Keynote Speakers
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD
Helena Hansen, an MD, Ph.D. psychiatrist-anthropologist, is Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, and Interim Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is an international leader in the field of social medicine, and of integration of rigorous social science into academic medicine as well as into research on social determinants of health and health equity. She popularized the term “Translational Social Science” by launching UCLA medical school’s research theme in Health Equity and Translational Social Science as its inaugural chair from 2020-2023 . She is the author of three books: Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America (with Jules Netherland and David Herzberg, University of California Press 2023); Structural Competency in Medicine and Mental Health: A Case-Based Approach to Treating the Social Determinants of Health (with Jonathan Metzl, Springer Press 2019); and Addicted to Christ: Remaking Men in Puerto Rican Pentecostal Drug Ministries (University of California Press 2018). She is the author of over 100 articles and chapters in leading clinical and social science journals, serves or has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Psychiatry, American Anthropologist, Milbank Quarterly and Medical Anthropology Quarterly among others, serves on the governing boards of the International Society for Addiction Medicine, the Lancet Commission on US Health Policy, the National Academy of Medicine Opioid Action Collaborative and the Drug Policy Alliance among others, and has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
Ana Raquel Minian, Ph.D., M.A., B.A.
Ana Raquel Minian is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Stanford University. They earned their PhD in American Studies from Yale University. Their first book, Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration (Harvard University Press, 2018), received multiple major awards in labor, immigration, and social history, including recognition from the Organization of American Historians and the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, and was a finalist for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award.
Their second book, In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention (Viking Press, 2024), traces the history of immigrant detention from the 1800s to the present, using the stories of four migrants to humanize the system. They have also published in leading journals such as the Journal of American History, American Quarterly, and the American Historical Review, and received an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2020.
Their third project, No Man’s Lands: A New History of Immigration Restriction, examines how U.S. officials during the late Cold War created improvised spaces to restrict migration from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, revealing a fragmented and reactive approach to immigration control.
William Martinez, PhD, ABPP
William Martinez, PhD, ABPP is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and Vice Chair for Diversity and Health Equity for DPBS. He is also Director of the Child and Adolescent Services clinic in the Division of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychiatry at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He is a licensed psychologist (CA PSY28084) and American Board of Professional Psychology certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. He is currently the Director of Pediatric Mental Health for the UCSF Health and Human Rights Initiative and principal investigator of the Fuerte program, a school-based group prevention program targeting newcomer immigrant youth at risk of behavioral health concerns. He is also faculty in two American Psychological Association-accredited internship programs at UCSF/ZSFG - the Multicultural Clinical Training Program and the Clinical Psychology Training Program. His overall clinical and research aims are concentrated on reducing behavioral health disparities among ethnic minority youth, with a specific focus on Latinx and immigrant populations. Dr. Martinez takes a socio-ecological approach to understanding these concerns across three areas of inquiry:
1) the impact of social determinants on behavioral health disparities;
2) implementation and dissemination of evidence-based prevention and intervention programming for traumatic stress; and
3) policy and advocacy focused on improving conditions for juveniles in immigration court proceedings.
Sarah Y. Vinson, M.D., D.F.A.P.A
Dr. Sarah Y. Vinson is a triple board-certified physician who specializes in adult, child & adolescent, and forensic psychiatry. She is the Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Full Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). In addition to maintaining active clinic practice where she sees a socioeconomically diverse clientele, she is the founder of Lorio Forensics, a multidisciplinary culturally and structurally informed forensic mental health consultation company. She has consulted on cases in over a dozen states and testified and been admitted as an expert in state, federal, criminal and family courts. Dr. Vinson graduated Summa Cum Laude from Florida A & M University. After graduating from medical school at the University of Florida with Research Honors and as an Inductee in the Chapman Humanism Honors Society, she completed her general psychiatry training at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. While there, she also received specialized training in trauma through the Victims of Violence Program. She then returned to the South to complete fellowships in both child & adolescent and forensic psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine, where she continues to serve as adjunct faculty. Dr. Vinson was appointed to the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. She was also appointed by the GA Governor was appointed by the Georgia governor to the 24-member Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission and to the State Advisory Group for the CJCC Juvenile Justice Program. She is also one of two National Psychiatric Advisors for the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative, a collaboration between the Council of State Governments and the American Psychiatric Association that designs and delivers trainings for Judges regarding mental health and criminal justice. Additionally, at the invitation of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), she served on the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness. Dr. Vinson has been elected and/or appointed to national and statewide office by her professional peers and is on the national boards of both the American Association of Community Psychiatry and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. She is the co-editor of two texts Pediatric Mental Health for Primary Care Providers and Social (In)Justice and Mental Health.
Marlon Peterson
Marlon Peterson is a writer, author, and advocate for human justice and equity. As Executive Director of College and Community Fellowship (CCF), he advances education and economic opportunities for women impacted by mass incarceration. Raised in Brooklyn by Trinidadian immigrants, Marlon’s activism was shaped by his own decade-long incarceration, where he earned a degree and mentored others. Since his release in 2009, he has led youth violence prevention programs and written Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist’s Freedom Song. His TED Talk, Am I Not Human?, has reached over 1.3 million viewers. Through his writing, the DEcarcerated Podcast, and global speaking engagements, he amplifies stories of resilience and change. A graduate of NYU and an inductee into its Hall of Fame, he is also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a Senior Atlantic Fellow. Recognized by Ebony Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Leaders, Marlon remains committed to expanding opportunities for those on the margins.
Stefanie Gillson, MD, MHS
Dr. Stefanie Gillson is from Mni Sota Makoce also known as Minnesota and the Dakota homelands. She is a psychiatrist at the Yale Child Study Center and a fellow in the Yale National Clinician Scholars Program. She received her medical degree from the University of Minnesota, attending the Duluth campus where her training was focused on Indigenous Health. She finished her General Psychiatry Residency and Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale University in 2021 and served as Chief Resident of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She subsequently graduated from Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship in 2023 from the Yale Child Study Center where she was Melvin Lewis Medical Student Teacher of the Year. Throughout this time, she served as the co-founder of the Yale Women’s Mental Health Conference and Yale Women’s Housestaff Association. Her research is focused on community-based initiatives to address mental health disparities among Indigenous youth and communities, using both historical and contemporary perspectives while emphasizing cultural strengths. She is an active member of the Association of American Indian Physicians where her primary focus is recruiting Indigenous youth into the medical field. Dr. Gillson’s medical practice is grounded in the belief that many health outcomes are rooted in social inequalities, for Indigenous peoples, and historical colonization policies. She believes that working together with communities clinically as well as from a research perspective can improve health equity and social justice. Outside of the academic life, you will find her with her family or running with the New Haven Road Runners.
Jessica Elm, MSW, PhD
Jessica Elm, MSW, PhD is a citizen of the Oneida Nation, a descendant of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans, and a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for American Indian Health at Johns Hopkins University. She received her PhD from the University of Washington, School of Social Work in 2018 and her MSW from UC Berkeley in 2009. Currently, Jessica’s research is focused on the influence of social stressors (e.g. childhood adversities, discrimination) on behavioral health outcomes among American Indians. Her work is situated in recognizing historically traumatic events as the source of contemporary stress, and the strengths and resilience that help Native people recover and thrive. Prior to Jessica’s training in research, she was employed as a social worker, tribal policy analyst and advocate, tribal behavioral health and social services program developer, and a surgical technologist.
Ruth Shim M.D., M.P.H.
Ruth Shim, MD, MPH is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She is also Associate Dean of Diverse and Inclusive Education at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Shim provides clinical psychiatric care in the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventative Treatment (EDAPT) Clinic. Dr. Shim received an MPH in health policy from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and an MD from Emory University School of Medicine, and also completed residency training and a fellowship in Community Psychiatry at Emory. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Association of Community Psychiatry, and the Scientific Advisory Council of Bring Change to Mind. She serves on the Editorial Boards of JAMA Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Community Mental Health Journal, and American Psychiatric Publishing, and is co-editor of the books, The Social Determinants of Mental Health, and Social (In)Justice and Mental Health. Dr. Shim is an atlarge member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, and the National Academies’ ad hoc committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. In 2021, she received the NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award and the UC Davis Health Deans’ Award for Excellence in Mentoring. Shim was named a Top 20 Black Change Maker by The Sacramento Bee in 2023.
