provide individualized mentorship to our trainees. If a faculty member with the necessary skillset is not available from within our faculty, we will seek other colleagues. In our experience, it has been relatively easy to match trainees with mentors with shared research interests. In the following list of 38 training faculty, six (16%) are graduates of our prior training grants, indicated below with an asterisk. The areas of expertise incorporate intervention development, implementation science, neurology, statistics, bioinformatics, ethics, health policy, and other psychiatric specialties. Among the faculty, 13 (34%) are based in India.

Beniwal, Ram Pratap, MD.

Dr. Beniwal is a Consultant Psychiatrist of Psychiatry at RML and a Professor of Psychiatry at GGSIPU. He has extensive experience in the clinical management of psychoses. He is an active mentor in the psychiatric residency training program at RML.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6762-3702

Triptish Bhatia, PhD

PhD. Expertise: cognitive function and interventions for SMI. Dr. Bhatia is a psychologist who has been with Dr. Deshpande’s research group since 1995, having completed training as part of our prior FIC training program. As a senior scientist and faculty member with this program, after psychiatric genetics research, she is now researching cognitive function in schizophrenia. She was awarded a 5-year NIH GRIP grant to advance yoga therapy for cognitive enhancement in SZ. She mentored several trainees on our current training grant. She will provide advice to trainees in these aspects, logistical issues related to clinical research and interact with trainees after they complete their training.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Triptish-Bhatia

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0544-9707

Birmaher, Boris, MD. Expertise: epidemiology of childhood psychiatric disorders. Dr. Birmaher is a Professor of Psychiatry at Pitt. Dr. Birmaher is a well-known researcher in pharmacological and biological studies of children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. He has collaborated with MPI Nimgaonkar and has served on our prior D43 grants. Dr. Birmaher and Dr. Nimgaonkar have co-supervised a prior Egyptian trainee psychiatrist. At Pitt, Dr. Birmaher supervises overseas child psychiatry fellows.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/boris-birmaher-md

Brar, Jaspreet, MD, PhD, Expertise: epidemiology research designs, biostatistics and treatment and clinical trials, mentoring: Dr. Jaspreet Brar is a Senior Fellow and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. His research involves medical co-morbidities and metabolic antecedents of insulin resistance in patients with severe mental illnesses. He led many clinical trials as a consultant for research/design methodology and statistical analysis for both behavioral and pharmacological interventions in mental illness. He has designed research related curricula for medical students.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jaspreet-Brar-5

Brent, David, MD. Expertise: research and training in suicide risk assessment, research into childhood psychiatric disorders: Dr. Brent is Academic Chief, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; Endowed Professor of Suicide Studies; Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Clinical and Translational Science, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has been devoted to training of medical students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty for over three decades.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/david-brent-md

*Chakraborty, Satabdi, PhD. Expertise: psychoeducation, assessment of autism. Dr. Charkaborty’s research interest is in rehabilitation for individuals with SZ using behavioral interventions. She is particularly interested in psychoeducation and treatment of impairments in social cognition. She trained as a psychiatric social worker, then completed her doctoral work with Dr. Deshpande’s group as part of our FIC funded training grant. She is presently Additional Professor at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Delhi.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Satabdi-Chakraborty

Chattopadhyay, Ansuman, PhD. Expertise: bioinformatics. Dr. Chattopadhyay is Head, Molecular Biology Information Service, Falk Library of Health Sciences, Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Chattopadhyay is a biologist who re-trained in information sciences. He has extensive experience in accessing and mining publicly available databases for clinical and genetics data. He has established an Online Bioinformatics Resource Collection (OBRC) at Pitt. This is a growing collection of more than 1,750 databases and analysis tools (available freely at www.hsls.pitt.edu). He has assisted trainees in the PIs’ current D43 grant and conducted several workshops on bioinformatics in India.

https://www.hsls.pitt.edu/staff/ansuman-chattopadhyay

Coulter, Robert W.S., PhD, MPH. Expertise: translation and implementation; mHealth interventions. Dr. Coulter’s research focuses primarily on translating epidemiologic knowledge about health inequities into public health interventions, including intervention development, implementation, and evaluation. Dr. Coulter also teaches a class on implementation science that focuses on developing students’ knowledge and skills associated with translating knowledge to practice.

https://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/directory/robert-ws-coulter

D'Aiuto, Leonardo, PhD. Expertise: Neuroscience. Dr. D’Aiuto has extensive experience in molecular genetics, stem cell biology and neurosciences. He developed a cellular model using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to investigate on neuronal differentiation. He is using other molecular genetic tools, such as transcriptional analyses to understand cellular function. His experience provides him with the expertise to mentor trainees interested in laboratory-based research covering neuroscience, stem cell and genetics projects.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/leonardo-daiuto-phd

*Deshpande, Smita, MD, DPM. Expertise: treatment for SZ (PD/MPI; see B.1.a)

Dickerson, Faith, PhD. Expertise: clinical trials for SMI. Dr. Dickerson directs the Stanley Research Program at Sheppard Pratt Hospital, where she investigates the causes and treatments of serious mental illness, including SZ and bipolar disorder. Her group is conducting several clinical trials with antibiotic and other antimicrobial agents as add-on treatments for individuals with SZ. She also directs investigations on the role of infectious agents and inflammatory markers in SMIs.

https://www.sheppardpratt.org/why-sheppard-pratt/our-experts/details/faith-dickerson-phd-mph/

Egan, James E., PhD, MPH. Expertise: intervention development, evaluation, and implementation. Dr. Egan’s research focus is in the development, implementation, and evaluation of mixed methods-based behavioral and biobehavioral interventions to reduce HIV transmission and improve the health and wellbeing of sexual and gender minority populations. Of relevance to this proposal, he has extensive experience in teaching and training research methods, program development, grant writing, study implementation, data analysis, and dissemination.

https://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/directory/james-egan

Ganapathiraju, Madhavi, PhD. Expertise: medical bioinformatics and computational biology. Dr. Ganapathiraju is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Pitt. She has designed search strategies for repurposed drugs in SZ. She will bring her expertise on human protein interactome discovery and analysis to the proposal. She will provide training in silico analyses, and provide support in systems biology to trainees.

https://www.isb.pitt.edu/people/faculty/madhavi-ganapathiraju-phd

Ganguli, Rohan, MD. Expertise: treatment of schizophrenia and related cognitive disorders. Dr. Ganguli is a Professor of Psychiatry at Pitt. He has previously served as the Director for Clinical Services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital and as Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Toronto University. He is an accomplished mentor, has conducted health services research in SMI as well as intervention studies for SZ.

https://psychiatry.pitt.edu/news/dr-rohan-ganguli-honored-40-years-service-upmc

Gandhi, Monica, MD, MPH. Expertise: Mentorship, teaching research, mentoring the mentors. Dr. Gandhi is a Professor of Medicine, Associate Chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Director of the UCSF Bay Area CFAR since 2019. She has a keen interest in teaching and mentorship in HIV. She started a new mentoring program for underrepresented minorities (URM) and has led international mentoring programs in Kenya, Peru, South Africa, and India, developed a “Mentoring the Mentors” workshop that now trains mid- and senior-level HIV researchers from around the country annually on tools and techniques of effective mentoring.

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/monica.gandhi

Haas, Gretchen PhD. Expertise: treatment of schizophrenia and related cognitive disorders, measurement-based care. Dr. Haas leads the Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Center, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. She conducts research into neuropsychiatric disorders as well as pioneering Measurement Based Care for psychiatric disorders.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/gretchen-l-haas-phd

https://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn4/People/Pitt/haas.asp

Hawk, Mary, DrPH. Expertise: Intervention research and implementation science. (MPI; see B.1.a)

Iyengar, Satish, PhD. Expertise: biostatistics; design and analyses of RCTs. Dr. Iyengar is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Statistics and the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests lie in multivariate analyses and meta-analyses and their applications to medical sciences. He has collaborated extensively with several researchers in the Pitt Department of Psychiatry. He has developed and implemented several didactic courses in his department and has analyzed RCTs directed by MPIs Nimgaonkar and Deshpande.

https://www.stat.pitt.edu/people/satish-iyengar

Jones, Genevra (Nev), PhD: Expertise: Participatory research, schizophrenia, implementation research. Dr. Jones is a mental health services researcher, with a focus on schizophrenia. She has a well-established international reputation as a thought leader and expert in participatory research focused on SMI. She has served as a PI and/or site PI on numerous NIH, NIDILRR and PCORI grants, focused on the development of multi-stakeholder youth pathways to care-focused research, including mental health services research and barriers.

https://www.socialwork.pitt.edu/people/nev-jones

*Kakunje, Anil, MD: Expertise: intervention studies for severe mental disorder Dr. Kakunje is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore, India. He is a clinician, teacher, researcher and editor. He is editor in chief of two esteemed journals and deputy editor and field editor many other journals. He completed intervention studies and supervises MD students in their theses.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anil-Kakunje

Mathias, Kaaren, MD, Expertise: Community Mental Health, public health medicine. Dr Mathias has extensive experience working in the community and designing community mental health programs in rural India. Her strengths are leadership, new ideas and implementation in a community setting in Uttarakhand which are ideal for support and development of new researchers in community mental health in India

https://profiles.canterbury.ac.nz/Kaaren-Mathias

*Mishra, Nagendra, PhD. Expertise: ethics in psychiatric research and treatment. Dr. Mishra is a psychologist who developed his current research following his training in the ethics track of our prior D43 grant. This grant enabled training with Dr. Lisa Parker at Pitt, following which he collaborated with ethicists at the ICMR to formulate ethics guidelines for India in relation to psychiatric research. He has designed and conducts courses and workshops on ethics in India and for our trainees. He is an Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, L.S. College, B.R.A. Bihar University, Muzaffarpur Bihar, India.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nagendra-Mishra-2

McGuier, Elizabeth Ann, Ph.D.: Expertise: Implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs), team building. Dr. McGuier is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Univ. of Pitt. Her research aims to improve children’s mental health through better implementation of evidence-based practices and expansion of mental health services into non-specialty settings (e.g., child welfare, primary care). Her grant-funded studies test ways to improve teamwork and implementation outcomes in team-based settings.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/elizabeth-mcguier-phd

Nimgaonkar, Vishwajit, MD PhD Expertise: SZ etiologic / Intervention research (MPI; see B.1.a)

P Shylaja Devi, MD, Expertise: Empowering the community, skills training Dr Shylaja is a gynaecologist by training and works with tribals in India for 32 years. Her extensive involvement with the community puts her in a very special place to conduct research on topics that are important for the development of this community and impart training.

Parker, Lisa, PhD. Expertise: research ethics training, ethics of genetic research and clinical trials. Dr. Parker is a philosopher-bioethicist. She is a Professor of Human Genetics and Director of the University’s Center for Bioethics & Health Law. She also directs the Pitt Master’s Program in Bioethics and has provided research ethics training through three D43 programs in India, Egypt and China. She conducts research on the ethical design of research, and on research ethics in psychiatric and genomic research.

https://bioethics.pitt.edu/people/lisa-s-parker-phd

Pogue-Geile, Michael, PhD. Expertise: schizophrenia, neuropsychology, neurodevelopment. Dr. Pogue-Geile is the Clinical Program Chair, and an Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Pitt. His research focuses on genetic susceptibility to SZ. Dr. Pogue-Geile is also investigating heritable influences on neuropsychological functioning in the population and serves as a co-I on MPI Nimgaonkar’s SZ grants.

https://www.psychology.pitt.edu/people/michael-f-pogue-geile-phd

Prasad, Konasale, MD. Expertise: human brain imaging and treatment studies for SZ. Dr. Prasad directs the Neuroimaging Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. He leads treatment studies as well as imaging studies in SZ. He received mentorship from Dr. Nimgaonkar through an NIMH funded K award. Dr. Prasad will provide mentorship and supervision for trainees as part of their research.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/konasale-m-prasad-md-mbbs-md

Rofey, Dana, PhD. Expertise: human brain imaging and treatment studies for SZ. Dr Rofey is the Director of the Pittsburgh Obesity, Weight, and Emotion Research (POWER) Lab and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. She is researching weight gain, metabolic dysfunction among adolescents with psychiatric disorders, and the impact of exercise on such dysfunction.

https://www.psychiatry.pitt.edu/about-us/our-people/faculty/dana-l-rofey-phd

Rollman, Bruce L., MD, MPH: Expertise: Translational science, biomedical informatics, mHealth, Dr. Rollman is UPMC Endowed Professor of General Internal Medicine; Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, Biomedical Informatics, and Clinical and Translational Sciences; Director and founder of the Center for Behavioral Health, Media, and Technology. He is highly experienced with the practice of primary care internal medicine and state-of-the-art techniques for conducting real-world effectiveness trials.

https://profiles.dom.pitt.edu/dgim/faculty_info.aspx/Rollman4823

https://www.gim-crhc.pitt.edu/people/bruce-l-rollman-md-mph-mba

Rosano, Caterina, MD, MPH. Expertise: Mentoring, team science, neuroepidemiology. Dr. Rosano is Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh and Associate Director for Clinical Translation in Gerontology. These leadership and service roles provide her with the opportunity to translate innovations from a variety of settings into mentoring. She has many collaborative funding initiatives, demonstrating her experience in cross-disciplinary and team-based science.

https://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/directory/caterina-rosano

Singh, Harpreet, PhD: Expertise: Integrated data systems, bioinformatics, genomics. Dr. Harpreet Singh is Scientist F and Head, Division of Biomedical Informatics at the premier institute Indian Council of Medical Research. He holds a PhD in bioinformatics and has completed postdoctoral studies at Cornell University. He collaborated with our Grantathon projects in 2016 and spearheaded the specialized data entry system iMANN for ICMR projects on mental health. His expertise can mentor trainees interested in digital research.

https://www.icmr.gov.in/scientists?name=Harpreet+Singh

Singh, Nandini Chatterjee, PhD: Expertise: child psychiatric disorder, dyslexia. Dr. Singh currently works for the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) in Delhi as a Program Specialist for Science of Learning, leading the Rethinking Learning program and Difference Learning project. She developed an Indian skill-based tool, the Dyslexia Assessment in Languages of India tool. She was recently awarded the Young Woman Scientist Award for her work in neurosciences, by GOI.

https://mgiep.unesco.org/article/dr-nandini-chatterjee-singh-featured-in-a-series-celebrating-indian-women-in-science

Sreenivas, Vishnubhatla, PhD. Expertise: biostatistics. Dr. Sreenivas is a biostatistician whose research interests include the design and analysis of treatment trials, risk assessment, and evaluation of diagnostic and screening data. At the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, he is intimately involved in the design and analysis of treatment studies for a wide range of medical diseases. He has served on Data and Safety Management Boards for RCTs led by MPIs Nimgaonkar and Deshpande.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sreenivas-Vishnubhatla

Thelma, B.K., PhD. Expertise: Human Genetics, Schizophrenia, Biomedical Genomics. Notable contributions have been made by Dr. Thelma in the domain of human genetics and biomedical genomics in India.. She is a scientist par excellence, together with mentoring young researchers. She has carried out contemporarily relevant and high-quality science and published her work in high-impact journals, with a focus on fundamental and translational aspects of human genetic diseases, keeping with the current concept of predictive, preventive and personalized medicine, with effective clinical collaborations.

https://genetics.du.ac.in/?Research-Department/Medical-Genetics-and-Genomics-Group-Prof.-B.-K.-Thelma

*Thomas, Pramod, PhD. Expertise: biostatistics. Dr. Thomas obtained his PhD in Biostatistics as a trainee in our prior D43 training grant that enabled him to complete coursework at Pitt. Dr. Thomas is now a professor of biostatistics in Believers’ Church Medical College. He presently leads an independent research group, while lecturing to undergraduates in the State of Kerala. His main research interest relates to biostatistics clinical trials.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pramod-Thomas

Thompson, Kenneth Stewart, MD, Expertise: Community and social psychiatry. Dr. Thompson is a community and social psychiatrist who practices in socially traumatized and economically depressed communities. He led the development of a “treatment shelter” for homeless men with substance use disorder and efforts to develop recovery oriented practice and to integrate behavioral health care into primary health services.

https://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Kenneth_S_Thompson.html

Xavier, Denis, MD, MSc. Expertise: stroke, clinical research, mentoring Dr. Xavier is a Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Head, Division of Clinical Research and Training, SJRI, Bangalore, India. He was awarded a “Centre of Excellence” award by the NHLBI (NIH,USA),and led three knowledge translational studies. He is the PI of PROGRESS, funded by the UK-MRC and Wellcome Trust to evaluate innovative strategies to reduce risk of heart disease and strokes at work places in three South Asian countries. For eight years, he and his team trained more than 2,000 faculty/ graduate students from all regions of India and nine countries in Asia and Africa.

https://www.stjohns.in/medicalcollege/medical-pharmacology-dr-denis-xavier.php

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