Manasi Sharma

Dr. Manasi Sharma is an epidemiologist with over 17 years of experience in global mental health research across diverse LMIC contexts in Africa and Asia. Her thematic expertise includes trauma and PTSD, coping and resilience, and child and adolescent health. Her methodological focus includes psychometrics, mediation analysis, qualitative research, evidence synthesis, and implementation science in under-resourced and humanitarian settings. Currently, she is the Research Director at RAHAT Charitable and Medical Research Trust in New Delhi, Faculty Lead for Global Mental Health at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute for Global Health, and Visiting Faculty at the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Sharma’s research and capacity-building efforts focus on contextualizing culturally sensitive measures of trauma and distress, examining the social determinants of mental health, and developing and implementing evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions. She has published her research in high impact peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and policy reports. One of the studies she is currently PI on is a peer support mental health first aid intervention across three universities in India. 

Previously, she worked with UNICEF’s Office of Research, Office of Evaluation, and East Asia & Pacific Regional Office, where she led the development of the organization’s global guidelines on child and adolescent mental health research and programming. Dr. Sharma did her PhD and postdoctoral training in public health at Harvard University, with extensive research in India, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Rwanda, DRC, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Madagascar, among others. She also holds postgraduate degrees in clinical psychology and international human rights law.