Brandon Kohrt

Brandon Kohrt is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Global Health, at the Duke Global Health Institute and Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Kohrt completed his PhD in medical anthropology from Emory University and completed his psychiatry residency training at Emory University and George Washington University. Dr. Kohrt combines anthropological methods and theories with clinical psychiatry to aid populations affected by war-related trauma and chronic stressor of poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to healthcare and education. His work takes ethnopsychology as the starting point for cross-cultural mental health intervention development. Dr. Kohrt has worked in Nepal since 1996 and Liberia since 2010 where he investigates the effect of political trauma, ethnic discrimination, gender-based violence and poverty on mental health. He has investigated the mental health consequences of and designed interventions for child soldiers and earthquake survivors in Nepal. In addition, he has worked in Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Haiti and India. His recent work focuses on developing interventions for non-specialist health workers to take on mental health service delivery. In particular, he focuses on the role of reducing stigma among health workers to improve quality of health services. He works with the Carter Center Mental Health Program in Liberia and serves as the President of HeartMind International, an NGO dedicated to providing mental health services to vulnerable populations in Nepal. Dr. Kohrt has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. In 2015, along with Emily Mendenhall, he co-edited the book Global Mental Health: Anthropological Perspectives, which was recently honored with the creative scholarship award of the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture.