Actionable Strategies for the Behavioral Health Team in Inclusive Patient Management and Respectful Care

Madhuri Jha, LCSW, MPH is a clinical social worker and public health professional with experience providing leadership, training/education, consultation, and clinical practice to programs focusing on health equity, behavioral health systems-strengthening, trauma and resiliency, mental health epidemiology, and community capacity-building. She currently serves as the Vice President of Science, Equity, and Integration at Education, Training, and Research (ETR). Ms. Jha is also a practicing psychotherapist with specific expertise in trauma and stress-related disorders, psychosis, acute symptom management, cognitive behavioral therapy, and risk assessment and de-escalation. Prior to joining ETR, she was the Director of the Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, where she led national discourse, programming, and research focused on advancing equity in policies and services that reach people living with, or at-risk for, adverse behavioral health outcomes. Ms. Jha gained national recognition for her scientific and policy leadership, embedding equity into 9-8-8, the national mental health crisis emergency line that launched in July 2022.

Ms. Jha joined Morehouse School of Medicine after over a decade as a direct service provider in New York City and Washington, DC. Her experiences, including being the Director of a New York City mobile behavioral health unit during the peak of COVID-19, have informed her foundational understanding and framing on health equity. She has worked locally, nationally, and internationally as a leader of donor-funded health programs reaching vulnerable and high-risk communities. Her work history spans a diverse breadth of on-the-ground experience in inpatient, outpatient, school-based, community-based, and mobile psychiatric treatment settings. In addition, she has served as a Professor of Mental Health Policy at New York University and has lectured at many universities across the United States. She completed both a Master of Public Health (MPH) and a Master of Social Work (MSW) from New York University and received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. Ms. Jha is a 2022 National Minority Quality Forum, 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health Awardee.

Pierluigi Mancini PhD is the President of the Multicultural Development Institute, Inc. and is one of the most sought-after national and international consultants and speakers on mental health and addiction. Dr. Mancini’s areas of expertise include cultural and linguistic competence, immigrant behavioral health, social and racial justice, health equity, and health disparities.  He founded Georgia’s only Latino behavioral health program in 1999 and has provided expert content to clients in the United States, Mexico, Italy, Colombia, Cuba, and Kosovo. He led a project to train clinicians in Latin America for the 4 million displaced Venezuelans in the region. His work has won a combined six EMMY awards and he has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia in 2021; honored with the 2014 National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA) Star Vega Distinguished Service Award, the UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza – NCLR) Helen Rodríguez- Trías Award for Health, and the Mental Health America (MHA) “Heroes in the Fight” Awards Besides the MHA Board, he serves on the Boards of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center and R.I. International.