The Duke Center for Global Mental Health is a hub to connect people at Duke engaged in research, teaching, or practice related to understanding or reducing mental health disparities globally and locally. Through this broad understanding of global mental health, we bring together members of the Duke community that represent a range of disciplines, perspectives, and topics of interest. 

Our faculty include psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, policy experts, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and physicians across multiple specialties integrating mental health into their research and clinical work. Our research spans mental health problems, populations, and contexts, and we conduct work that spans the prevention to treatment continuum. As a group, we are dedicated to conducting collaborative research and to providing experiential training opportunities in global mental health for students and early career researchers and practitioners. 

Annual Duke Global Mental Health Conference

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, the Duke Center for Global Mental Health hosted its 2nd Annual Conference, bringing together more than 300 faculty, trainees, students, and professionals from 51 institutions across 12 countries, all united by a shared commitment to addressing mental health disparities locally and globally. Held in recognition of World Mental Health Day, the 2025 conference centered on the theme: Now More than Ever: Addressing the Global Imperative of Mental Health Equity.

The event showcased Duke’s collaborative strengths, drawing participants from across the university’s schools and departments, as well as from partner universities and community organizations throughout the Triangle and beyond. The program featured presentations from three distinguished speakers, including a keynote address by Dr. Kathy Sikkema, who led some of Duke’s earliest efforts in global mental health before joining Columbia University, where she now serves as Interim Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health. The conference also included 50 poster presentations (both in-person and virtual) and six symposia sessions covering a broad range of topics in global mental health.

The conference underscored the power of connection and collective action in advancing mental health care worldwide. We look forward to continuing these important conversations and working together toward lasting change. To learn more about the 2025 conference, please visit our conference website.

Global mental health is a truly interdisciplinary field with expertise across Duke University and the Duke Health system. Here are some of the core faculty working on global mental health research, training and outreach.

Duke students pursue global mental health research at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. Here are a few of our current trainees.

For more information, please contact the Duke Center for Global Mental Health at dukegmh@duke.edu. 

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