Meet the team

Mauricio Avendano

Mauricio Avendano is a Professor at the University of Lausanne, co-director of the Health Economic and Policy Unit, and co-founder of the Lausanne Centre for Health Economics, Policy and Behaviour at Unisanté. Additionally, he is an adjunct Associate Professor at Harvard and a visiting professor at King’s College London.  He is an elected fellow of the British Academy. 

He is a quantitative social scientist focused on how social changes and public policies affect health and inequalities. His interdisciplinary research explores how social transformations and policies influence health inequalities within and across countries, using longitudinal data, natural experiments and randomized controlled trials to analyze the health effects of education, pensions, long-term care, health insurance, poverty, employment, and urban planning on health.

Before joining Lausanne, he was a Professor of Public Policy and Global Health at King’s College London, research Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, Assistant Professor at the Erasmus Rotterdam University, and a David Bell Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. With over 140 publications, he has received grants from organizations such as the SNSF, ERC, NIH, and the Wellcome Trust and has won several academic excellence awards, including an ERC Starting Grant and Dutch Excellence grants. He collaborates with researchers worldwide.

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Armando N. Meier

Armando Meier is a Professor of Economics at the University of Basel. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Basel, receiving the faculty prize for the best dissertation after research stays at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University. He then was a Principal Researcher at the University of Chicago and a Senior Researcher at the University of Lausanne before returning to Basel. He is currently also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. The main research and teaching activities of Armando Meier are in health economics, with strong connections to behavioral, public, and labor economics. His work has been published in journals such as Nature and Science.

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Nathalie Monnet

Nathalie works as a research fellow at the Lausanne University Center for Primary Care and Public Health (unisanté) and at the Lausanne Center for Health Economic Behavior and Policy (LCHE-UNIL). She is an economist holding a PhD from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Within the research project “Strengthening mental health and human capital in a social program for vulnerable youth in Colombia”, she is part of the Swiss research team, focusing mainly on the development of survey questionnaires and impact evaluation of the intervention. 

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Clémence Kieny

Clémence is an economist with a PhD from the University of Lausanne. She works as a research fellow at the Lausanne University Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté). Her research focuses on the intersection of education policies, cognitive health, and aging, as well as randomized controlled trials and mental health. As part of the Swiss research team, Clémence contributes to the impact evaluation of the “Youth Well-Being” Project.

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Fabio Idrobo

Fabio Idrobo leads several funded research projects that seek to document mental health needs that serve to develop mental health programs for vulnerable populations living in regions with long-lasting armed conflicts and endemic violence. He conducts longitudinal work nationally with displaced populations, including Venezuelan migrants. The current research protocols seek to determine the epidemiological prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs), depression, anxiety, post-traumatic- stress, and comorbidities, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of governmental and non-governmental organisations in the diminution of these CMDs along with the barriers to access psychosocial programs in the regions of Colombia most affected by Colombia’s endemic and political violence. The strategies to reach these displaced populations utilise lived-experience displaced participants, local community organisations, and national governmental relief agencies tasked with emergency services. He also has served as an academic advisor to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

He also has served as an academic advisor to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. He is a Research Associate at the Department of Population Health of the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá and an adjunct faculty member of the medical school of the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. 

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Martha Escobar Lux

Martha works as a psychiatrist in the Mental Health Department of the Hospital Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (FSFB) and coordinates the Mental Health Research Program in the Population Health Department of FSFB. She is a clinical professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Los Andes. Within the research project “Strengthening mental health and human capital in a social program for vulnerable youth in Colombia”, she is part of the Colombian research team, focusing mainly on the development of the mental health intervention and the administrative execution of the project.

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Andrea Carolina Bello-Tocancipá

Andrea is a Colombian psychologist with Cum Laude distinction and over six years of experience in project coordination and academic research, specializing in Project Management. As the General Coordinator of the project “Strengthening Mental Health and Human Capital in a Social Program for Vulnerable Youth in Colombia,” she oversees the successful advancement of all study phases and the implementation of the mental health intervention. Andrea has a robust background in Research and Development (R&D) projects with a focus on mental health, sociopolitical violence, and digital mental health interventions. Her experience includes working with victims of the Colombian armed conflict and contributing to transitional justice initiatives. Dedicated to addressing treatment gaps through accessible interventions, particularly for youth, Andrea leads interdisciplinary and international projects with a social impact in mental health, youth well-being, education, and social and restorative justice. Her expertise includes participatory R&D methodologies, and the implementation and evaluation of interventions at both group and individual levels.

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Laura Torres Cuéllar

Laura is a psychologist and holds a master’s degree in psychology from Universidad de los Andes. She contributes to project coordination at Prosperidad Social, the project implementation partner. Laura co-leads Work Package 4 (building an international network) and oversees youth involvement, as well as communication with inter-institutional actors relevant to project implementation. She has a deep interest in and has conducted research on adverse childhood experiences and protective factors in vulnerable populations.

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Juan Camilo Vargas

Juan works as a postdoctoral fellow primarily collaborating on the selection of evidence-based components and development of the project’s digital platform (Work Package 1). His academic background includes a Master’s in Clinical and Health Psychology from the Universidad de los Andes and a PhD in the same field, awarded Cum Laude by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He holds certifications in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy + Prolonged Exposure (DBT+PE) for the treatment of trauma, high emotional dysregulation, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Juan has previously worked on projects providing care to victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, as well as a university professor and clinical supervisor. He is currently co-director of the research group Studies in Behavioral Sciences (recognized with the highest category A1 by the Colombian Ministry of Science). His research interests focus on digital mental health, mindfulness, and contextual therapies.

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Gustavo Perdomo

Gustavo is the Clinical Coordinator of the project; he supervises the clinical psychologists who provide care to high-risk participants and supports peers in their work within the digital intervention. Additionally, he designed the care pathways for this group and the peer training program, with the goal of enabling them to become mental health advocates within their communities. Gustavo is a medical doctor from the National University of Colombia, a specialist in Psychiatry from the Military University Nueva Granada, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Clinical Research in a joint program between Harvard University and the University of Dresden, as well as a Master’s in Bioethics and Research Ethics at the University of the Andes, with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He works as a psychiatrist at the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá University Hospital and is a professor at the University of the Andes, where he has also contributed to public health studies on e-cigarette use. As a founding member of the Colombian Network of Trans Health Professionals, he is actively involved in the creation of the hospital’s Gender Clinic and is an advocate for trans health rights in Colombia.

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Omar Yesid Vargas Rodríguez

Omar is a social worker from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, specializing in Social Management. He currently serves as a specialized professional at the Departamento Administrativo para la Prosperidad Social in the Renta Joven Program, where he is responsible for leading Promoción Social y Bienestar Integral several strategies. With over 24 years of experience in the public sector, Omar has led and coordinated social and community programs and projects aimed at enhancing the well-being of the country’s most vulnerable populations.

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Nidia Yisela Morales Pineda

Nidia is a social worker from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, specializing in Government and Public Management, she has focused her career on the public sector. She has worked with the Bogotá District, developing support and follow-up strategies for interventions targeting victims of intrafamilial and sexual violence. Currently, she works at the Departamento Administrativo para la Prosperidad Social in the Renta Joven program, where she is responsible for the program’s enrollment processes and contributes to the Promoción Social y Bienestar Integral component within the mental health strategy.

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Naomi Kroener

Dr. Naomi Koerner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. She is also a clinical psychologist with a practice in cognitive-behavioural therapy. For over 15 years, Naomi and her research team have been studying anxiety- and related disorders, and psychological responses to uncertainty. 

During her career, Naomi has also promoted the importance of psychological science to the understanding and addressing of global challenges. She has held positions on the Boards of the Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología and the International Council of Psychologists. During her career, Naomi has also promoted the importance of psychological science to the understanding and addressing of global challenges. She has held positions on the Boards of the Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología and the International Council of Psychologists. 

Naomi is passionate about Latin America and the Caribbean and spends as much time as possible in the region. She has presented on and taught cognitive-behavioural therapy for chronic worry, anxiety and depression in Spanish, in a variety of spaces within the region. With investigators of the current research team, Naomi previously collaborated on the design of a cognitive-behavioural wellbeing program as part of the project ‘Mejorando la salud mental y fomentado el capital humano: Desarrollo de un servicio de salud mental para el programa Jóvenes en Acción’. 

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Ricardo Araya 

Professor Ricardo Araya is a professor at King’s College London, where he joined in 2017 as Professor of Global Mental Health, and Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health, a joint research and education initiative between the IoPPN and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.  His field of expertise is in the development and implementation of simple and affordable interventions to treat mental disorders, particularly in resource-poor settings. He previously developed a model of care to treat common mental disorders, which has been adapted and used in several middle and low-income countries. He has a leading role in major initiatives to increase mental research capacity in Latin America and Africa. 

He qualified in Medicine at Universidad de Chile in 1982 and became a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1987. Shortly after qualifying, he joined the South London and the Maudsley and the Bethlem Royal Hospital rota, initially as a Clinical Associate, and afterwards as a Registrar/Senior Registrar. he returned to Chile in 1992 to work as a Senior Scientific Advisor at the Ministry of Health and subsequently Director of the Primary Care Evaluation Unit. He was Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Universidad de Chile, from 1995 to 1999, then he moved back to the UK to take on the role of Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales until 2002. He was awarded my PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry in 2000 and was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Bristol from 2002 to 2013; then Professor of Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 2013 to 2017 before joining the Health Service and Population Research Department at King’s College London.  

A study undertaken by his team and published in the Lancet – Treating depression in primary care in low-income women in Santiago, Chile: a randomised controlled trial; 2003 – paved the way to the introduction of the first National Depression Treatment Programme in Primary Care in Chile. This model of care has been adapted and replicated in India, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Lebanon.

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Sara Evans-Lacko

Dr. Evans-Lacko is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre. Her research has focused key issues of importance in global mental health particularly around the social and economic impacts of mental health problems. She approaches these issues using interdisciplinary methods which integrate insights from public health, psychiatry and economics. Her research aims to improve access to care and support for individuals with mental illness which will positively impact their long-term mental health and socio-economic outcomes. She has a PhD in Health Policy and Management, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.