School of Public Health

World Congress of Psychotherapy Panel: Health Diplomacy and Mental Health in the Global Era

Tuesday, 09 June 2026

Ekaterina Sukhanova, PhD, CUNY and Francesca McLaren, MPH CUNY SPH chaired the event and participants included: Ayman El-Mohandes, MD, MPH, CUNY SPH; Victoria Ngo, PhD CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy; Ashish Joshi, PhD, MBBS, MPH, UofM SPH Dean and Distinguished University Professor and Muhammad Sohail Ali, MD, United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) New York. 

The panel presentation brought together eminent university deans, scholars and international organization presidents deemed pioneers in the fields of mental health, social psychiatry and public health. The panel addressed current global mental health needs and innovative service delivery programs.  

"We are living in a world of uncertainty, complexity and unpredictability... There is a geopolitical shift, and as schools of public health, our goal is to train students and public health professionals and practitioners to learn about disease burden and how its spread... We saw COVID. Public health students felt that they were not well trained to respond to the crisis that might have come because they were never trained to be diplomats. They had the best skills to analyze data, but they did not have the skills to communicate the data”, highlighted Dr. Joshi during his panel discussion.  

Dean Joshi elaborated further stating that “the role of schools of public health, is to be a bridge and a convener. I think being an academic entity which is bound to train—bring data and science—which has a very significant role in bringing people together and the best practices from around the world to a common shared platform.  

Click here to watch the panel discussions.