Dr. Lynn Murphy Michalopoulos is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social and the Director of Global Initiatives. Her work began with trauma-affected populations in Zambia over 10 years ago. Inspired by her work there, she developed the Global Post Trauma Symptom-Item Bank, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, which has been validated in multiple non-Western contexts. Building off of her clinical experience working with trauma survivors in the United States, she developed a research program focused on understanding the lives of migrant populations in Zambia. From there, she expanded her work to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Malawi, and Zimbabwe which contributed to formative research indicating the complex risk environment among both labor and forced migrants in sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout her academic career at Columbia University and her role as the Senior Resilience Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor at USAID, Lynn has sharpened her focus on the measurement of mental health outcomes and adaptation of evidence-based health and mental health programs among trauma-affected populations in non-Western contexts. In addition, the extensive relationships she has built and maintained with stakeholders at the community, national, and international level has contributed to her success. She has a Bachelor's in Psychology from Williams College, a Master's from the University of Chicago in Social Service Administration, and a PhD from the University of Maryland in Social Work.
